Telling Shakespeare's story (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Telling Shakespeare's story

11:27am Friday 16th July 2010

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Jonathan Bate is one of the world’s most pre-eminent Shakespeare scholars.

He currently holds the post of Professor of Shakespeare at Warwick University and has written countless books on the Bard.

In 2006, his endeavours were recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list when he was made CBE, and so when actor Simon Callow was looking for a writer to team up with to create a one man show about Shakespeare, Bate was, understandably, the man he went to.

The fruits of the pair’s labour is a show entitled Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford and it is coming to Richmond Theatre for a five-day run from July 27.

“It is an unusual sort of show because it is a cross between Simon standing there telling the story of Shakespeare’s life but, over the course of the evening, he becomes a huge range of Shakespearean characters performing speeches from the plays,” explains Bate.

“There is something about focusing on bits of the plays that means you really hear Shakespeare’s language in a way you often don’t when you see a full production and have to follow the plot and the characters.”

Shakespeare and his body of work may have been appropriated by a range of causes and cultures throughout the centuries but Bate wanted to tell the story of his life as simply as possible.

“To enjoy any play you don’t need to know anything about its writer but once you do know about a writer, it can really add to an appreciation of the work,”explains Bate.

“There has been a tendency in the last 100 years for some people to doubt that Shakespeare actually wrote the plays because he was a grammar school boy from a provincial town.

“The conspiracy theorists say the plays must have been written by an aristocrat, but that is very wrong – it’s snobbish and condescending.

“It makes Shakespeare a special case, because people deny a connection between a life and his work. It seems to me to be important to say that there is a connection and this how it works.”

Shakespeare junkies, scholars and keen novices should be in for an enjoyable and thought-provoking couple of hours with The Man from Stratford, although, cleary conspiracy theorists need not apply.

Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford, Richmond Theatre, July 27-31, for more information and to book, visit ambassadortickets.com See next week’s RT2 for an exclusive preview of Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford, written by star of the show Simon Callow.

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