The Summer Theatre Company celebrated Shakespeare with three shows around the 400th anniversary of his death at the Barn Theatre at Smallhythe Place last weekend.
The show started with a reminder of how richly integrated Shakespearean dialogue is with modern life. If you are hoodwinked, believe in fair play, have seen better days, live in a fool’s paradise, wish your enemies good riddance or to be as dead as a doornail and call them blinking idiots, you are quoting Shakespeare. Three actors, Peter Mould, Susannah Mayor and Ian Klemen kept the capacity audience warmly entertained, despite the arctic temperatures outside. Steve Rivington performed Shakespearean songs to his own musical accompaniment on the Hungarian zither.
The second half saw a radio style adaptation of Mr and Mrs Macbeth, an everyday story of Scottish folk. This was complete with visual sound effects, such as a cabbage being used to simulate a human head, being violently attacked with a knife and rolling along the floor.
The show was a sell out which meant that not everyone who wanted to could attend. It felt as though the actors had more than enough material to keep the show fresh. Indeed I heard that on the Friday night, the first half had gone on 30 minutes longer than expected as the “anecdotage and speechification“ section had blossomed out of strict control. It would be great to see the show back in the vicinity in the not too distant future, in this Shakespeare anniversary year.
Photo: Seana Lanigan