If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that one of my interests is Shakespeare. Since I moved to England in April, I’ve been able to see two productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), in Stratford-upon-Avon. They have two wonderful theaters there, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Swan Theatre. Both theaters are similar, but the Swan is much smaller. The former seats over 1,000, and the latter around 450.
You can’t see the stage very well from this photo of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, but it is a thrust stage, where the stage is surrounded by the audience. There are several rows of seats on each side, and there are voms – walkways – leading off the stage through the audience. The Swan is similar, just smaller.
Because of this setup, seeing plays in both theaters is intimate, and if you’re sitting in the stalls – the ground floor level – the actors moving on and off the stage via the voms makes you feel like you’re in the middle of the action.
As I said above, I’ve seen two productions at the RSC so far: As You Like It, in May, and Titus Andronicus, in June, which I wrote about here. To feed my love for Shakespeare, I’ve planned a week-long trip to Stratford in September, to see, in this order: Titus Andronicus, As You Like It, Hamlet, and All’s Well that Ends Well. In addition, I’ll be taking two tours of the RSC, a Behind the Scenes tour and an Inside the RSC tour. I’ll be meeting with a couple of actors who are currently in two of the plays, and I hope to meet a well-known Shakespeare scholar who lives in Stratford.
I’m looking forward to this Shakespeare week, where I will be able to see four excellent Shakespeare plays (two of which I’ve already seen), go behind the scenes at the RSC, spend some time in the attractive town of Stratford-upon-Avon, and meet up with actors and others to talk about Shakespeare. If you like Shakespeare, make sure to stop by this blog around then, as I’ll be writing a lot about the experience, with reviews of the plays, interviews, photos and more.
I’ll be posting reviews, interviews and photos here on this blog, and, if you follow me on Twitter, I’ll be using the hashtag #ShakespeareWeek in tweets about the upcoming week. To start with, you can read this review of Kenneth’s Branagh’s film version of Hamlet.