Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare – Othello / Henry IV Part 2 / The Merchant of Venice / A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The presentation of every Shakespeare play continues with a mixture of tragedy, history and comedy, with a little controversy thrown in. The format remains the same - the only living performer being the narrator, whilst all characters are played by bottles of olive oil, cans of fizzy drink, or a pocket torch. The language is plain English, not Shakespearean, which makes the stories accessible, even if at the cost of the comfort and complexity of the Bard’s rhythm and style.
The combination of narrative and objects is expertly delivered – each time the character is named, the narrator reaches out to reposition the object that represents that character, a little prompt to remind you of who’s who. Characters become masked or disguised by being turned upside down, and no-one ever sees through the change.
Four more plays have the table-top treatment, Othello, Henry IV Part 2, The Merchant of Venice, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which are told by three different narrators: Cathy Naden, Jerry Killick, and Claire Marshall.
Othello is narrated by Cathy Naden, with trouble-maker Iago as a pack of cigarettes and his partner in crime Roderigo a lighter – a clever combination of the pair that metaphorically light fires under Othello. It’s a less dynamic presentation than some of the others; the emotions of the play are more complex and it’s challenging to present the full spectrum of what’s happening through the objects. Nevertheless, the story remains clear and is no less tragic.
Henry IV Part 2 is told by Jerry Killick – and as a play I knew very little of prior to this performance, was a great test of this style to see if it could tell the story independently. Killick succeeds splendidly, with clever use of objects (Justice Shallow’s ‘army’ are rotten half eaten apple cores), and having the ‘crown’ of the glue bottle of the King unscrew to fit perfectly over Prince Harry’s head. There is much changing of location with each scene, and the combination of history and comedy is brilliantly balanced. Battles, treachery, and a lazy Falstaff make for a compelling and entertaining story.
Claire Killick tells us the tale of The Merchant of Venice, which is a relatively simple story with some challenging details in its characters, not least that one of the main characters Shylock is a Jew suffering everyday antisemitism which is presented as the normal way of living in the Italian city. The worst offender is Antonio, the merchant, who is rewarded despite his offensive insults. Killick does not skirt around the controversy, telling the story straight as it was written, and its ambiguity on whether Shylock is a villain or a victim remains. The famous note read out loud by Morocco on opening a casket hoping to marry Portia is summarised as ‘all that glisters is not gold – and you’re an idiot.’
Jerry Killick returns for the ever popular A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is hilariously presented: it’s a story of a forthcoming marriage whilst a separate love triangle/square tries to work itself out – oh, and an arguing Fairy King and Queen are also in the mix. Magic designed to fix the mismatches pushes the wrong couples together, including Bottom, a wandering actor. He’s a member of a performing group of Mechanicals, here represented by interior-decorating-related objects. Bottom is transformed from a man to a braying donkey that is the object of lust from the Queen of the Fairies.
It’s still marvellous to experience the appearance and movement of household objects being Shakespeare’s characters, which are still capable of evoking emotion from their movement and placement.
It's admirable to tackle some plays that don’t always translate well to the twenty-first century and not try to skirt their controversy. This series is addictive: you can’t just see one, you need to see another, and then another, and it’s a magical way to consume so many of Shakespeare’s worlds in a few days.
Audiences for the Table-Top Shakespeare series have varied in number and demographic – for Othello and Midsummer, it’s at least half-filled with high school students, who are captivated by the story-telling and the overheard conversations after the house lights go on are all about the detail of the characters they know by name. Thanks to amazing, passionate teachers who love the Bard’s work, together with digestible presentations as Forced Entertainment have brought to Adelaide, it’s reassuring to see that Shakespeare is still very much alive in our schools.
Review by Mark Wickett
Photographer: Hugo Glendinning
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