by Ian Diddams
images by Gill Morrell and Penny Clegg
How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts and rash embraced
despair,
And shudd’ring fear, and green-eyed jealousy
– Merchant of Venice, Act 3 Scene 2,
William Shakespeare
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o’er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!
– Othello, Act 3 Scene 3,
William Shakespeare
Thus says firstly Portia, but more specifically Iago to Othello, in the eponymous play, ostensibly to warn against jealousy, but in fact manipulating Othello’s insecurities in his Machiavellian scheming. And thus this “Shakespeare Live” autumn touring production gains its show name, as director and deviser Gill Morrell has creatively and carefully curated a number of Shakespeare scene, with the common theme of jealousy. Most Shakespearian plays performed by community theatre groups typically have a few actors multi-roling in generally supporting character roles, but here Gill has taken a cast of nine all multi-roling performers across twenty-three pieces, taken from from a mixture of twenty-six plays from Shakespeare’s tally of thirty-eight!
The focus on “jealousy” understandably means the tragedies and historical plays are well represented, but even so ten comedies are included in this collection. As Gill says herself “Jealousy turns out to be a prime motivation for conflict in love, families and politics”. And how we see these examples from “Othello”, “King Lear” and “Hamlet” segue smoothly with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Twelfth Night” and “Much Ado about Nothing”.
It would become a litany of names and characters to list everybody and each of their roles which would bore everybody, so I shall desist here other to say the cast of Hero Fancett, Penny Clegg, Sarah Horrex, Liz Hollis, Jeremy Reece Iain Lowe, Roger Hames, Jim McCauley and Charmian Norman Taylor between them portray two full ensembles and a mind boggling sixty-seven characters, with not a little panache, style and vigour.
All of the above were more than excellently supported by stage management of Connor Palmer, James Dennis, Graham Paton and Ellen Read; tech by – who else?! – Alex Latham; music by – who else ?! – Laurie Parnell; costumes by Hermione Skrine.
Of course, to learn who plays which parts, in which extracts from which plays there is a very simple solution… to get yourself to a show during this Wiltshire tour
Marden House Centre, Calne – Weds 21 Oct
The Town Hall , Corsham -Thurs 22 Oct
The Merlin Theatre, Frome -Fri 23 Oct
The Cause, Chippenham – Sat 24 Oct
Tickets from https://www.ticketsource.com/ShakespeareLive
