Three Inch Fools at the Castle

 It's the tenth anniversary of the Three Inch Fools theatre company, and they are celebrating with two grand tours, with two troupes, each performing their own show.  Altogether, they're visiting 112 different venues around the UK.

On Friday 8th August, they'll be performing on the lawn of Hay Castle, at 7pm.  The audience is invited to bring a picnic, and suitable outdoor clothing - but not umbrellas, so that they don't obscure the view of the stage for other people.  The play is - not exactly Shakespeare, more Shakespeare-adjacent.  It's called The Most Perilous Comedie of Elizabeth I, in which Queen Elizabeth herself takes to the stage, with lots of backstage plotting - rival playwrights, devious dramatics.... it sounds like a lot of fun.

Tickets are £20, and only seem to be available online. 

Have-A-Go Shakespeare

 Shakespeare Link hold fortnightly sessions around Mid-Wales to introduce people to the Bard, and on Tuesday 10th December, from 11am to 1pm, they're going to be at Hay Castle in the Clore room on the first floor.

The idea is to have a cup of tea, a chat, share what you know about Shakespeare, and have-a-go at some of the speeches.

It sounds like great fun, and it's free!

Shakespeare at the Castle

 It's going to be a weekend celebrating the Bard at the Castle.

On Friday 7th, at 7.30pm, the Amarylli Duo will be in the Great Hall of the Castle, singing and playing a programme of Shakespeare's Musicke.  Hannah Grove is the soprano, and Elizabeth Pallet plays lute and theorbo.  Tickets are £15, or £7.50 for under 25s, and there is also the chance to have a pre-concert supper at the Castle cafe from 6.30pm.

Then on Sunday 9th, at 5pm, the Willow Globe Theatre will be performing The Merchant of Venice on the Castle Lawn.  Tickets are £15 or £7.50 for under 16s, and bring your own seat!

Also at the Castle on Saturdays from 11am to 1pm in the Great Hall, there's the chance to add a few more stitches to the Friendship Quilt, which has been made in collaboration with the refugees who are being helped by Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees.

Music and Theatre in Hay and Moccas

 Moccas Church are having a free event on Friday 13th August at 7.15pm.  They are showing the famous silent film Metropolis, with live organ music by Father Richard Williams.  Father Richard has accompanied silent films on the organ before, in St Mary's Church in Hay - I've seen wonderful performances of Nosferatu and A Cottage on Dartmoor, so that should be great fun.

Meanwhile in Hay, Hay Music are having their Mini Festival this coming weekend, from 6 - 8th August.  

They start with a children's percussion session on Friday afternoon at 3.30pm at the Globe (£5 per child), with the Oriole Quartet performing at St Mary's Church later that evening, at 7pm, tickets £15 each, students £7.50.

On Saturday the Flora Brass Quintet are performing at 3pm at St Mary's Church, tickets £10, students £5, followed by the Bloody Brothers at 8.30pm at the Globe, also £10 and £5.

On Sunday the Odora Piano Trio are at St Mary's Church at 3pm, tickets £12.50 and £6.25.

It's nice to see live music returning to Hay - and such good quality, too.

And at Cusop Church, there will be a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, following the action around the churchyard (the audience is asked to bring their own seats).  That's at 7.30pm on Friday 13th, 2.30pm and 7.30pm Saturday 14th and 2.30pm Sunday 15th August (with a possibility of a 7.30pm performance if rain stops play earlier).  Tickets are £10 and £8, with under 16 year olds free.

The Isle is Full of Noises

This was the Shakespearean evening in St Mary's Church last night - and it was such a lot of fun!
The Three Inch Fools were the company, three men and a woman who played all the parts, with quick changes on stage, adding jackets and shawls to their basic shirts and breeches - and Prospero had his wizard's staff, of course. They were Alex Wingfield (playing Ferdinand and Caliban from the Tempest), Claire Parry (Ariel and Miranda), Eddie Mann (Jaques and the Duke in the Forest of Arden) and James Hyde (Prospero). They have a website at threeinchfools.com
They were also all accomplished musicians, playing a variety of instruments (including a musical saw!), starting the performance with The Rain it Raineth Every Day from Twelfth Night, which moved quickly into the storm from the Tempest (enacted with two umbrellas). From Prospero's Isle we moved to the Forest of Arden, and then back to the Tempest (I'm not sure who the slightly sinister herbalist with the pestle and mortar was - I didn't recognise the play his speech came from).
They were full of energy and enthusiasm, and very funny, and it was a wonderful evening's entertainment.
The church was full, and I'm told that Botany and Other Stories, who organised the evening, raised over £900 to maintain the churchyard with regard to greater bio-diversity.

Looking around the church, I noticed that the new heating system is in place, with big radiators along the walls, which means that the short side pews have been taken out.

The Colossal Critter and an Isle Full of Noises

Despite good intentions, I haven't managed to make it to the Green exhibition at Hazy Daze, put on by Botany and Other Stories - and it closes this weekend!
For the occasion, the Colossal Critter is back - at six o'clock by the Clock Tower, and lit up!

The next project for Botany and Other Stories is happening at St Mary's Church on Saturday 3rd November at 7.30pm. It's called The Isle is Full of Noises, a line taken from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Theatre company Three Inch Fools have created a musical take on Shakespeare, with passages from the plays that are related to the natural world.
Tickets are £10 for adults, £5 for under 18 and toddlers free, from Hazy Daze, on the market on Thursday, or on the door at the church.
Proceeds from the performance will go to the maintenance and upkeep of the churchyard in a way that is sensitive to biodiversity.

Going to see the Tempest

I had a wonderful day out on Tuesday! A friend was going on a coach trip to Stratford-on-Avon to see the Tempest, and invited me to come with her.
I've never been to the RSC before, and the Tempest is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, so I jumped at the chance.
This meant an early start to drive into Hereford - the coach was waiting in the car park round the back of the football ground. We headed down to Ross to pick up some more passengers, and then across to Stratford, arriving around 11am. The coach stopped next to this charming little statue - Bottom and Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, making music together, given by the State of Israel!

I took the picture through the coach window, which is why it looks a bit odd.

We were a little early to order lunch, but we had an extremely nice breakfast at Cafe Rouge on Sheep Street, just round the corner from the theatre.
The performance began at 1pm, and they were having the camera rehearsal for the following day's live broadcast, which was shown at Booths Cinema in Hay. We were up in the Gods, looking down on the stage, and though I noticed the camera moving around on a long arm, it wasn't intrusive. There was a school party just behind us, and they weren't a problem either - chatty while the lights were up, but very quiet during the play.
Though I'd never been to the RSC before, my sister had come with our school, back in the 1970s, and must have sat about where I was sitting on Tuesday. She suffered from vertigo, and had to go downstairs to stand at the back of the stalls, where she ended up explaining the play to a party of Americans. It was the highlight of her weekend - especially as she'd never seen Hamlet before!
We were looking down into a stage defined by ship's timbers - with the most incredible lighting effects when the action started. Ariel appeared on stage, but was also performing with motion capture, so that projected animations moved as he did, flying across the stage. At other points in the play, the stage was covered with flowers, mariners from the wrecked ship sank through the sea, Ariel was reminded of his imprisonment in a cleft tree, and trees appeared in the background, all done with the lighting.
It was a far cry from the production Susan had seen in her youth, with John Gielgud as Prospero and Margaret Leighton as Ariel, when the special effect denoting the sea was a long piece of material being shaken up and down across the stage! It was nice to see a picture of Margaret Leighton as Ariel from that production in the stairwell as we went downstairs after the show.
Simon Russell Beale, as Prospero, was not John Gielgud, but he did play a very good Falstaff in the TV production The Hollow Crown.
It was also interesting to see Simon Trinder as Trinculo, comic relief with Caliban - he also played Frannie Bliss the policeman in the TV production of Phil Rickman's novel Midwinter of the Spirit. Caliban was played by Joe Dixon, who had previously been the Chancellor of Gallifrey in the Doctor Who episode The End of Time! Stephano, the drunken butler following Caliban round the island, was Tony Jayawadema, who had previously been Tony in the film A Street Cat Named Bob, which I saw before Christmas - I think he was my favourite character in this production!
One of the Spirits had previously appeared at Bristol Old Vic in the production of Jane Eyre I saw last year, and Oscar Pearce, who played Antonio, Prospero's wicked brother, had a minor part in Captain America: The First Avenger! He did a good double act with Sebastian, the King of Naples' brother, played by Tom Turner.
It was a magical performance; the lighting and special effects were stunningly good, and it was a wonderful day out.
When the coach dropped us in Hereford, we drove home to Sibelius on the radio, and finished the day off with a meal out in Hay. Tomatitos was closed for the winter season - they're only opening towards the end of the week - and Kilvert's was closed for renovation, so we ended up at Red Indigo, for a very good curry.

Sir Roy Strong at the Castle

Sir Roy Strong will be giving the Winter Lecture of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust at Hay Castle this year. The date is Saturday 19th November, at 2.30pm, and the cost is £10 including refreshments.
The subject of the talk is The Quest for Shakespeare's Garden, and he'll be talking about Elizabethan gardens generally as well as Shakespeare's own garden in Stratford-upon-Avon.

"Cry 'God for Harry!'"

'England and St George!'

The English camp before the Battle of Agincourt - on Cusop castle tump

We had a bit of trouble getting up to Cusop Church. Normally, I'd walk up, but the Young Man's bad leg meant he couldn't really get that far. So we tried booking a taxi the evening before. Booktown Taxis were already booked up, so I worked my way down a list of local taxi firms. I got answerphones for some, a couple of numbers don't seem to exist any more, and one lady in Talgarth said they haven't done a taxi service for ages (but the number is still on Yell.com).
On the morning of the event, I tried Glasbury Taxis again - and success!

We got to Cusop Churchyard in time to join in with the kids (with foam swords) for the swordfighting workshop. We had brought our own, steel, re-enactment swords. And I found that I was having a lot of trouble with the first two en garde positions. Also I learned that the defence against headshots is called the St George. I'm badly out of practice! We'd had a bit of a practice the night before, but it was good to watch someone who really knew what he was doing, and was great with the kids.
After the workshop, some of the kids who'd been practicing came to chat to us about our swords - talking about swordplay and medieval battles is a lot easier than actually using the sword!
I'd also brought my bows with me, as there was a bowyer set up in the churchyard too. It turned out to be the local bowyer who made my bow - and he recognised it!.
We brought a picnic lunch (delicious sausage rolls and samosas from the Wholefood Shop) but some people there paid extra on the ticket for a ploughman's lunch. There was tea and coffee available too.
Most of the kids went into the church to make cardboard armour. Some of them wore it for the battle later.
The performance of Henry V, abridged by Hay Theatre CIC, was full audience participation. We began in the churchyard where the members of the cast introduced themselves and Chorus (Malk Williams) delivered the first of the famous speeches - "Oh, for a muse of fire!" He also played Henry V.
Then we moved into the church, which was packed, and included King Richard Booth in a wheelchair. The English throne was at the front by the pulpit and the French throne at the back. There were scheming bishops, the gift of tennis balls to the King, Derek Addyman giving his all as Ancient Pistol - and quizzing Chorus on what his fancy speeches actually meant, and Falstaff's death. Then we were off to Southampton, very effectively, as a sail was lowered from the rafters and the audience were invited to wave streamers and seagulls on sticks.
Then it was outside again for scenes around Harfleur, with the four Captains (Scottish Captain Jamie in full kilt and tam o'shanter!) disputing in the lane by the lychgate. They led us into the Castle field, where we saw the French princess attempting to learn English, and then to the battlefield, with the French tent at one end and the English tent at the other. When we'd arrived, we had all been given stickers of the Cross of St George or the French fleur-de-lys, and now the audience divided to become the English and French armies. We hurled Shakespearean insults at each other before charging, and I must say it was very satisfying to run round the field shouting "Die, French dog!"
We'd spent half the day chatting with Tracy and her husband, who turned up after the swordfighting for the picnic lunch, and we were very grateful, at the end of the performance, for the lift back into town!

It was great fun, and I understand there are plans to do something similar in the winter with A Christmas Carol.

Coriolanus

Last night, the cinema in Hay was linked up to a live feed from the Donmar warehouse in London for a performance of Coriolanus. I treated myself to a ticket, because the star is Tom Hiddleston, who has appeared as Loki in the Thor and Avenger films. He also played Henry V in the recent BBC Hollow Crown series, so he's no stranger to Shakespeare.
It's a play I didn't know at all, other than it's one that is set in Rome, and I deliberately didn't read the play beforehand so I would come to it fresh.
The nice thing about the National Theatre special performances is that you get some short interviews before the play starts, which gives a bit of background to the characters and the venue (an old banana ripening warehouse). Coriolanus is described as a good soldier and a terrible politician (which leads to his downfall). They had deliberately stripped the play down to the bare minimum in the way of sets - a bare stage with a few painted lines, and a ladder. The costumes were also very basic, so you really had to concentrate on the words.
I was concentrating so much I couldn't take my eyes off the screen to pour the last of my beer from the bottle into the glass for the entire first half, and at the interval I had no idea what was going to happen next. Then events led to what was really an inevitable, terrible, conclusion - I'd kind of guessed that it wasn't going to end well for Coriolanus.
One bonus for me was that the part of Coriolanus' friend was played by Mark Gatiss, most recently seen as Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock. He also writes for Doctor Who.
Apart from those two, the real stand out performance for me was Coriolanus' mother. What a scary woman, glorying in her son's martial prowess and clearly being the most important woman in his life! Deborah Findlay was brilliant in the role.
The other thing I noticed was how many members of the cast got to snog Tom Hiddleston - even his arch enemy at one point! It was nice to see so many black members of the cast, too, and parts like one of the people's tribunes being played by a woman - and the male people's tribune did a good job of appearing extremely untrustworthy.
I wouldn't say that Coriolanus has become a favourite Shakespeare play - there's far too much blood in it for that - but I'd certainly go and see it again, and now I'm going to read the play to get the full flavour of the lines.

Hay Girl in the Big City: As You Like It

A bit of culture after the silliness.
This was the first live Shakespeare Mark had ever seen, and we saw it as groundlings at the Globe! ("the PROPER Globe," as one friend in Hay put it, as opposed to the Globe Gallery in Hay).
We had intended to see Much Ado About Nothing, because Mark had seen the Kenneth Branagh film and liked it. I actually got a phone call from him while he was standing in the ticket office of the Globe, to say it was actually As You Like It that was being performed on the night we wanted, and did I mind?
Of course I didn't mind, and I looked it up later to find that it is the only Shakespeare play with a wrestling match in it - and Mark is a big wrestling fan.
So there we were, standing quite near the stage, surrounded by Italian students from the Blair Pascal Lyceo (as it said on their backpacks). One of the girls had a copy of the play open, English on one page with the Italian facing it.
And it was great! It was one of those plays where the actors play several parts, so the Good Duke (straw hat, in the forest) also played his brother the Bad Duke (military jacket) - and Audrey, the love interest for Touchstone the Fool, in a ginger wig and frock! There was a moment when Audrey (who had a beard, as well) is seen in the background of the stage obviously in a bath - bare shoulders, bubbles rising - when Touchstone's head rises beside her, also bare shoulders, with a rubber duck.... And the scene where Touchstone does Very Rude Things to a camera tripod....
The romantic leads, Orlando and Rosalind, were very good indeed (and Rosalind has a lot of the best lines), and Jacques was female. We had a wonderful time!
And boy, did my legs ache the next day!

Things to do on Saturday

I see that Anvil Productions are coming back to the Castle with their production of the Tempest - first performed here during the Festival. I really enjoyed it when I went to see it with Islay.

And as Shakespeare isn't to everyone's taste, the '2 Stubborn Women', Jo and Annie, are holding an Arabian Nights evening at Jo's house, with Moroccan food from Mata Hari's kitchen (I never knew she was into food - I thought her talents lay in a more horizontal direction!). There'll also be belly dancing and an Arabian souq - and Arabian cocktails. This is to raise money for the Macmillan Nurses and the North Wier Trust - further details available from the Wholefood shop.

Tempest in the Castle Grounds

Not a real one, fortunately - the Shakespeare version, on a blisteringly hot afternoon, and with a small but appreciative audience. Anvil Productions were performing, on tour from Theatr Colwyn in North Wales. The website is www.anvilproductions.co.uk There was quite a bit of cross-dressing, and doubling up on parts, as you'd expect from a small touring company - but they were very good indeed, especially Prospero and Ariel. And with no electronic amplification. When Prospero did the "this rough magic do I now abjure" speech, I think you could have heard him in the Market Square!
I love seeing Shakespeare outdoors - the Dream at Regent's Park, Tempest at the Rollright Stones, Twelfth Night and As You Like it at Kinnersley Castle....(and for Twelfth Night the cast and audience stuck it out to the end in rain so hard that the makeup was washing off the actors' faces!)
I took Islay along - I thought it was time she got a little culture - and she behaved impeccably.
The Castle is a good location for outdoor theatre, and I hope they do more up there.

More Interesting Visitors

An American couple were in the shop the other day, and amongst their purchases were a couple of books on Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre. I always like to chat to customers as I'm serving them, so I said: "Have you been to the Globe?"
The woman looked at her husband with some amusement, and said: "He practically built it."
"Well, I didn't exactly knock every nail in...." he said. He went on to tell me that he had helped with the design, and that he had brought a group over from California for the trial season, before the theatre was properly open, and that they had put on the first full play on that stage! He also said that, if I Googled "shakespearestaging", I would find him.
So I did, after they'd gone - and found that he's the Director of the Shakespeare Program at the English Department of the University of California at Berkeley!!!