From July 23, The Shakespeare Pub Trilogy is being performed by eight actors of WhatsTheirNames Theatre Company as they celebrate a decade of performing engaging Shakespeare “for the people who don’t like Shakespeare” as well as those who do.
“Our first show was at The Pub in Archbishop Street,” smiles Director Philip Leone Ganado. “It started as a whim when Nathan Brimmer, who’s still part of the company, took over The Pub. A small group of us who’d been a student theatre company previously decided to put on a play together. I’d just finished reading Two Gentlemen of Verona which felt as if was set in a pub so it seemed the perfect choice.”
Ten years on, Two Gentleman of Verona is one of the three shows the company are performing this year. It’s the first time they have repeated a production.
“Even though that first run was a sell-out, because the pub was tiny perhaps only 200 people saw it,” Leone Ganado explains. “This was the same in the following two years – we are often been asked to stage these plays again and it seemed a good way to mark 10 years.”
Whilst the company are going back to their roots with a show in a pub (albeit a slightly larger one), WhatsTheirNames are always keen to keep things fresh: to mix things up they have decided to present all their first three plays, Two Gentleman, Twelfth Night, and Much Ado about Nothing this year. They are also introducing ‘audience choice nights’ in which the audience chooses on the spot which of the three is performed.
“Although they’re based on the original stagings, they’re not the same, and the cast is slightly different,” adds Leone Ganado.
“Each show is 90 minutes with a cast of 7 or 8 so although we stay true to original script, we’ve had to make some changes. Also, our idea was always to make Shakespeare accessible to people who don’t necessarily love Shakespeare! We want to demystify the plays and show that Shakespeare included lots of fun!”
“Every choice we make is rooted in the original: Shakespeare included the popular music of his time, so we include modern music in ours too. This year there’s Chapel Roan, some Eurovision hits, Harry Styles and some Italian classics.”
The cast also wears contemporary clothes because Shakespeare’s players would have worn the dress of the time. “We’re simply updating the show and keeping it relevant the way he did. That’s important to us,” he adds.
“A key moment in an early show, the very first year, was when – in Two Gentlemen of Verona Valentine holds a knife to Proteus’ throat – an audience member an arm’s length away shouted, ‘Kill him!’ I remember thinking “Great! That’s how it would have been in Shakespeare’s day, with audience members heckling! In a small space you get a level of engagement you sometime lack in a big or more formal venue. Shakespeare wouldn’t have been enjoyed in silence in a fancy theatre in your Sunday best.”
The Shakespeare Trilogy will also include an element of audience participation. Two Gentlemen of Verona includes a dog in the story. “We decided to use an audience member as the dog! That’s always a joy to watch!” chuckles Leone Ganado.
“And in Twelfth Night, there are a record number of romantic combinations between the actors due to the multiple characters everyone is playing and the bizarre daisy chain of entanglements,” he adds.
“Because each of the cast plays severalcharacters in each play, during rehearsals we’ve had moments where someone will say lines from the wrong play, and one actor stopped a scene recently to clarify whether her opposite number was her dad or her lover at that moment. I’m a little scared of there being a mix-up during a performance, but there would have been mistakes in Shakespeare’s time too, because the theatre troupes then would have performed lots of parts and plays too!”
WhatsTheirNames are also excited to be revisiting Much Ado About Nothing, the show they performed in their third year when they felt they had perfected the formula for a pub, and after which they moved to other venues – including a swimming pool for The Tempest last year.
“We also did in as a reading on Zoom right when the pandemic hit, and we were all out of a job and desperate to keep ourselves sane! It’s great to be doing it live again,” adds Leone Ganado. “It has the best dance number and when we did it last time, there was very little room to throw your arms into the air. One night I got carried away, smashing my arm into a light fixture. The bulb flew off and an audience member dramatically caught it. It was spectacular and the audience loved it. Nathan who, owned the pub, did not! And now when we’re coming up to that dance number, the others make sure I’m a being careful!”
“Just like when we started it out, it feels a bit mad doing hree different shows at the same time – 4 1/2 hours of Shakespeare, and two shows a night for two weeks. But what brings these shows alive is that sense of like flying by the seat of your pants and we’re certainly doing that, bringing back that feeling of stretch from those very first shows. We hope everyone will love it!
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