Amidst missile interceptions and drone strikes, theatre buffs and Shakespeare aficionados are turning to The Bard’s cutting words to convey and process their emotions during these unprecedented times, as part of a worldwide project to bring the prolific playwright to the small screen.
As part of the UK-founded Vertical Shakespeare project’s
‘Sorrow Speaks’ series, Manama Theatre Club (MTC) members have taken the lead
on reciting lines from Shakespeare’s body of work that speak to them in these
moments of crisis, and are inviting people from all walks of life to join the
cause.
“‘Sorrow Speaks’ came from a very direct and human place,”
Vertical Shakespeare founder and UK television producer Jonny Wright told
GulfWeekly.
The idea for the series took shape after MTC chairperson
Hannah Turner reached out to Jonny and suggested doing ‘something simple’
during this moment of crisis to offer people a creative outlet.
“I became interested in the Vertical Shakespeare project
some weeks ago before the current situation began,” she added.
“I thought a small project for MTC members might be a good
distraction from stress or anxiety.”
The Vertical Shakespeare project was started earlier this
year, a few weeks before the US-Israel war with Iran began, with a goal to
bring The Bard to the vertical shooting format without changing the words
themselves but rather offer a new frame to interpret them.
“Shakespeare is full of language that gives shape to grief
and endurance, so we started there,” Jonny said, on how the ‘Sorrow Speaks’
series came together.
“The idea quickly became to open it up so actors and anyone
who feels moved to can record a line that resonates with them.
“In doing so it builds a small world of support and
solidarity, people speaking words that have helped others through dark moments
for centuries.”
According to Jonny, most people today experience stories
through a phone held upright in their hand, however Shakespeare continues to be
mostly staged or filmed in ways that belong to another era.
“I became interested in what happens if you treat the
vertical frame seriously as a cinematic language rather than just a crop of
something horizontal,” he added.
“That is where the project began. It is about finding a
modern grammar for these plays and meeting audiences where they actually are.”
Jonny has more than a decade of experience across
documentary, reality and entertainment, having worked on series including The
Apprentice and Dubai Hustle, as well as having written and directed the
award-winning short film Ethel starring Miriam Margolyes and Professor Green.
How to participate:
Guidelines to stay true to the Vertical Shakespeare’s spirit
of making the phone the stage:
• Film
vertical with no sets or costumes.
• The
streets are the stage - use real locations wherever possible
• Use a
single light source (candle, lamp, window, streetlight etc)
• Speak one
line of Shakespeare
• Look
directly into the camera
• Leave a
moment of silence before and after.
• The words
are sacred - don’t modernise Shakespeare. Reframe the world around him.
Jonny and Hannah have picked a few Shakespearean lines that
feel powerful in these times.
• “Give
sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whispers the o’er-fraught heart and
bids it break.” (Macbeth)
• “When
sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” (Hamlet)
• “Men must
endure their going hence, even as their coming hither.” (King Lear)
• “The web
of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.” (All’s Well That Ends
Well)
• “My
tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will
break.” (The Taming of the Shrew)
You are welcome to choose one of these, or share another
that feels relevant to you in these times.
Once recorded, participants can post their video, tagging
@verticalshakespeare on Instagram, using the hashtag #givesorrowwords.
