The RSC are currently on tour with their shortened version of The Tempest, which is coming to Newcastle's Northern Stage (formerly The Playhouse) next week and I've bought a ticket for the Wednesday matinee, partly out of loyalty to the RSC visiting Newcastle, and partly in hope that this might be the Tempest I'll love. I've yet to see a version of this play which really thrilled me - which is strange, because I adore it on the page. I've seen wonderful performances - notably Simon Russell Beale as first Ariel to Alec Mc Cowan's Prospero in 1993 and then, more than twenty years later as Prospero, David Calder in 1998 and Philip Voss on tour in 2001. I've also seen an incredible ballet version, staged by Birmingham Royal Ballet as part of the Shakespeare Celebrations in 2016. (I missed out on both Patrick Stewart and Alex Kingston. Stewart's fame caused the production sell out in minutes when it came to Newcastle and Alex Kingston was post Covid anxiety and inability to travel.)
Benson, as far as I can tell, didn't ever play Prospero, Caliban being considered the better (shorter?) role. Sadly, there isn't an extant Tempest prompt book, just that interesting picture with the fish...
Prospero's famous quote about his library has been on my mind all week, partly because I've had occasion to go back through my MA files from ten years ago and I've been astounded at the volume of reading I must've done over the three years. I've unearthed several there's lever arch files stuffed with material, some of which, if has to be said, I no longer even understand! And I've also recognised that although I already have a lot of books about theatre - some of them popular, some academic - I'll never have all that I want or need...
There's been a bit of a buying frenzy this week - and a bit of a reading frenzy too - in an attempt to bring myself up to date a bit more with the world of theatre research. I'm hampered by the lack of a university library to access documents and journals and I'm also aware that I'm rapidly running out of shelf space - there's a lot of stuff piled up at the bottom of bookcases awaiting some rationalisation and there's at least four more books on their way here, ordered since yesterday! The rabbit holes of Victorian portable theatres and English Theatre in Wales are beckoning...
And in the midst of searching down another rabbit hole - Railway development and theatrical touring - I suddenly found myself reading my own words: Dr Hannah Manktellow's PhD thesis on Provincial Shakespeare cites ME in her chapter on Shakespeare touring, from my Theatre Notebook Essay!!!! To say I was flabbergasted would be an understatement. I'm listed in footnotes along with some of my research/theatre history heroes - something I wrote, sitting at this desk, never imagining for a minute I'd be considered to be knowledgeable enough to be considered as a citation!
It felt like a bit of a message, to be honest. I'm not usually one for horoscopes ("the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves...") but my horoscope last Sunday in that oh so erudite organ, The Sunday Post, suggested that this was the time to start doing 'that thing you know you are meant to do.'
There's just the small matter of tidying up and re-organising my dukedom first...