|
The author of the piece, Jonathan Bate, is an eminent Shakespearean scholar
who was chief editor of the RSC’s edition of the Complete Works. Bate’s
programme notes state: ‘He shows us what it is to be human. But what was it like
being Shakespeare?’ An ambitious goal indeed considering that we have a
limited amount of information about the Bard’s private life and that his amazingly
chameleon ability to submerge himself in the lives of his characters means that the
author seems almost invisible. If some of the links Bate makes between incidents in
the plays and Shakespeare’s own experiences are tenuous, it still makes fascinating
speculation.
The structure of the show is based on Jaques’s famous ‘Seven Ages of Man’
speech in As You Like It. So we follow Shakespeare’s life from being born
into a middle-class family in Stratford in 1564, to clever grammar-schoolboy and
hasty marriage at 18 when getting his girlfriend pregnant. After making his fame and
fortune in London as an actor-playwright-manager, he returns to his home town in
retirement as a considerable property-owner before dying suddenly at the age of 52.
There are many gaps in the story but the overall impression is of a fairly ordinary man
with an extraordinary imagination.
Wearing a black velvet suit, Callow easily holds our attention throughout the
two hours’ traffic on stage. Though he has performed in relatively few Shakespeare
productions, he clearly feels a great empathy for the language and seizes the
opportunity of playing about 50 cameo roles with relish. There are few actors who
have Callow’s talent for assuming such a variety of vocal styles, and almost like an
impressionist he reels off in quick succession male, female and children’s characters
from both Romeo and Juliet, to Hamlet, Falstaff and Prospero. Even if some of the
performances are a bit over the top they are always engaging.
Tom Cairns’s fluid direction ensures that the commentary and dramatic strands of
the show are seamlessly interwoven, so that the story keeps its momentum. The set by
Jeremy Herbert includes a simple stage with a few props such as a paper crown, a toy
sword and a mechanical dog suggesting a child’s make-believe, plus still and moving
images on a screen, while the lighting of David Howe and the music and sound of
Ben and Max Ringham add to the magical atmosphere.
Even if Shakespeare’s inner life remains shadowy, this show is full of interest,
often amusing and occasionally moving. Though not as satisfying as Callow’s superb
one-man Dickens show a few years ago, Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford certainly puts an intriguingly personal perspective on some of the most celebrated
scenes from world drama.
 | 
THEATRE REVIEW:
