Shakespeare at St James
ONE part of this isle has been 'full of noises' as The Tempest had it, this week, as the cast and crew of Shakespeare’s Globe have arrived for a series of performances at St James.
Guernsey is the only location outside of London where the company has been able to tour, due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The Tempest was performed on Tuesday night and last night saw a production of As You Like It.
This evening will see A Midsummer Night’s Dream and then tomorrow evening will be an opportunity for the audience to choose which of those three plays they wish to see.
This multi-play format is something the company has been experimenting with since 2018 and was first seen in Guernsey in 2019.
Touring three plays at once provides extraordinary challenges for both actors and stage crew.
‘There’s a lot of work goes into one production, let alone three,’ said production and stage manager Dave McAvoy, ‘so it’s a crazy idea really but it was a long rehearsal period.
‘And for the final night, the audience literally do choose the play, so it’s a scary experience because you’ve got a lot of props, different costumes and make-up. There’s a lot of running around backstage.’
Rehearsals started in January 2020 but performance schedules were delayed several times during the various UK lockdowns. The Globe itself was shut down for over a year.
Shakespeare’s Globe have been providing their usual production at the Globe itself in recent months and have also gone out to charities, school groups and food bank venues, after receiving financial support from the UK’s cultural recovery fund.
‘This stems from a desire to reach people that are geographically close to us but that we don’t know very well within London,’ said Ellie James, the company’s events manager.
‘These are people for whom there may be lots of barriers to come to theatre.’
