Salisbury

These comments are the assistant director’s thoughts and ideas about the process of touring 'Romeo and Juliet'; they may change as this process progresses.

Notes from Wilton House, Salisbury...

In The Salisbury International Arts Festival brochure they urged everyone to come see this production in "a place inextricably linked with Shakespeare and his plays." One of the cast members asked me how Wilton House was linked to Shakespeare, and after a little research I was able to answer the question.

In 1542 Henry VIII granted the Benedictine monastery and lands at Wilton to William Herbert, the 1st Earl of Pembroke. The following year work began on a Tudor house that incorporated parts of the Old Abbey. Over the centuries the house has been added to and re-modelled and the current William Herbert, the 18th Earl of Pembroke still resides there today. How does this link with Shakespeare? According to Professor Andrew Gurr, writing on touring for this site, in 1602 the Chamberlain's Men almost certainly "traveled to Shropshire on an invitation from Edward Herbert, the 3rd Earl of Pembroke (who may have been the ‘lord of my love’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets.) The company was responding to old ties. In 1592-3 Shakespeare had acted with Burbage and others in an old company patronised by Herbert’s father, the second Earl." The Globe of course is our most closely linked venue to Shakespeare but, although it is nearby, it is not actually on the original site. This was our first stop on tour where we could honestly say we knew we were performing somewhere Shakespeare had actually been.

The grounds at Wilton House are expansive, with clusters of beautiful trees doting the landscape that served perfectly as "the grove of sycamore that westward rooteth from the city side." In the distance, half way up a great hill, a folly had been built that looked like some kind of Greek temple at Delphi, serving for us as the Capulet's monument. Without being too demonstrative we have tried at each venue to find local specific points of reference that serve to transform each given venue into our Verona. At Wilton however, having our stage right next to the grand house with an "orchard wall" running along side it and the monument in the distance, seemed to place our performance, not in Verona, but directly on the Capulet's estate.

The unpredictable nature of weather seemed to be developing a pattern on tour - if the day starts cold and wet it will likely be beautiful by show time and likewise if "the day is hot" an hour before the performance it will probably begin to rain. It did. The Producer asked the audience if they would mind holding the show for twenty minutes in the hopes that the wet would clear. Many in the audience, who were quite comfortable under their umbrellas urged that it go ahead as scheduled until it was explained to them that once the performance began umbrellas would have to come down. It's Globe policy that there are no umbrellas in the open-air yard of the theatre, this is less to do with tradition and all to do with sightlines. If someone puts up an umbrella, instantly, the people behind them won't see anything. Suddenly with that in mind the audience seemed quite happy to wait for the rain to clear. It did, for a time, and then began to drizzle and pick up momentum and pour. By the time the Friar was preparing to marry Romeo and Juliet he got quite the appreciative laugh with "so smile the Heavens upon this holy act." The Heavens were crying more than smiling and by the interval it was becoming quite uncomfortable for everyone. The actors by this point were sopping wet but happy to continue (they couldn't get any wetter.) Being the first of four performances, our producer gave the audience the option to postpone and use their ticket to come another night. The audience, who had had to wait and began a little grim at the prospect of spending "the two hours traffic of our stage" in the rain had obviously been completely won over by the performance because there was an overwhelming response to carry on. The stiff upper lip, grin and bare it nature of the English prevailed, a handful of people left but hundreds stayed till the very end.

I spent most of the show watching from the stage left side and noticed that over the course of the last few weeks the staging had begun to creep forward, to move more and more down stage. I watched the audience closely and those out front were all enthralled, with smiles and wide eyes, while those on the sides I think felt a little more detached, not as included as they once were. The following day I spoke with the Elizabeth, our director, about this and asked if I might urge the actors to move more upstage to a place were they could easily take everyone in. I knew that this could also have the effect of boxing the show in amongst the pillars and so challenged them all to find one or two opportunities to wrap around the pillars, to carry the energy out and loop it back around. Given that we have a thrust stage with pillars this circular movement not only creates interesting form it also allows far more people the opportunity to see an actor's face on their journey. Elizabeth thought it was worth trying, if nothing else as an experiment to give the actors a new point of concentration. I thought the result was quite electrifying, all the actors took the note to heart and our next performance was not only re-energized and physically exciting, you could feel that the appreciation and enjoyment was evenly distributed amongst the whole audience.

I view this tour not only as my job, but also as my opportunity as a foreigner and a fan of history to take in as many famous and notable sights as I can along the way. For me Salisbury meant a few museums, a tour of the Cathedral, seeing an original copy of the Magna Carta and of course… Stonehenge. I'm never able to entice any members of the company to join me on these history quests and I think a story recounted to me by a local cabbie puts it best. He took a Canadian couple to Stonehenge and on the return journey as they fawned over the wonder of it he replied, "it's just a pile of rocks." Then, asking them which part of Canada they came from, they replied "near Niagara Falls," to which the cabbie was immediately envious - their response, "it's just some water going over a cliff." Proximity dissipates awe.

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