Hey Blog! Last week I went to see a performance by a theatre company of good pedigree – the Chamberlain’s men!
Wednesday evening was interesting. We went straight out as soon as Dad came in, waiting only to pack the picnic, and drove to Chatsworth house, north of Rowsley. This is where I went to see the sculptures in July (see Splendid sculptures, super-sized breakfasts, and spectacular Chatsworth! for more on this). It was the country house of Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury, and is now in the ownership of the Dukes of Devonshire. Posh stuff. But this performance wasn’t indoors, it was outdoor theatre – apart from a bit of interactive outdoor theatre, the first I’ve ever been to! It was just getting towards dusk when we started our picnic tea – and then the play began!
What do you see when you hear the word Shakespeare? A stage full of actors, some scenery, a dagger and a basket of roses? Something like that! The Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare wrote his plays for his company, The Chamberlain’s Men. At that time, all parts were played, or acted, by men, or boys for the female roles. The most valuable things the acting company possessed were the costumes, and the scripts, which were tailored for the players of the company, though could be played by others if they suited. Some of Shakespeare’s most famous works are the Tragedies Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet and the Comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, though he wrote Histories too. Queen ElizabethⅠpreferred The Chamberlain’s Men above all other theatre companies, and her successor JamesⅠbrought them under his patronage and they became known as The King’s Men. The modern ‘Chamberlain’s Men’ take their name from this ancient theatre company, though, unlike their predecessors, they have a website: https://tlcm.co.uk.
The play we saw was As You Like It. This is a comedy, about three rivalling sons, a banished duke, his daughter, her best friend, and the fool, with – typical for a Shakespeare comedy – a generous dollop of love. It is from this play that the famous line, “All the world’s a stage, and men and women merely players,” (© William Shakespeare, 1600s – did they have copyright back then?!) comes from, referring to the philosophy of life. It is also this play in which the song ‘It was a lover and his lass’ first appeared. There are only seven actors in the company so there was a lot of costume changing – made even harder by the fact that the main female character masquerades as a boy during it! It was a truly magical experience, with the sun setting over the house, and sitting on your own chair like people would have done when the company went on tour from the Globe, listening to Shakespeare’s words. I have had the recommendation that if you read nothing in your whole life but The Complete Works of Shakespeare you would still be an educated man, so it’s obviously worth watching Shakespeare!
I follow in his footsteps too. Shakespeare was an actor in the company he wrote for, and I am also in a drama group, though I haven’t written any plays for it yet! We’re going to do some ‘Shakespeare shorts’ in the autumn, so long as covid doesn’t stomp on our plans… I think it’s worth watching Shakespeare, the most famous playwright in the English language, and possibly the world, to learn and feel the four-hundred years between us shrink to nothing, a bridge over which we can see and hear.