November 2010

In November 2010, a six day intensive Process week took place at the Three Mills Studios in London. The actor Ben Crystal and the director Dan Winder began to look at fresh approaches to acting Shakespeare.

The company of actors were: David Baynes, Diana Kashlan, Jamie Harding, Jaskiranjit Deol, Laura Wickham, Natalie Thomas, Warren Rusher and William Sutton.

Starting from a solid textual foundation, we played Shakespeare as simply as possible, without any great conceptual frame placed between participants and the plays. In this short week, we recreated a modern version of the kind of acting company Shakespeare worked with.

In some respects it was an original practice experiment, in that we put our trust on Shakespeare’s shoulders as a writer, director, company actor, and master dramatist. In this paring back we found new ways for actors and audiences to experience Shakespeare.

Methodology

Ignoring all the emendations that have been made over the centuries by non-theatre practitioners we began with the idea that the Folio text is the closest to the author’s intentions and was written to be understood by actors.

How far could we follow the text exactly as it was printed – irrespective of compositors’ mistakes – and what directions and new ideas could we find from such a strict approach?



Why?

Recent approaches have often had far too much to do with sounding and looking beautiful, rather than playing direct from the heart.

Conceptual ideas have taken the lead and once-clear truths hidden under layers of conceit.

People leave productions feeling indifferent, only remembering the show from seeing a ticket stub the next morning.


Shakespeare, as a cathartic writer from a classical tradition, should leave people feeling exhilarated, emotionally exhausted, and touched in some way – but certainly not indifferent.

As Olivier did in the 50s and Branagh did in the 80s, we want to breathe life back into Shakespeare, bringing a fresh approach to these wonderful plays, and challenging peoples’ expectations of what coming to see a Shakespeare play is like.