{"id":710,"date":"2022-12-03T22:40:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T22:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/?p=710"},"modified":"2022-12-18T09:17:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T09:17:19","slug":"my-green-shakespeares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/26\/my-green-shakespeares\/","title":{"rendered":"My Green Shakespeares"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maggie Rose<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The present article presents two Shakespeare rewrites, A Walk in Shakespeare’s Garden<\/font> (2016) and Ophelia Herb Woman<\/font> (2018). Generally performed in botanical gardens and other outdoor settings, the plays aim to reach out to a wide and mixed audience on topics such as sustainability and biodiversity. Interwoven with the author’s presentation is a series of interviews, offering the points of view of members of the different creative teams involved in the performances of these works.

Keywords:<\/strong> Shakespeare, environment,  sustainabilty, outdoor settings, popular audiences<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Milan\u2019s 2015 Expo, \u201cFeeding the Planet, Energy for Life,\u201d as an academic and a playwright, I started to consider in more depth than I had ever done previously the multiple environmental issues threatening our planet. In my specialist field of Shakespearean studies, moreover, my attention turned to the Bard\u2019s relationship with, and knowledge of, food and the natural world. With colleagues at Milan University, I curated a festival and international conference, explored in the essay \u201cExpoShakespeare. Food for the City\u201d (Cavecchi 2015) and in 2016 I co-edited, a collection of essays, ExpoShakespeare. Il sommo gourmet, il cibo e I cannabali <\/em>(Caponi 2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My academic researches on this aspect of Shakespeare\u2019s theatre continued with a further co-edited publication, Shakespeare, our Personal Trainer. Teaching Shakespeare in Secondary Schools <\/em>(Rose 2018), which includes a section on gardens and the environment in Shakespeare, with a focus on how we can present these aspects of Shakespeare\u2019s plays to adolescents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These academic endeavours, however, did not satisfy my growing conviction about the need to reach a wider audience on topics such as sustainability and the burgeoning climate emergency. Subsequently, I hit on the idea of writing some adaptations of Shakespeare\u2019s plays which would address such issues, hopefully impacting more powerfully on contemporary audiences of all social classes and educational backgrounds, many of whom never go to see full-scale Shakespeare productions at the theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the present essay, I will explore two of these Shakespeare rewrites, A Walk in Shakespeare\u2019s Garden <\/em>(2016)and Ophelia Herb Woman <\/em>(2018), which draw on Shakespeare plays, and incorporate in varying degrees Shakespeare scenes set in gardens, woods and forests, together with scenes of my invention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To support other outputs linked to these rewrites, such as documentaries, educational kits, and exhibitions, in 2019 the Green Shakespeare project came into being, thanks to the concerted efforts of scholars, theatre practitioners and filmmakers in Milan and Stratford-upon-Avon. In Milan the present writer, Donatella Massimilla and Gilberta Crispino, respectively, founder and member of CETEC (European Centre of Theatre and Prison), while in Stratford-upon-Avon, filmmakers James and Liz Willetts are part of the group. So far we have produced a documentary, Shakespeare,<\/em> Arlecchino and Green Passion<\/em> that was launched at Milan\u2019s Piccolo Theatre on 21 February 2022. The Documentary, written by Maggie Rose and directed by James Willetts, can be viewed on request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Walk in Shakespeare\u2019s Garden <\/em>(hereafter abbreviated as AWSG<\/em>) might be described as a promenade-musical play that invites spectators to immerse themselves in nature and activate their five senses. The Shakespeare portrayed in the play loved the natural world and set around twenty-eight scenes in gardens, orchards, woods and forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I consciously wished to underscore the eco-friendly perspective of Shakespeare\u2019s work, even if there still remains the tension between human love for nature, on the one hand, and a domineering attitude on the other, seen in characters like Prospero in The Tempest<\/em> and Iago <\/em>in Othello. Prospero does his best to control Caliban, the native of the island, and thereby the island\u2019s natural resources, while Iago\u2019s belligerence in his exchange with Rodriguez is discussed later in the present essay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As AWSG<\/em> unfolds, audience members are introduced to the gardens Shakespeare actually owned in Stratford-upon-Avon and watch six scenes, accompanied by music, from his work, where gardens, a wood and a wild landscape stand central. AWSG<\/em> is ideally performed in botanical gardens, gardens and parks, which enhance its themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My research began in 2015 at the two botanical gardens in Milan during the World Expo mentioned earlier. Thanks to an exchange with Martin Kater, a bioscientist and director of the gardens, and some of his researchers, I gradually realized the crucial role the natural world plays in our well-being and began exploring what it meant for Shakespeare. I became acquainted with the nutritional and medicinal properties of herbs and flowers, as well as their symbolism. (Rose \u201cGardens in Shakespeare\u2019s Day\u201d 8\u221222).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In AWSG <\/em>I set out tointerweave a narrative about Shakespeare\u2019s knowledge of, and connections with, the natural world, with scenes from six of his plays and music and songs by Renaissance composers and musicians, such as John Dowland and Robert Johnson. Two narrator figures acquaint audiences with the Bard\u2019s knowledge of gardens and the plants and herbs living there, but also with the nutritional and symbolic meanings of the plants and flowers in the gardens featured in his plays. The narrators, moreover, keep audience members focused by posing seven questions, interspersed throughout the text, centering on key concepts in the plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sequence of selected short scenes from Othello<\/em>, A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, Richard II<\/em>, Hamlet<\/em>, Romeo and Juliet<\/em>, and The Tempest<\/em> are all situated in outdoor settings. Othello <\/em>is set in Venice, a city, known for its stunning architecture, but it is likewise a place where nature creeps in everywhere. Iago informs the love-stricken Rodrigo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Virtue? a fig! \u2018tis in ourselves, that we are thus or thus; our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners; so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with many \u2026 why, the power and corrigible authority of this, lies in our wills.<\/p>\n1.3.319\u221226<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By creating and developing the metaphor, combining garden and body, Iago underscores how important gardens are for our wellbeing and how we need to take control of what we grow there. He considers himself to be all-powerful. According to him, a person\u2019s will, in this case Rodriguez\u2019s, should be used to change his feelings and actions. In other words, Rodriguez, who is madly in love, can learn to control his passions. Equally important, Iago encourages us to tend our bodies, by planting\/eating certain foods rather than others, and thereby, in the context of Elizabethan medicine, achieving a balance of the humours, and thereby a state of physical and psychological wellbeing –  \u201cwellbeing\u201d for Iago, implying an absolute control over our emotions. Ecocritics would probably view Iago\u2019s actions as tantamount to \u201cecophobia,\u201d the human need to dominate uncontrolled nature (Estok). Instead Iago\u2019s actions can be interpreted as geared to maintain the balance of humours, where extremes like those experienced by Rodriquez, are unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the writing process was complete \u2013 or as complete as any play is before it goes into rehearsals \u2013 I began my search for a director and a cast. Donatella Massimilla, founder and director of  CETEC, agreed to direct, and for the play\u2019s opening at Milan\u2019s Brera Botanical Garden, we brought together a group of talented professionals. The reception of audience members was positive, which persuaded Donatella and I that it was worth seeking other openings for the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our artistic journey continued thanks to Stefano L\u2019Occaso, the then director of the Museum Network in Lombardy (il polo museale della Regione Lombardia<\/em>), who offered financial backing and suggested two museum venues for further performances: the Grottoes of Catullus, an ancient archaeological site situated among the olive groves in Sirmione, a town on Lake Garda, and Palazzo Besta, a Renaissance palace and gardens in the mountains of Valtellina. In an interview, first published in an article, \u201cOn a Green Shakespeare in Italy\u201d (Rose 2016), L\u2019Occaso revealed his belief that live theatre can breathe new life into the seven museums and sites in the museum network:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Theatre activities can play an important role in museum life. In fact, museums may have a natural inclination towards theatre, for Renaissance palaces and other historic buildings often housed important theatres. This is true of the Roman or Renaissance or Baroque theatres that are so important in our Italian cultural heritage. But other settings also have natural links to the themes and iconographies of the theatre. As the Florentine critic D’Ancona remarked, theatre has always been linked to artistic production, and major painters, sculptors and architects \u2013 Giotto, Giulio Romano, Bernini, among others \u2013 included theatrical processes in their artworks.  <\/p>\n48<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

L\u2019Occaso is convinced that theatre can attract new audiences to the museums, \u201cThis might be because theatre creates an enveloping charm that binds the audience to the site \u2013 a new experience that brings new life to historical places and allows them to be experienced as vibrant and creative, rather than distant and frozen\u201d (48).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creative team in the case of AWSG<\/em> was crucial in bringing the play to life and turning it into a vehicle, which could heighten audience awareness of the environmental issues discussed. In the following interviews Donatella Massimilla, actor Stefano Guizzi, who joined the cast in the play\u2019s second production (performed mainly in English), and costume designer Susan Marshall discuss their contributions to AWSG<\/em> (Rose, 2016, \u201cOn a Green Shakespeare in Italy\u201d).  Donatella Massimilla pinpointed the crucial relationship between AWSG<\/em> in performance and the outdoor setting: \u201cOne of the main challenges of this production was to unite the short fragmented \u2018green\u2019 scenes, narrative and music with the walk around a real garden or park, which in turn joins the botanic sap, running through the Bard\u2019s veins, to the beauty of the actual places being explored\u201d (49). I asked her if she considered directing AWSG<\/em> in the natural setting of a garden to be an advantage or a disadvantage:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The experience actually took me back to my young days when I was involved in Jerzy Grotowski\u2019s Laboratorio Casa<\/span> (\u2018Home Lab\u2019) in the province of Amelia (Abruzzi region). The group lived and worked together and each morning one of our \u2018actions\u2019 was to go on \u2018The Walk.\u2019 This meant exploring the beautiful unspoiled countryside of Amelia, ambling in a long line behind our leader. In silence, we were told to listen to the sounds, breathe nature in and try to reactivate our senses. As I worked with the actors on AWSG<\/span> and invited them to smell, taste and touch the flowers and herbs at Milan\u2019s botanical garden, where we rehearsed, I remembered this experience long ago. Later during the performance, in their<\/span> turn the players invite audience members to touch and smell the flowers and herbs featured in the script. So an actor-audience relationship comes into being that is special and quite different from the kind we see in an indoor theatre. It would be good to experiment with this relationship in further workshops and settings in the future.<\/p>\n49<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But had we really<\/em> managed to involve a more mixed audience than those who normally go to see Shakespeare in Italy? Donatella replied:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

There\u2019s a lot of theatre going on in outdoor settings in Italy \u2013 the climate and the superb landscapes, parks and \u2018secret\u2019 gardens in our many regions help! This particular Shakespearean walk succeeds, I think, because we have found sensitive actors and singers, capable of interacting with very mixed audiences, young and old, from different backgrounds. This contact is, of course, more direct than the usual one created in a theatre with a proscenium arch stage. The mere fact of interacting and walking together is a very ancient way of experiencing the relationship between people and the environment. Mixed audiences are attracted and they connect.<\/p>\n49<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I talked to the late Stefano Guizzi about his role in AWSG<\/em>. This bilingual actor played one of the narrators as well as several Shakespearean parts: Bottom in A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, the gardener in Richard 11<\/em>, Stephano in The Tempest<\/em>. After studying in the States, he trained with director Giorgio Strehler at the drama academy of Milan\u2019s Piccolo Teatro. His long experience of using commedia dell\u2019arte techniques for his role as Brighella in Strehler\u2019s Harlequin,<\/em> Servant of Two Masters<\/em> allowed him, in AWSG<\/em>, to hold audiences spellbound. Stefano commented on the way the different outdoor venues had impacted on his performance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This experience has been delightful for me, overall, and particularly in regards to the wondrous locations, where we have performed. Whether at the ancient palace in Valtellina or the splendid gardens at Catullus\u2019 Grottoes on Lake Garda, the natural setting brings Shakespeare’s references to nature, herbs, plants, \u2018and their true qualities\u2019 to life in a way that a conventional theatrical space could not. Prospero\u2019s barren island, or the \u2018luscious woodbine,\u2019 where \u201csleeps Titania sometime of the night,\u201d are brought to life, without scenery, a stage set or artificial lighting. Instead, we have live birds as natural sound effects and manage to set up an immediate relationship with the audience, since they walk together with the actor-narrators as though we \u2013 actors and audience members \u2013 were all actually losing ourselves in Shakespeare\u2019s words. This is because the images the Bard conjures up in the mind\u2019s eye find an immediate correspondence with the natural setting all around u.<\/p>\n50<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
A Walk in Shakespeare’s Garden<\/em> (2017). Photo: Courtesy of Elena Savino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I asked Stefano to tell me how he felt the relationship between actor and audience actually worked in AWSG<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The play is a clever mix of Shakespeare’s words and a narrative, and this allows us (the actor-narrators) to reach out to the audience, using modern language (sometimes with bits of Italian, sometimes not, depending on the audience at that particular performance), and then projecting them, and ourselves, back into the Shakespearean scenes which are full of startling images and magnificent poetry. This greatly helps the audience\u2019s understanding, of course, but it also pulls spectators into the game. Right from the start, I noticed that spectators become involved and even give suggestions as to which direction our acting should take, as we understand from the outset whether our audience can understand the script (many of the spectators weren\u2019t English native speakers), or whether we need to help them understand better by using some modern English or Italian. This kind of adjustment, as I am going along, aims to allow spectators to enjoy the characters, their relationships, the situations they are living, and the words they speak.<\/p>\n50<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the outdoor venues, where AWSG<\/em> has been performed, the natural surroundings mean there is no need for an actual stage set, but the production does require costumes and stage properties. For me it was vital to engage a costume designer, who believes in sustainable production values. In Susan Marshall, a designer and a historian of costumes, I found that person. Susan\u2019s \u201cenvironmentally friendly\u201d costumes have worked splendidly in the different locations AWSG<\/em> has visited. Susan told me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

When I first read the script for AWSG<\/span> I was immediately struck by the numerous references Shakespeare makes to plants, flowers and herbs in his works and I wanted to reflect this in the costume designs. Over the last two years, I have worked on several productions with director Donatella Massimilla and CETEC, creating a \u2018dressing-up box\u2019 of costumes for the prison theatre company made from upcycled clothes and fabric remnants in shades of white and beige. These costumes are by no means replicas of Elizabethan or Jacobean dress but they have characteristics, recalling the period: a ruff made from folded newspaper or bubble-wrap, a lace cuff, a corset, a hat, a cape. The choice to continue with this theme for AWSG<\/span> was a natural progression both for ethical reasons and budget limitations but other practicalities also needed to be taken into account as the play is performed outside in close proximity to the audience with the actors having to do several extremely quick costume changes. The actors and musicians in this production wear a basic costume made from natural-coloured cotton or linen to which minimal but effective accessories are added as needed. I made several different hats and headdresses for the actors as these offer the possibility to change character instantly: Bottom from a Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/span> wears a hat with two long donkey ears poking through the crown, the gardeners from Richard II<\/span> have straw hats covered with weeds. Plants, flowers, herbs and twigs are used to decorate the costumes. The actor, playing Juliet, Titania and Ophelia, wears a simple cream dress embroidered with rosemary, pansies, fennel, rue and daisies. She adds different things to \u2018become\u2019 the different women: as Juliet she wears a simple band of ivy around her head, as Titania she is wrapped in a transparent kaftan printed with ferns and as Ophelia, in her madness, she is adorned with string and flower necklaces and a messy nest of string and ivy on her head. Alongside the nature theme for the production, I was also inspired by Shakespeare\u2019s words \u2013 literally! I copied speeches by Iago, Romeo and Ophelia onto lightweight translucent fabric which the actors then use in a variety of ways as costume or to underline particular moments in the play.<\/p>\n50-1<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Still the final word must go to Stefano Guizzi, who said something fundamental regarding the outdoor locations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Botanical gardens have a greater variety of plants and herbs than other gardens and are very useful in that they display some of the flowers and herbs that we actually name in AWSG<\/span>. However, in actual fact, any well-tended garden can work perfectly, and even in wild, untamed settings we can still bring forth Shakespeare\u2019s magic, nourishing our love and respect for the natural world.  In cities, it is like a breath of fresh air to give theatrical significance to gardens and parks. So, really, give us a patch of green and we’ll let the Bard bring it to life.<\/p>\n51<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
A Walk in Shakespeare’s Garden<\/em> (2017). Photo: Courtesy of Elena Savino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In April 2017 we were invited to perform by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was delightful to watch AWSG<\/em> unfolding in the Bard\u2019s Great Garden at New Place, Shakespeare\u2019s final home. As the cast, made up of Gilberta Crispino, Stefano Guizzi, Mace Perlaman, soprano Anna Jane Davies and lutenist Chris Susans, performed in that garden, something magical happened, further enhancing the bond between Shakespeare\u2019s plays and the natural setting. Fortunately, filmmaker James Willetts caught one of the performances on camera, fragments of which can be found in the above mentioned documentary, Shakespeare, Arlecchino and Green Passion<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Ophelia Herb Woman<\/em> was triggered by my interest in herbs and herbal medicine. I began researching those herb women or wise women, as they were called, who in the 16th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup> centuries gathered herbs and flowers in order to treat many common ailments. I also read some scholarly articles devoted to Hamlet<\/em> and, particularly, Ophelia\u2019s knowledge of herbs and flowers, which were likewise useful in the play\u2019s creation.[1]<\/sup><\/a> These helped me understand better the complex and sometimes divergent interpretations of the medical use and symbolism of herbs and flowers in the Renaissance period.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Elena Pellone as Ophelia. Photo: Courtesy of Liz and James Willetts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For this play, by contrast with AWSG<\/em>, I wished to create a captivating story, which would underscore the difficulties women encountered in what was a rigid patriarchal society. The real life story of Mary Frith, on whom Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton based their play The Roaring Girl<\/em>, sparked my imagination. Moll Cutpurse, as Mary Frith was popularly known, cross-dressed and smoked a pipe to be able to walk the streets of London on her own. She might even have played the part of Moll in one of the performances of The Roaring Girl<\/em> at the Fortune theatre.  Several of Shakespeare\u2019s female characters are brave and determined \u2013 Ophelia is a good example – but nonetheless they face what prove to be insurmountable obstacles. Like most women at the time, therefore, my protagonist struggles hard to fulfill her ambitions outside the domestic sphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After much indecision, I came up with the play\u2019s storyline.Joan Field is a herb woman by day, when she treats the women in her local community, while in the afternoon she disguises herself as John. Under this male identity, she can go up to London and act with Shakespeare\u2019s company, the King\u2019s Men at the Globe Theatre. As John, she can break the rules of the age that forbade women to go on stage. Joan\/John successfully plays a string of famous Shakespeare women, like Juliet, Viola and Catherine, but it is with Ophelia that she discovers something very deep that they share: like Joan, Ophelia possesses a knowledge of herbs and flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ophelia Herb Woman <\/em>(Italian translation: Ofelia, donna delle erbe<\/em>), likewise directed by Donatella Massimilla, features Gilberta Crispino, in the roles of Joan\/John Field and Ophelia, with musicians Gabriele Coltri, Paola d\u2019Alesssadro and Gianpietro Marazza. The play opened in 2018 at Milan\u2019s second botanical gardens in Citt\u00e0 Studi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n