Exit, Pursued By A Bard

In the final episode of our series, Elliot sits down with John Moss, the last director on the 2022 season. John will be directing Sir Thomas More next summer, and it marks a very exciting move towards including other contemporaries in our season - Shakespeare's involvement in this play is confirmed only via one handwritten page of the script! Sir Thomas More is a fascinating play with striking relevance to our world today, and John and Elliot touch on a couple of those themes in their discussion, such as the topic of refugees. 

John provides a background to the play for those who don't know about it, and he explains why it is a special and important part of Shakespeare's work. We also learn what drew him to the play in the first place, why he's excited to collaborate with his actors on this 430 year old play, and why it made him want to join the Canterbury Shakespeare Festival to direct it... 

***WARNING***  

The following contains some discussion of references to sexual assault within the Early Modern period and its plays - viewer discretion is advised.   

In this week's episode of Exit, Pursued By A Bard, Elliot is talking to one of the founding members of the Canterbury Shakespeare Festival, Philip Hunt. Phil previously directed for the festival, performed in it, helped to run it on the original committee. He has since specialised in the Early Modern period at Oxford University postgraduate level, particularly looking at queer non-canonical texts in the period. 

In this fascinating talk, Phil talks about the different attitudes towards homosexuality in the Early Modern period more broadly, before going into detail about the different spectrum of sexuality and friendship in Early Modern period and its drama. He also looks at queerness in Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the working dynamic of Boy Actors who played both men and women on the stage, cross-dressing, as well as gay humour that made it past the censor and didn't put the audience off! 

In this week's episode, Elliot is talking to Mel Glazer, the director of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which will take place next summer and will  be Mel's directorial debut with CSF! Midsummer is one of Shakespeare's most beloved and well-known comedies, and Mel talks about how his main  aim for this production is be to make it as lively and understandable as possible.   

In their discussion, Mel talks about making the early modern jokes work for a modern audience, coming into contact with Shakespeare later on in  life, and how philosophy has shaped his interpretations of the Bard's works...

This week we're bringing you something a bit different! John Moss  (Director of Sir Thomas More) is joined by Sarah Lockyer (Director of  Henry IV Part I), Ciarán Barata-Hynes (Actor/Writer), and Charlotte  Groombridge (Managing Director of CSF).    

The panel presents a selection of Shakespeare's plays for consideration and together they explore the impact of the plague on Shakespeare's  writing, and the literal and figurative presence of plague in his plays.

Hot on the heels of last week's discussion about the CSF Experimental plays, Elliot is joined by Niara - the writer and director of Peter & Ignez, our next experimental play. Peter & Ignez is based on a tragic Portuguese tale of forbidden love and revenge that clearly had an influence on the stories  that Shakespeare and his contemporaries chose to tell.

Niara talks about the plot of this new and exciting play, how revenge plots drew her in to Shakespearean drama, and the fun of having no boundaries when adapting stories from centuries ago for modern interpretation... 

The experiemental play first became an interesting and unique staple of the Canterbury Shakespeare Festival's season in its second year (2016). The Festival is proud to provide an environment for new writing and, over the years, actor/writer/person-who-does-everything Ciarán Barata-Hynes has written three experimental plays that premiered with the Festival - Shakespeare's Iago, Shakespeare's Margaret Thatcher, and Magna Carta.

In this episode, Ciarán talks about his process for writing in verse to match the style of Early Modern theatre, what draws him to villains and what it was that inspired him to write these plays, and the results of playing dead throughout an interval...

Today, Elliot is joined by Michael Gould, the director of our production of Richard II which was postponed last year and will instead by performed next summer. Directing the play will be a full circle of sorts for Michael, who played the titular King Richard II in one of Shakespeare's fascinating and dramatic history plays in the past! 

They discuss the importance and involvement of Shakespeare in school education, the sources and influences on Shakespeare's works (particularly the History plays), and what it was that drew Michael to Richard II as both a performer and director...

This week Elliot is talking to costumier Catriona Bradley - Catriona has worked on the costumes for countless shows in the festival in the past, has since gone on to study at RADA, and has worked on the hit Netflix show Bridgerton!  

They discuss her experiences working on costumes, how costume adds  another layer to characters and how it can completely change an actor's  performance, and some of her most memorable costume mishaps...

In Episode 2, Elliot talks to Sarah Lockyer, a former Merry Wife of Windsor and the director of Henry IV, Part I which was sadly postponed due to the  pandemic.

They discuss Sarah's vision for the play from her pitch, the origins of theatre in her blood, the ongoing relevance of Shakespeare (even in the History plays), and Dick Van Dyke...

Join our Artistic Director and Managing Director (Elliot Huxtable and Charlotte Groombridge) as they introduce our new series... Exit Pursued By A Bard. 

They will explain a little bit about what the series intends to cover, including some of the exciting topics and people that will be involved over the weeks. They will delve into their fondest memories of CSF and revisit many of the fabulous shows and the people who made the festival a success over the last 6 years! This week's episode was recorded from a Facebook livestream for people to leave questions - future episodes will mostly be pre-recorded.