shakespearing

Valentino F/W 2016

I would give a lot - within reason - to get my hands on a recording of Rory Kinnear as Angelo in the 2010 Almeida Theatre production of Measure for Measure.

His version of Angelo actually takes off his glasses and fumbles while putting in contact lenses so that he can impress Isabella, for goodness’ sake.

The British Library has an extremely cool competition for full-time students in Britain. It’s called the Off The Map competition. This year the competition is using Shakespeare as its wellspring, in a nod to the British Library’s Shakespeare exhibition that begins April 15 and runs until September 2016. 

This is the fourth year of Off the Map.  The competition, in partnership with GameCity, “challenges full-time UK students in higher or further education to make videogames, digital explorable environments, or interactive fiction based on digitised British Library collection items.”

In which our new Artistic Director Emma Rice introduces her very first season for the Globe: Wonder.

Being childlike is underrated. It takes commitment. A commitment to try and see everything for the first time, to approach people and situations with an open mind, and to create theatre as if every story is freshly born in that moment. I am not talking about being childish; seeing the world through a simple lens or trying to hold onto some romantic idea of innocence. No, I am describing something far more essential. The preservation of wonder.

Wonder is the natural territory of the child. Not in an airbrushed, happily-ever-after way, but in a way that reflects a deep and immediate relationship to the people we meet and the things that happen to us. This ‘wonder’ reveals the world in its truest and most surprising form and glows at the heart of why we make theatre. It is one of my favourite, and most consistent notes to actors, several weeks into a long run when the show is purring like clockwork, laughs are landing and timings are stable… “Everything for the first time!” I exclaim. There is no beauty in perfection and I urge my theatrical heroes to trip themselves up and dive into the emotions and dilemmas afresh without a thought for what they think they know. This ‘wonder’, this ability to reset on a daily, nightly, even hourly basis is where the power of theatre lies. Writers, actors, directors and audiences alike choose to join this temporary community and gasp with childlike wonder as these stories unfold. We willingly give ourselves up to new worlds and slip our feet into the shoes of others. This collective act of ‘wonder’ is an act of such bravery, such empathy and such generosity that it creates an army of humanity, bonded by a shared experience and a unique event.

And so, as I take the reins of this wooden ‘O’, I know that there is no better home for this army of humanity. This radical building holds us in a warm grip and doesn’t let go until the jig is jigged. Shakespeare’s Globe demands wonder at its best. It demands that you look from the stage to the sky and feel the heartbeat of the fellow adventurers around you as you see some of the greatest stories, hear some of the greatest words and experience some of the greatest emotions that this life has to offer.

I thank the stars in the London sky for giving me custody of this precious space and hope that my first season will inspire joy, sorrow, fear and laughter in equal, glorious, wonderful, childlike measure as we all choose to get lost in the woods together.

More information on the cast and creatives involved in our Wonder Season, and how to book to follow.

Open Barbers Needs Donations!

 Open Barbers is a hair salon for people of all genders and sexualities, welcoming trans and gender non-conforming individuals for any haircut they want. I’ve been a long-term visitor to Open Barbers, going once a month for a regular cut and a chat with some lovely, friendly people over a cup of tea. It was a lifeline for me when I first moved to London and had little contact with other trans people - a monthly trip to the barber quickly turned into a valuable trans community.

 Open Barbers are currently running a fundraiser to help them refurbish a new location in Hackney, allowing them to expand and welcome more clients as well as having a larger social space. The project is already 66% funded but it still needs £9,000 in donations. If you are able to give any donations, there are a host of cool rewards available too!

Celebrating 10 years of Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank