RCS’ Jamie Luck lets Nouse into the secret of Shakespeare’s unremitting success
Jamie Luck with school children, copyright: RSC
There are statues, memorials and theatre companies dedicated to him worldwide, and throngs of camera-wielding tourists descend on his birthplace daily, but how is it that sixteenth century playwright William Shakespeare remains so popular after all these centuries? Any theatre guide today sees scores of noteworthy playwrights from Beckett to La Bute. In an age where the West End is lit up with neon lights and Hairspray, why the buzz around this Bard?
Shakespeare grew up in the remarkably average town of Stratford-upon-Avon. There are no school records of him and he was never educated at university. Yet he fast became a notable figure in sixteenth-century theatre and a court darling; a favourite, in fact, of King James I.
“Shakespeare is a journey of four hundred years,” observes Jamie Luck, Acting Head of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) Young People’s Programme. The banner heading the company’s Stand up for Shakespeare manifesto, the Young People’s Programme is an initiative aimed at making Shakespeare accessible to schoolchildren. “I think he is (still) relevant to today because Shakespeare represents Englishness; our language, our culture, our tradition. It is an important journey” continues Luck.
“We’re all so aware of the stories and the characters, whether we studied them at school or have seen film adaptations,” says Rhiannon Ashcroft, who directed the successful 50-minute adaptation of As You Like It as part of last year’s series of Drama Barn Freshers’ Plays, “The familiarity of it actually encourages people to go to the theatre”.
In the 21th century we can credit scores of contemporary directors for bringing the tales of Shakespeare bang up to date and accessible to a modern audience through a constant stream of fresh adaptations. Baz Luhrmann’s spectacular Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo di Caprio for example and not forgetting the BBC’s recent interpretation of Hamlet starring David Tenant.
Considering Shakespeare’s lasting impact on cinema and theatre then, it is surprising how few people realize that Shakespeare has also provided the basis for many Hollywood flicks. Gus van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho, was based on the Falstaff plot in Henry IV, and 10 Things I Hate About You, starring Julia Stiles and the late Heath Ledger is in fact a remake of The Taming of the Shrew.
“Even The Lion King is based on Hamlet,” says Sally Barnden, director of next term’s Student Action production of Macbeth. “The stories and images are iconic. I always tell people that the great thing about Shakespeare is that so many words and phrases that we use nowadays were coined by him.”
“The language is so ingrained in us, we don’t even realise it,” chimes in co-director, Eve Mosley.
This is an interesting observation given that general public consensus has it that it is the so-called flowery language that stops people nowadays from enjoying Shakespearean plays. “I lay most of that blame, though, on dialogue reeled off as if it were a shopping list of beautiful words. The audience has no chance of understanding if it’s not spoken with the same level of expression that modern English is,” Ashcroft opines.
And if primary and secondary school students are expected to understand the language, there should be less excuse for the rest of us. “We cut the more ‘iconic’ scenes like the gravedigger and Claudius’ praying scenes, but we retained the original language,” reveals Luck, regarding the RSC’s Programme’s 70-minute adaptation of Hamlet which toured primary and secondary schools around the country earlier this year. “I think there is something very empowering about understanding Shakespeare’s language. Once you get it, you feel very confident about yourself”.
“We spent time on the text, honouring it. Shakespeare reaches across such a diverse, multicultural platform. When we visited a school in Hounslow, that had pre-dominantly Asian students, they thrived. They asked really probing questions, quite up to the level of sophistication one would expect at GCSE level. And during the [programme’s] process, an African-born boy from a Year 5 class recited the entire play in his own language which was very inspiring.”
“People forget that Shakespeare wrote to entertain,” observes Damian Freddi, who plays Macbeth in Barnden and Mosley’s upcoming production. “That’s the great thing about Shakespeare. If you pay attention to him, he is actually a really great comedian; he’s really funny. I mean, there are so many cock jokes you can point out in his plays.”
It seems then that what makes Shakespeare so accessible is his flexibility. Last year’s Student Action production of The Tempest was staged at Lord Deramore’s Primary School in the format of a children’s story with a Gandalf-like Prospero and Ariel as his sidekick. “The children reacted really well. If you make Shakespeare accessible, he can be. There is such a wide spectrum of humour. He’s multi-dimensional, so versatile. There’s so much scope for interpretation,” says one of its co-directors, Anuradha Sajjanhar.
Luck believes that the future for Shakespeare as well as the present is bright, speaking of an upcoming project between the RSC and the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company. “Rappers today are like Shakespeare. They’re masters of language; of the spoken word and rhetoric. They understand the power of language. They believe everything Shakespeare believed. Our job as the RSC is to explore why he is valuable. Shakespeare makes himself contemporary.”
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