Shakespeare plays at Te Pahu
Graeme Cairns said a few words at the outset. The Laird McGillicuddy, our Sunday evening host out at Te Pahu, is not known for the imprecision of his public pronouncements. However, the occasion – a dress rehearsal for this year’s summer Shakespeare play, Pericles, Prince of Tyre – lent itself to informality.
Fifty or so neighbours had gathered on the back lawn, some seated in deck chairs, the majority sprawled upon blankets or on the grass itself, sipping a wine or a glass of home brew.
Mr Cairns began by talking of performances past, alluding to a history of Shakespeare at Te Pahu that stretches back ‘‘fifteen or twenty years’’.
I suspect the actual number is closer to the latter, if not more still.
Earlier in the afternoon I had reminisced with Graeme about a dress rehearsal of The Tempest that took place elsewhere on the property, in a natural amphitheatre.
Physically, it was a perfect site, actual trees and vegetation suggesting Prospero’s island better than any cardboard props ever could.
Logistically, it proved difficult, requiring actors to tread carefully and wine infused punters to negotiate toiletry requirements in the dark.
Most of the Pericles cast would have been in their infancy back then.
Some might not have even been born. Though produced under the auspices of Slip of the Tongue, the pre-eminent Hamilton Shakespearean company, old troupers such as Mr Cairns have given way to a new generation.
Director Pip Smith and costumer/wardrobe mistress Maria Eaton, superb actresses both, contribute offstage.
Those over 30 are confined to Carl Watkins, effective as a befuddled prince and a sleazy brothel denizen; Kate Hansen, judiciously accented as the brothel keeper, surprisingly sympathetic as a murderer and Janine Swainson, this correspondent’s wife, whom I immodestly suggest steals every scene she is in as a jealous queen with unusual ideas about how best to repay a favour.
Pericles is hardly one of the bard’s better known works. In fact, debate is on-going about exactly how much of it he wrote at all.
Surprisingly, this is the second time Ms Smith and Slip of the Tongue have taken it on. The experience shows.
A plot that’s longer on action than exposition, full of shipwrecks and mistaken identity, romantic contests, a dance or two and some nominal sword play, presents certain tonal problems. It begins with a tale of incest and reaches a lewd climax of sorts in a house of ill repute, where a teenager’s maidenhood is at stake. Shades of Brooke Shields and Pretty Baby.
If written today there would no doubt be social media protests and all manner of ‘‘trigger warnings’’.
The director’s solution to this – at variance, if memory serves, from the earlier production – is to play things big and to play things for laughs.
If this means the humour tends at time toward the dark, so be it.
At Te Pahu the young cast proved up to the challenge. Well schooled in the art of projection, not lacking in comic timing yet capable too in the quieter moments. Oliver Simpson’s spirited narrator brings to mind the Puck from another play entirely – a good thing – whilst the Scottish lilt of Andrew Lyall in the title role proves an eloquent asset.
The clarity and diction of Genevieve Sheffield’s Helicanus, the wit and playfulness of Kelsie Morland’s Thaisa and the sweetness and resolve of Tanya Hill’s Marina all made lasting impressions.
Best of all, perhaps, was Connor Maxwell’s goggled physician Cerimon and his hen-pecked King Cleon, a pair of comic turns, as individually amusing as distinctive from one another.
The crowd, lead by Mr Cairns’ generous laughter, were unanimous in their praise.
Well, almost unanimous. Four or five leghorn chickens with the run of the property, jerkily walked amongst us, heads a bobbing, as indifferent to Shakespeare as they were any other human activity that did not involve food. Arguably the funniest moment of the night involved one of their number who strayed into the performance space.
When the action required a number of the actors to exit at pace, stage right, this fowl thespian found herself embroiled in the drama, inadvertently a pacesetter, leading the way off. Such are the glories of live theatre.
With four shows scheduled during the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festivals there’s always the possibility that ducks might join the cast as well.
It’s happened before. Further afield, Pericles plays tonight in Raglan, at Victoria on the River on February 14th and 15th and in Te Awamutu on February 16th.