CULTURE WARS http://www.culturewars.org.uk
Interview with Oliver Gray, Illyria, by Munira Mirza (1999)
This year the Edinburgh Fringe Festival embraced Shakespeare with the enthusiasm of a bunch of young schoolteachers, eager to show kids that he can be as sexy as any young writer today. Instead of just carting out tired old Lears, Hamlets and Macbeths, up and coming theatre companies have been showing an interest in the more sensational or marginalised plays like Titus Andronicus or Cymbeline. Attractive as this trend might seem, it exposes a growing distaste for playing Shakespeare "straight".
For this reason, it is some surprise that the theatre company Illyria was able to cause a sensation this year with its production of the unfashionably familiar Twelfth Night. Illyria's Twelfth Night is acted by only five performers in a virtually non-existent set. The story about a shipwrecked pair of twins balances the romantic trials of love with the deliciously sardonic aspects of human nature. Rather than digging for sinister hidden meanings, or relying upon the beleaguered feministic "play" on cross dressing and gender roles, Illyria engages cheerfully with the text as a form of entertainment.
Set up in 1992, By ALRA trained actor Oliver Gray, Illyria is an open air touring Shakespeare company which has been described by one critic as the natural heir to the wandering players of the Elizabethan age. The brilliantly timed theatricality of Illyria has been likened to pantomime, something of which Gray is enormously proud: "Some people's reactions have been, 'Well, they've not brought out the darkness in it'(his eyes rolling). But I do not think that there is anything in the text that supports the argument that Twelfth Night is a dark play." Gray defends his direction's emphasis on entertainment: "Okay, yes, only the shallow and romantic part of the storyline is resolved and the rest isn't. Yes, there is a guilty kick at the end of the play for our laughter at Malvolio's humiliating deception. But of course you only get that emotional kick if you actually did laugh! I think some productions play the tricks on Malvolio too seriously and miss the dramatic effect.
"Once I got hold of an old BBC script for Fawlty Towers. When I read them, to my horror, I did not laugh once. What John Cleese and Connie Booth managed to do was to write about people's feelings - which were frustration, fear, rage, humiliation, lovelessness etc. These are dark things - but acted out they are funny and we're meant to laugh. That is where I think many productions of Twelfth Night go wrong. They get the emotions right but they misunderstand the fundamental effect."
Similarly, Gray is annoyed by Hollywood's underestimation of Shakespearean comedy to make modern audiences laugh. In particular, he criticises Michael Keaton's performance of the foolish policeman, Dogberry, in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing (1993). Gray Says: "Dogberry's character is funny because he has ideas above his station and abilities - not because he talks in a funny voice which no-one can understand."
I suggested to Gray that many directors felt the need to make Shakespeare accessible in their work. He replied: "It's very easy for directors to think 'Oh yes, we've got to make it relevant, and something people will understand. Therefore, I've got this great idea to set Macbeth in Nazi Germany.' But too many contemporary interpretations involve political and religious contexts which are very different from those with which Shakespeare was engaging. The universalism of the characters does not change, but Nazi Germany is not feudalist Scotland. Indeed, the chivalry, which is expressed beautifully in the language, is more important than the military aspect of the play and I don't think that can be reflected by setting it in Nazi Germany. Shakespeare is so pan-dimensional that you cannot just latch onto one little thing like Nazi uniforms looking dramatic on stage.
"Shakespeare does not concentrate on what makes us different, but he seems to have an understanding of what makes us the same. Of course he recognises the difference between the gentry and the impoverished, men and women, but in every play there seems to be a great leveller. For example, in King Lear, the king looks at his own naked body and realises it is no different from the beggar's. In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock says "If you prick us do we not bleed,/ If you tickle us do we not laugh?" These are such basic human qualities which refer to our similarities by virtue of our being the same animals, and this is what Shakespeare used as the backbone for his characters."
When Gray set up Illyria in 1992, he decided his first production would be A Midsummer Night's Dream, but due to a small budget, he had to rethink the number of actors he could take on tour. Going through the play, he managed to calculate that only five performers were necessary, as long as they were quick at changing costumes. Upon his larger rivals, such as the RSC, Gray expresses a tone of disillusionment: "I go and see large-scale productions of Shakespeare and think 'Why do you need £400,000 worth of scenery? Why do you need 40 people to perform a play with a cast of seventeen?' Another problem I have with modern directors is that they think, because a play has been performed for hundreds of years, they must do it differently. Human beings are unique - the fact that a director is even doing the play, honestly, for him- or herself, will make it different enough."
Two years ago, when Gray directed The Tempest, he decided the portray the aged wizard Prospero in a wheelchair, representing the frustration of being trapped upon his island and by his own age. At a time when arts councils unapologetically fund art projects which present 'positive' images of disabled people, how did Gray feel about using such a strikingly contemporary image to serve the storyline of an Elizabethan play? Gray responded: "Not for funding! Illyria has never applied for nor received any public funding and has no plans to do so. Prospero embodies fatherliness to us, both the strengths and vulnerabilities of such a position. I did not understand my late father (a wheelchair-user himself) until I did that play. Rather than being patronising about disability being easy, or even positive, I used this visual metaphor to express bondage and frustration within the character - whilst drawing attention to the fact that Prospero manages to wield absolute mental power over his island."
Theatricality and provoking the audience's emotional response to the language is of pivotal importance for Gray's appreciation of Shakespeare. Whilst admitting that the language is difficult, Gray argues that a Shakespearean plot should be easily understood through good direction and acting. Illyria's plays are performed at a rate of knots yet remain uncut. This is due to Gray's innovative study of the recitation of Elizabethan verse. Rather than being irregular, actors are taught to speak in five beats with two accents. Not only does this give the verse a lovely lull, but the dialogue is punchier, more easily understood and distinguishes between verse and prose - something which no other company is claiming to attempt so far. Gray's ambitions for the stage show a determined faith in art to appeal to and animate our consciousnesses. "Theatre is more than just entertainment. It is hyper-entertainment. Maybe I am expecting too much, but I can get my dross from television. Really, every piece of theatre ought to be a life-changing experience."
Munira Mirza
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