As part of the annual Chester Literature Festival, Dr Graham Atkin gave a talk on ‘Staging Shakespeare’, in collaboration with Storyhouse.
He was ably assisted by third year students Kerrianne Maloney and Natalie Webster. In an attempt to liven up what could be a fairly static lecture, Graham decided to ask two of his students to perform some small extracts of Shakespeare alongside the talk. In 2015, we were Viola and Olivia in Graham’s production of Twelfth Night so we jumped at the chance of working with Graham, and each other, again.
Graham ingeniously adapted the talk to incorporate our inputs, with us performing the death of Polonius in Hamlet, the discovery of Ferdinand and Miranda in The Tempest and the meeting of Romeo and Juliet. The backdrop of the Town Hall was the perfect setting for this talk, along with our use of props such as fake blood, yellow stockings, a wig for Graham and a large curtain. Hopefully, our contributions brought what Graham was speaking about to life, especially with our attempts at replicating what Early Modern tragic and comedic walks might have looked like.
Overall it was an enriching and rewarding experience. Throughout…there were occasionally a few hiccoughs, but all’s well that ends well!“
Alternatively, to view the talk in its glorious entirety, check this out: Staging Shakespeare
