We’ve been here for over a week now, and one of the big questions we are being asked is why it’s important that we’re in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and later London, studying Shakespeare. Why couldn’t we have had a similar course in the US? Why did we need to go all the way across the pond for a course on Shakespeare? Does this location even make a difference at all in our study of Shakespeare’s works and the works of his contemporaries?
For me, the answer to the final question is a resounding “yes!” It’s much harder, of course, to pin down exactly why that is. But if we begin by approaching the questions pragmatically, it’s pretty easy to see that it would have been impossible to have had a class similar to this based in Lexington. There simply isn’t enough Shakespeare being performed near us to allow us to see so many plays as we are seeing here. After we had exhausted the Blackfriar’s current repertoire, we would have to travel much further to find performances of Shakespeare plays.
It can be argued, however, that the course could have taken us to a metropolitan area of the US, possibly New York, instead of all the way to England. It’s not at all fair to say that productions of Shakespearean plays performed outside of England are illegitimate, are somehow the bastards to the superior, legitimate plays performed in Shakespeare’s birthplace and the city where he spent many of his days. Even so, there’s some intangible, wonderful quality of authenticity that comes to these plays when seen in Stratford-upon-Avon. (I can’t speak to seeing plays in London yet, as we’re heading there on Friday.)
So what is it, then? What creates this difference? For me, it is the place itself combined with the quality of the productions. It cannot be just the actors or the directors themselves; it is this place and the history of it that adds that little something extra that is nearly impossible to define. For me, this quality was its strongest on the (supposed) 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birthday. Being so near to his birthplace, seeing one of his finest plays performed by some of the most skilled Shakespearean actors of our time, was a truly electric experience for me. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget that performance of Henry IV part 1. And that, to me, is why we need to be here.