Idiots Ruin Shakespeare!
I was appalled to learn that a company of Shakespeare actors was jeered off stage by drunks during an open air performance of The Two Gentlemen of Verona in Tunbridge Wells, UK.
The Pantiles Players has been performing Shakespeare on a local bandstand since World War Two, but have now decided to cancel the project following a barrage of abuse from drunks at a nearby pub. The actors have finally had enough of being jeered at by idiots saying that they "look gay" in their Shakespearean costume.
The free community performances have been disrupted since England introduced a smoking ban in public places, forcing smokers at the nearby pub out onto the street of Tunbridge Wells.
I know that Shakespeare isn't for everyone, but where's the community spirit? Although I can't vouch for the quality of the performance, I suspect that this reaction to Shakespeare is more common than we'd like to think. I've sat a few times in theaters with restless idiots behind me ruining the performance.
At the risk of opening a can of worms, I'd like to hear about your Shakespeare horror stories. Has the utter disrespect or a sad lack of interest on someone else's part ever ruined a Shakespeare performance for you?
Comments
Lee’s blog post ‘Americans can’t do it’ must have assumed that only the Britons can do it. Here is the example how they can do it!Shame, shame!
Groudlings caused the aside . Can’t take the heat of the ‘groundlings’ ? go to work in television !
Shakespeare should be done in the vernacular of the times . Period costumes are not at all neccessary .
Knowing what the text means will keep the audiences interested .
Even though I am in the US (not always to be believed as a center of any kind of cultural tolerance or appreciation) I have rarely seen bad behavior to the point of ruining a production. I have seen productions that I wish had had an overhaul before they were put on and therefore ruining a possible piece of art, but luckily, not ruined for people out for a nice evening by completely destroying a play. In Shakespeare’s time, I believe the company of actors would not have left the stage but so made fun of the hecklers that the audience would have applauded them. Two Gentlemen of Verona has the elasticity to allow for the sappy leads to moan about lost loves and seek to comfort themselves by incorporating the drunks in their lines. With the audience behind them, the drunks would have been caught up in the fun and ended up becoming fans. Would Ben Johnson allowed a drunk to drive him from the stage. I think not;-)
Some lively banter with drunks might be just what this 400-year-old misfire needs. Why do companies bother with this play? What are its redeeming qualities beyond its promise of better plays to come?
As I glance through the scholarly prefaces to the various editions, I see a lot of time devoted to making excuses for the inadequacies of the play.
I was once at a performance of Richard III when the leading actor stopped the performance to take to task a group of 11th graders who had talked all through the 2nd act – the audience clapped and cheered. I might add that the schoolchildren were only there because the play was on their GCSE list!!
The strangest Shakespeare performance I ever saw was Dame Judith Anderson’s “Hamlet”. It was staged with costumes and background in shades of pink and maroon. The actors were all very tall and beautiful, except for the lead. She was small and wore traditional black costume.
There were frequent flashes. Interrupting her death scene, Dame Anderson stamped her foot and said “This is ridiculous, will someone take that man out of here!”
Actually, the culprit was a young girl with a cheap camera
What most people don’t realise is that Shakespearean dress was used in Shakespeare’s time because the clothes were off-caste donations from wealthy patrons etc. It is perfectly acceptable to perform Shakespear (authentically) in modern attire – although you might end up with a highlander senario for carrying swords for plays like romeo and juliet. There are ways of modernising the costumes to avoid cod-pieces and tights without losing an authentic feel. Also Shakespeare’s work was never meant to be high culture – it was the bums on seats comercial broad appeal drama (and comedy) of its day.
The reason people think that american’s can’t do Shakespeare tends to be based on the movie versions they have seen – the overly contrived and falsly natturalised verse of attempts like AMSND due to method acting which of course had never been heard of by the writer himself. Playing Shakespeare? Check out Patrick Tucker’s The Sectrets of Acting Shakespeare – it hightlights many of the problems faced and also many of the falsehoods about acting Shakespeare and how to get around them.
Sorry to say but l think this kind of behaviour is symptomatic of the age we live in. Maybe the bigger question is why are people as intolerant of others as they seem to be?
Here we see some who find fault with the production but don’t even whisper a word about the behaviour of the hooligans. Are they Britons who want to set a new example of criticism? Bravo!
Common coplaint of today’s Britons is not only about the costume but also about the language. They are fit for productions in Afrikaans where ‘Hamlet, I am thy father’s ghost’ sounds something like ‘Omlet, ek is de papap spook’ or a French production won’t be worse where Hamlet’s speech to Gertrude beginning with ‘Mere, mere’ will sound exactly like a sheep. (All these are not mine but from Paul Jennings on Beatrix Potter Translated.)
definitely a shame, art lost due to dirt
Ugh, how revolting. I go to the Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, Georgia, where there’s usually a drunk or two, but never have they really interrupted the show with something like that. Mostly they just laugh obnoxiously, which gets a few laughs from myself and the rest of the audience.
I know that at the “Tavern,” as it’s colloquially called, they start out the play with a rather witty speech about behavior and then start the Shakespeare. It’s not pretentious at all, with easy to understand, unaccented speech. One night [my first time there, actually] there was a restless student who made a snyde remark eliciting a “Hey, would you like to do this? That’s what I thought.” from the actor and a good shaming of the kid. They take any interruptions with grace, and I think that improvisation, while it may be hated by purists, is a necessity for good acting.
It’s so sad to hear that actors would quit performing due to disturbances such as that. I’d simply recommend moving the location, if that’s possible.
Relocate where, in some other place in Britain? It may be worse.
Your story about The Pantiles Players reason forleaving The Pantiles is not correct much of the information you have wrote is the wrong story. Please get your facts right before printing a story to the public.