Anna Marie Galea speaks to director Polly March about her choice to stage Shakespeare’s little-known last play The Two Noble Kinsmen.
“I think the fact that it has never been performed here in Malta was part of my motivation but I also enjoyed the challenge of putting up a play that no one (or very few) had heard of. I suppose this is a double-edged sword as there will probably be as many people who will come to see it because they don’t know it as there will be those who stay away for the same reason,” stage veteran and director Polly March says.
Inimitable not only because it is his last play but also because he collaborated with playwright John Fletcher to complete it, the play bears some strong differences to what well-versed audiences usually expect from Shakespeare.
“John Fetcher was very much in love with repetition and strong line endings. The metre, the iambic pentameter, is far from perfect, as it is in many of Shakespeare’s plays. So, one can read the text and flounder a bit. The challenge was to prune the play, to make it accessible and fast-moving,” March explains.
“Gone are lengthy discussions about the gods and debatably dumb shows involving them. Gone are long stag hunts interspersed with philosophical musings (a strange combination, but what can one say?) This is a fast-paced, rattling good yarn!”
Although the play was originally based on a Chaucerian tale, March has chosen to disregard all the things that complicate it and keep the story simple and flowing.
“Some of the themes in The Two Noble Kinsmen you can trace back to other plays. Shakespeare quite often used the metaphor of a forest or a space removed from everyday life, as a place in which change takes place. It is in these spaces that a character grows, diminishes, discovers internal urges and processes failings,” she says.
I think the most challenging part was helping the cast to come to terms with the language. Shakespeare wrote to be performed; not pored over
“Once you start pruning, everything is simpler. The young men who are best friends know they cannot both have Emilia and so they reluctantly decide to fight for her to the death. Emilia has no choice in the matter. Theseus decrees that the winner takes all and the other dies. She cannot save them both and she cannot choose.”
Storyline aside, working with a young cast came with its own journey, one March is very proud of.
“For me, I think the most challenging part was helping the cast to come to terms with the language. Shakespeare wrote to be performed; not pored over. Our job as actors is to tell a story; that’s really what it boils down to. How can actors involve and engage their audience if they are merely saying words which mean nothing to them?
“So, to see the expressions of delight, of understanding on their little faces was a joy. Having a couple of people watching the odd run and commenting about how fluid and clear they were was music to my ears.”
Always big on surprises which she has said that she can’t even reveal to us “because they won’t be surprises anymore”, one of March’s greatest joy is seeing everything come together.
“I am very lucky because Rosetta Debattista, the artistic director of the Salesian Theatre, gave me her complete trust and supported my decision to stage The Two Noble Kinsmen. To be honest, I don’t really have a favourite moment in the play. Of course, there are characters I am drawn to and facets of the plot that interest me more than others but basically, I just love watching it all come together, with the energy and passion the performance requires,” she says.
So, what does she want audiences to take home with them?
“What I would like more than anything is the people watching to take a renewed understanding of Shakespeare. He is not as difficult to understand or as obscure as some people might try to portray him, but a man for all time, who wrote of the human condition and the ills that man is heir to,” March comments.
“Human nature has not changed. I want the audience to engage with the story and identify with the characters’ needs and their drives. My hope and dream is that the young people involved and those who watch will go on and tell his great stories. The young are our future and our hope and that is why I put my whole heart into working with them.”
The Two Noble Kinsmen is being staged at the Salesian Theatre, 45, Ġużè Howard Street, Sliema, on Saturday and Sunday at 7.30pm. For more information, visit https://tsmalta.com/.