With Shakespeare never too far away from the stage, Daily Info sat down with the podcaster James Sheldrake to discuss the upcoming live shows of his podcast, Sheldrake on Shakespeare, as well as the impact the Bard's work has had on him.
Daily Info: What's Sheldrake on Shakespeare all about?
James Sheldrake: Sheldrake on Shakespeare the podcast is a series of fifteen-minute episodes in which I say something interesting about each of Shakespeare’s plays - a metaphorical and literary pilgrimage that I hope to complete this year! People have been kind enough to say it doesn’t assume any knowledge, but it doesn’t condescend either: ‘so clear, concise and not in the least bit scary or highbrow. I’m not a huge scholar or academic, but am completely able to follow this, and Sheldrake’s personal style compels me to find out more!’ It lives at www.sheldrakeonshakespeare.com and is on iTunes and Amazon. I don’t attempt to summarise everything important – I take one idea and run with that and try to give you a few more handholds next time you’re grappling with Shakespeare: what should you look out for next time you see that play? What bit of context makes this play open up like a flower? Why should you see that lesser-known play at all?
DI: What can audiences expect from the live show?
JS: Some of the podcast episodes probably sound a bit dry to transfer easily to the stage - I promise the live show is much more playful! I’ve spent eight years being a very safe pair of hands in the classroom and I am more than ready to get back to a bit of showbusiness, a bit of razzmatazz. I can’t claim it’s truly stand-up, but I hope people who’ve taken a bit of a punt by coming at all leave feeling like they’ve watched a comedy gig and an interesting documentary at the same time. I’ll perform some of Shakespeare’s greatest hits, there’ll be some genuine academic criticism and I’ll consider what he might mean or ought to mean to us today, but it will all be in a light-hearted and playful style. Hence the tag-line: what Keith Floyd was to food, this show is to Shakespeare. Maybe Keith Floyd is a bit old-fashioned as a reference point, but I think he struck the balance really well; he was a genuinely knowledgeable and talented chef but entertainment was always the priority. I’ve been watching some old episodes and his joie de vivre is palpable. I hope I can bring something like that to Shakespeare, who I think has become a bit too worthy in the popular imagination.
DI: What do you feel Shakespeare offers a modern audience? As someone who has spent nearly a decade in the classroom, how do you take the Bard out of it?
JS: I think Shakespeare’s importance at the moment is his playfulness. We live in a very unplayful age in many ways and Shakespeare’s dramas constantly remind us of the benefits of coming together to play, to participate in theatre. I won’t claim he’s the answer to all our political ills, but theatre and art breed empathy, compassion, emotional authenticity etc. and these are not just nice-to-haves - they are essential. One critic has said that Greek tragedies were city-states coming together to think in front of themselves. I think that applies to all theatre – it’s a safe space to work out, together, how we feel about complicated things that are not easily resolvable. That’s hugely valuable now.
Our great literature should be taught in classrooms and I’ve seen Shakespeare taught very well, but it rubs me up the wrong way to take something fundamentally playful and mercurial and work on it in an environment that necessarily tends towards order and assessment objectives. Besides which, one bad experience with Shakespeare at school can cause a lifetime of resistance. It’s good to be taking my own spin on Shakespeare back to his natural habitat: the stage.
DI: What productions and performances of Shakespeare have most inspired you?
JS: Roger Allam’s Falstaff at the Globe in both parts of Henry IV ten years or so ago was magic - such a big-hearted performance of that huge hill of flesh! Antony and Cleopatra at the RSC with Kathryn Hunter and Darrell D’Silva was one of the best nights of my life - performances to match those awesome characters. Mark Rylance’s performances are always astonishing – he makes tiny emotional details visible to 3000 people at a time as if they were all standing three feet away from him. And if I can include films, Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet and Henry V have been some of my happiest times in front of the telly. I could go on - especially all the tricks of the trade I learnt acting in productions at university and beyond. There is no better way to get to know these plays than to perform them.
DI: Can you sum the show up in three words?
JS: Playful. Warm. Witty.
Sheldrake on Shakespeare Live! is at the Old Fire Station on Thursday 8th June.