A double first for me this early evening as I sat down to watch an outdoor family-friendly production of Shakespeare's shortest play, The Tempest. I had never seen a production by The Handlebards before, and I had never seen an all female performance of The Tempest.
An aptly named play for yesterday's uncertain weather, we all came prepared for the worst with waterproofs and umbrellas, but, apart form just a few fledgling drops right at the start, the weather was actually very kind to us, and the play was performed without any natural meteorological disaster.
The Handlebards, I would think, are quite a unique troupe. In a bid to minimise costs, and prove that touring small-scale theatre can be sustainable as well as creative and worthwhile, the cast of four travel from venue to venue, carrying all their set, props and costumes with them, on bicycles! yes, I'll write that again...bicycles! And over the course of their summer tours, they clock up a number of miles which would make The Proclaimers' famous 500 seem something of a stroll in the park! And if you think that by doing this, they need to compromise on quality, then think again!
The company of four, Ellice Stevens, Katie Sherrard, Roisin Brehony, and Tika Mutamir, take on all the characters between them with lightning speed quick changes (a hat, a cloak, or a pair of tiny wooden hands!), and with clever vocal and physical changes, the characters come alive and are very different and easily identifiable. The company has chosen to use some of the original text, and add to this some more modern dialogue, ad libs and jokes of their own, to make it more appealing for the younger audience members - although I have to say, it also made us oldies laugh quite a lot too!
Their style is not unique, but it is a style that works very much for them. Physical comedy, jokes, a little harmony singing with small musical instryuments [including an office style water cooler container being used quite excellently as a drum], with larger than life characters (Caliban was certainly a unique intepretation!), and a lot of very lovely - albeit also quite cheeky - audience manipulation and participation.
For the first half I was rather near the front, and perhaps just a mite too 'obvious' and so, after the interval, I secreted myself out of sight right at the back. This was a rather interesting experiment as I noticed two things here which would have passed me by had I stayed put. First, the four actresses spoke and sang unamplified, and this was absolutely fine for the front few rows, however, at the rear we were struggling to hear, and so perhaps a little more projection was needed. Second, the younger children were bored with the second half (despite the upbeat nature of the play, the 'magic', and the fun). Admittedly, the production is not advertised as being suitable for very young children, but today, a significant number of the audience were 5 or under, and so two hours (including interval) was too long.
The four actresses were excellently cast and it has been a long time since I saw such a fresh, alive, unique, family-friendly, and enjoyable Shakespeare as this. This is Shakespeare produced and performed just how he would have approved of it himself I feel sure. Accessible, relaxed, informal, but faithful to the original and very truthfully acted by four very strong and talented performers.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 3/8/19
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