Sharon Small as Alice in the production flyer
Our stay in Stratford ended with a bang. Rather, it ended with a gunshot at the performance of the anonymous play Arden of Faversham that we saw on Wednesday night. Just as with The Roaring Girl, I almost feel as though there is too much that I loved about this play for me to tackle in a blog post. I’ll suffice it to say that I sat down in front of the mock-factory stage, complete with actors dusting blinds and stacking odd packages (surrounded by Jesus bobble heads and nude ceramic mugs…), I had the distinct feeling of taking a sip of what I expected to be water and finding that it was lemonade. The rest of the performance had this effect as well—though darker than lemonade, the play was tart, surprising, and immensely refreshing. I have never felt the power of theater as strongly as I did during this performance. I now understand even better the power of good directing, and how plays should performed and not just read, something I have been learning rapidly throughout the trip.
Our last session at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust this afternoon reinforced this idea for me, since we spent the majority of the hour and a half session acting out different scenes from Henry IV parts one and two. I have virtually no experience acting, and even the small amount of time that we’ve spent performing and practicing different elements of drama on our own have blown my mind. I really cannot imagine being an actress, and I have the upmost respect for all of the actors that we have seen and talked to on this trip. My one regret is that we didn’t get to talk to any of the actors from Arden of Faversham. I’m so glad that we’re going to see it again tonight, and I’m especially glad that the performance was so successful and directed by a woman. Because of the new respect that I have for acting and directing particularly, it’s good to know that not just female actors, but also female directors are making their voices heard. It’s inspiring both as a feminist and as a young woman interested in art and academia, of which I am now certain that drama is both.
Short interview with Polly Findlay, the director of Arden of Faversham