UPSTAGED BY PEACOCKS
Anecdotes of touring Shakespeare in open-air heritage sites
WENDY JEAN MACPHEE
Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Jean Macphee
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in any form, or by any mechanical or electronic means including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, in whole or in part in any form, and in any case not without the written permission of the author and publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-912875-71-9
Preface
The International, Professional Theatre Set-Up company (see www.ts-u.co.uk), survived the vicissitudes of touring mostly outdoor performances of Shakespeare in heritage sites from 1976 to 2011, performing throughout the UK from 1979 and in mainland Europe from 1993. From 1983 onwards its performances were presented in the light of the plays’ secret meanings, researched in my PhD at the Shakespeare Institute of The University of Birmingham (for details see my book Secret Meanings in Shakespeare Applied to Stage Performance). Venues and gear were transferred to The Festival Players in 2011.
Its tours in 1979, 1980 and 1981 pioneered the genre, a species of theatre which has since then proliferated, providing many actors with paid employment and heritage sites with performances of plays presented conveniently with the minimum of fuss, cost and accoutrements. The company was financially independent of government grants, paying all costs from ticket sales, fees and donations. The casts were employed initially on British Equity/ITC contracts, but on private legal contracts which enshrined those terms and conditions in later years. It was formed in the likeness of Shakespeare’s own company, The King’s Men, in its touring mould, except that instead of casting boys to perform the plays’ female roles, actresses were hired. In order to limit the number of actors employed, a strategy needed to curtail cost, some of the male roles were often taken by female players. This also saw me playing many male as well as older female roles over the years, doubling as the plays’ musician.
Close interaction was always kept up with members of the audience who insisted that I write up the stories that emerged from the unusual circumstances of a theatre company not performing in regular theatres, and I do so in the following account of many of the adventures we encountered on our travels. I draw a veil over the many romances that were engendered between the actors during the months of the tours, noting with pleasure one successful marriage resulting from actors touring during the 1992 season and another between an actor and an employee of a venue in 2008. In the early years of the company’s tours, there was often such misery resulting from unhappy affairs between the actors that I subsequently learned to arrange the schedules and accommodation in such a way that these disasters became minimal!
The experience of acting in difficult outdoor venues in all weathers benefitted the actors, most of whom went on to enjoy successful careers in the theatre, radio, television and film businesses and in areas associated with theatre such as teaching and drama therapy. Sadly some of them have died but their work lives on, not only in the memories of audiences who enjoyed their acting, but in the recordings of their television and film performances. I substitute my own name by that of my double called “Anne” in order to avoid any hint of being narcissistic.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: “WHEN BIRDS DO SING…”
CHAPTER 2: “FOR THE RAIN IT RAINETH EVERY DAY”
RAIN AND INDOOR ALTERNATIVE VENUES
ELECTRICAL STORMS
WHEN THE LIGHTING SUDDENLY GOES OUT
WIND
COLD
HOT SUN
CHAPTER 3: “THE ACTORS ARE AT HAND”
HERITAGE VENUES
MAINLAND EUROPEAN VENUES
CHAPTER 4: “ALL FOR YOUR DELIGHT/ WE ARE NOT HERE”
NOBLE HERITAGE AND HOSPITALITY
A STRESSFUL JOURNEY
COSTUME EVENTS
STAYING AT THE VENUES
MUSIC
THE JOY OF GARDENERS, GARDEN EVENTS AND WHISKY
THE HISTORICAL RESONANCE OF SOME VENUES
TOILETS
ROGUES AND VAGABONDS
BIZARRE EVENTS
CHAPTER 1
“WHEN BIRDS DO SING…”
BIRDS
On a balmy summer’s evening in the gardens of the Cornish mansion, Trevarno, while an entranced audience watched the performance of a Shakespearean play beneath a magnificent tree, a peacock firmly took up his position between the play and the audience. Spreading his magnificent feathers to their utmost height and width he posed triumphantly,
“Don’t look at them, look at me,” his posture proclaimed,