To Live,
To Love, To Be
Company 5
Sherman
Cymru, Theatre 2
17th
April 2013
Being in the audience of To
Live, To Love, To Be was like being a witness to some occult religious ceremony;
the atmosphere was heavy with expectation and a sinister sense of danger never
left the room. Sitting on the balcony looking down at the huge revolving table
as incense filled the room was the beginning of our initiation to the mystical
world of Shakespeare’s mind.
Around the table various figures from Shakespeare’s past and
fantastical imagination debate the source of the Bard’s genius. His school
teacher believes that education is the key, a travelling player says that they
inspired Shakespeare as a young man, Ariel from The Tempest argues that he has the heart of a fairy and Macbeth
claims that the famous poet adapted stories from history to suit his own means.
For a community group to be able to perform a specially
commissioned script, with such high production values is incredible. Every
element of the design was better than some professional companies. The lighting
design by Ceri James was breathtaking; it had the power the change the space
from the dark passages of Macbeth’s castle to the sunny Stratford of
Shakespeare’s youth, whilst always maintaining a sense of the supernatural.
An investigation into Shakespeare’s past and motivation is
always going to be very intellectual and the wordplay was at times beautiful
but the atmosphere was so engulfing and mysterious that some of the very down
to earth humour was lost among the incense and grandeur. This lack of humour
made the production, although visually impressive, very dry and academic at
points.
Considering that this is such a challenging text and the
company run an open door policy, whereby anyone can get involved with no
auditions, the standard of acting was very, very high. Some of the younger
members are also involved with the Sherman’s Youth Theatre and they are
undoubtedly getting an excellent introduction to the world of theatre. Certain
performances showed real professional potential – Eifion Ap Cadno
(Shakespeare), Andreas Constantinou (Macbeth) and Giorgia Marchetta (Lady
Macbeth) to name a few. Among all this
talent the stand out performance of the event came from the highly talented
Nerys Jones as William Shakespeare’s Welsh grandmother who argues passionately
(and convincingly) that his talent comes from his Celtic blood.
A really interesting production that is an absolute master class
in building tension and atmosphere. It will be fascinating to see where the
company goes from here, they have set themselves a very high standard to
maintain.
