Given the 48 high school students* selected to participate in this year’s Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ) National Shakespeare Schools Production (NSSP) arose from a pool of well over 5,000 participants nationwide in this year’s SGCNZ University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival, Theatreview feels it’s appropriate to note this annual event.

Some will doubtless gravitate to the profession as practitioners or teachers. Others will benefit from the skills they develop in the process. As SGCNZ CEO Dawn Sanders ONZM QSM puts it: “The ability to listen, react and respond quickly, with vitality and dynamism, interact with others around you on stage, behind the scenes, with the audience or administratively, apply in every work place.” And in families and all community endeavours, come to that.

In my observation, young people left to their own devising devices tend, understandably, to limit themselves to relatively small areas of life experience. Yet privately they are dealing with all the big metaphysical and ontological issues at personal and global levels. Shakespeare gives them access to a way of exploring those timeless and universal themes and putting humanity into perspective by articulating and playing with our value systems and what it is to be human.  

During the NSSP week – just one week! – the students engaged in a range of workshops and, in three groups, were cast in, and rehearsed, hour-long versions of Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles and As You Like It. The showings do not, therefore, purport to be fully realised productions. Yet the quality of the work is astonishing.

Having performed them on Saturday night at Expressions in Upper Hutt, a fully-equipped theatre with an end-on stage, here – in parliament’s Legislative Chamber – they adapt to a thrust space with some audience on the same flat floor and others in the gallery above. The dynamics of working a space like this (avoid closing in on one section of the audience; avoid all actors facing the same way; ensure everyone can see into the space between the interacting characters; play to the gallery …) are often compromised in this one-off performance, so that’s another learning opportunity.  

Some actors showing signs of strain in their voices will quickly realise, I trust, the essential value of good voice training and warm-ups, especially with text-rich theatre like Shakespeare.

That said, their ensemble work is exemplary and the intelligent understandings each actor shows of their allotted character and their relationships within the sometimes convoluted stories, and the fluency with which they speak the text is very impressive, especially given the short rehearsal time. Within this sort of exercise it is, of course, necessary to share the large roles around and the various strategies employed to achieve this work a treat.  

Directed by Perry Piercy, the Much Ado About Nothing cast set a lively tone with the women welcoming the men back from the war. While the set up to Don John’s dastardly plan falters somewhat due to some text tangling that dilutes the conspirators’ strength of purpose, the payoff is good and well counterpointed with deceiving Beatrice and Benedick into thinking each loves the other.

The cast is so natural with their delivery of blank verse that it comes as no surprise – and is a good bit of fun – when someone says, “Here is a text I found upon his phone.” I approve whole-heartedly of such tweaks, and also of complete revisions to accommodate gender changes (as with Oliver de Boys becoming Olivia in As You Like It).

“In the twilight of his career – was Shakespeare losing the plot?” asks director Peter Hambleton when introducing Pericles. We might also ask, “What was he on?” given the “epic story of sin, sea storms, shipwrecks, love, loss, pirates, brothels, naturopathic remedies, lost children, family tragedy, maritime disasters, disloyalty, redemption, fishing quotas, famine, miracle reunions, and nuns”.

A sextet of Gowers fill us in on the story up to the point where three fishermen find a washed up coffin, and a trio of Pericles play out his tragic circumstances and respond to the revelations that his terrible losses – of a wife and daughter – are not so lost after all. Amid a uniformly strong cast it may be unfair to single one out but I feel bound to say this will not be the last we see of Dryw McArthur (from James Hargest College, Invercargill).

Making the wrestling bout that was supposed to kill off Orlando in As You Like It, directed by Rachel Henry, into a tag-wrestling match is a clever way of establishing the three Orlandos. The three Rosalinds, with two capped as Ganymede, and two Celias are also creatively combined and juxtaposed.

Most of what’s played out is from the Forest of Arden scenes. Giving ‘All the world’s a stage’ to Adam (no Jacques is designated in this cast) and having it played as a soliloquy is surprising but works just fine. The fun the cast have is contagious and proves an excellent vehicle for sharing the tale.

Ending with ‘I’m a Believer’ (composed by Neil Diamond for The Monkees) puts a fitting end on it – and wait, there’s more. The use of music and song throughout has added great value and now, as a bonus, the entire ensemble sings two classical works and a waiata then rounds it all off with a haka.

Whatever each of these students end up doing, there is no doubt this experience will loom large as formative and valuable in many respects. Meanwhile it’s been a pleasure to witness and share in the results. 

*The students come from: Auckland (Buckland’s Beach, Howick, Mt Albert (2), North Shore, Takapuna (2)); Blenheim (3); Christchurch; Dunedin (4); Gisborne; Hamilton (2); Havelock North; Invercargill; Masterton (2); Matamata; Nelson (2); New Plymouth (4); Palmerston North; Porirua; Rotorua (2); Taupo; Tauranga (6); Timaru; Waimea (2); Wellington (2); Whangarei (2).

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