The Verse

Its all been getting quite maniacal for the few days orchestrating an expanding team of sound designers, choreographers, stage managers etc. But as I lay in bed last night I realised that at least on this blog alone we have not so as much as mentioned the text itself, so I thought I'd better rectify that.

Other than Craig whom I know has worked 'outdoors' many times before, I think I am right in saying that the remainder of you have little/no experience out of doors. This factor, and believe me, it is a very big factor, could potentially prove the biggest hurdle for you in this early period of rehearsal and performance.

The main problem is obviously acoustics, we are not in a traditional theatre space built with actors in mind, rather the spaces we play in tend to have no acoustics whatsoever and range from gardens and ruins to old country houses. In short there is nothing for the sound to bounce and resonate off, and coupled with all the extraneous factors like traffic, picnics, airplanes at inopportune moments etc it means simply being heard can never be taken for granted especially with 'the wind and the rain' thrown in for good measure.

It poses a challenge for us as there is a huge plethora of subtle nuance within the text which we must try and bring out. But take comfort from the fact that the verse often benefits from being said openly, honestly and outwardly, it was written for Elizabethan theatres which as we all know had no roof and not wonderful acoustics. What we must keep reminding ourselves over the first few weeks is that we must present this show in the open air, and thus we will be having a dress run in the open air and we will rehearse sometimes in the open air to give you a flavour of what happens to your voice when out of doors. So whilst we may find many a subtle wonderful moment, we might have to mark it, remember it for Southwark and then find something else that will work for an outdoors space

What is vital is to get into the habit of really and truly warming up each day and every performance day, this might sound basic, but it is easy to forget when tiredness begins to seep in. We will all be doing a group warm up and Ron will be working with on a singing warm up, but there are other basic breathing exercises that you will all be familiar and you will likewise have some idea of which exercises and techniques work best for you and I would encourage you all to do these on top of what we are doing.

The real trick is to find the balance when out of doors between volume, clarity and colour. Whilst the wonderful close proximity of the Southwark audience will enable us to bring the play right back into more of a chamber piece, we must for now jettison any ideas of whispered voices and hushed speeches. But I do think this, although challenging, presents a great opportunity for us to discover the verse and prose in its raw form. The verse provides you with the structure, the place to breathe and a real way into your characters, and is something that in this adaptation could be overlooked in favour of the music/movement/ character etc.

The great inimitable John Barton once said that

Two simple qualities will see an actor through the supposed minefield of
Shakespeare's verse: common sense and a feeling for what sounds right.

In short we just need to harness the verse, yes let's hunt out the cadences, antitheses, alliterations, elisions, strong and weak endings etc but above everything else- trust your judgement, if it sounds right- it almost certainly is.