FESTIVAL FEATURES | Shake
O T R U C L E D O R A M
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: S O T O H P
16 THE LIST FESTIVAL 11–18 Aug 2016
SHAKE IT UP
Dan Jemmett arrives to reclaim Shakespeare as popular and funny with a little help from vaudeville, as Gareth K Vile discovers
‘M y grandfather had a mistress whose name was Ella Shields,’ says Dan Jemmett. ‘She was a cross-dressing vaudeville performer who created the character Burlington Bertie. I have a signed photo she gave to my grandfather. I certainly had her in mind as I re-read Twelfth Night and imagined a version of the play.’
Jemmett’s vision for his French-language adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic comedy of love and mistaken identity clearly comes from a more personal angle than the predictable interpretations of the Bard. Originally shown in 2001, this revised production not only splits the 18 roles between i ve actors – with the characters jumping between identities and genders – but situates the action in a 1970s seaside resort, complete with a kitsch selection of musical choices and a vintage turntable, rather than in the distant past on an island far away. The Shakespeare industry – currently touting 2016 as a celebration of the 400th anniversary of his death with predictable choices from the canon – has simultaneously promoted Shakespeare as a British icon and turned his lively and populist scripts into symbols of dry, tedious theatre. However, with Shake, Jemmett’s imagination rescues Twelth Night from idolatry.
Following his early successes in the UK, where he made his name as a director of European experimental scripts, Jemmett’s relocation to Paris perhaps encouraged his iconoclasm. ‘I don’t think that I would ever have been interested in working on a Shakespeare play before I left the UK,’ he says. Now working with the Eat a Crocodile company in Paris, he recognises that French theatre, with its roots in the Greek classics, gives him the opportunity to react against a conservative attitude.
‘I think French theatre has remained quite courtly,’ he continues. ‘The notion that theatre might be “popular” is generally frowned upon by those working in the state-funded sector.’ In his time, of course, Shakespeare was determinedly populist. ‘It’s this tension between the experimental and the popular which has informed my dramaturgical approaches to texts (such as Twelfth Night), working in the French language,’ he explains. Since Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s comedies, Jemmett embraces the comic potential of the story.
‘Shakespeare obviously enjoyed his gags, although it is his gags that are often dated and almost impossible to perform for a contemporary audience. For me, in Twelfth Night for example, the comedy lies in the characters and in the situations they i nd themselves in. It is in the playing around with these elements in rehearsal that the potential for comedy is released.’
Shakespeare’s humour, however, does retain a contemporary edge. The messing around with gender identity – a princess disguises herself as male courtier, only to provoke restless longings in her master’s beloved – and the extended celebrations of drunken, boisterous behaviour by the punningly named Toby Belch, suggests an anarchic wit that, ultimately, banishes puritan impulses through mockery. By relocating the action to a more familiar location, Jemmett evokes another, very British tradition that is enjoying a renaissance. ‘The clown is a mysterious, and essential archetype, and vaudeville – leading to variety and then televised light entertainment – is a particular, historic emanation of that archetype,’ he explains, before recalling some more familiar inspirations. ‘Laurel and Hardy have been important for me. But then also the Two Ronnies.’ Somewhere between the erudite consideration of theatre’s histories, and earthy, immediate comedy, Jemmett has discovered a Shakespeare who is often hidden by reverence and respectful interpretations.
Shake, Lyceum, 473 2000, until 13 Aug, 7.30pm (also 2.30pm, 12 & 13 Aug), £10–£32.