humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

(quote, excerpts)

Date: 6th February 2008

Announcing further details to the outline of his third season as
artistic director of the Globe (See News, 27 Nov 2007), Dominic
Dromgoole said at a press briefing today that David Calder would play
the title role in his production of King Lear, opening 2 May 2008
(previews from 23 April, Shakespeare's Birthday).

Calder has played both Shylock and Prospero for the RSC and is well
known for his television role as Dr Robert Bramwell in the series
Bramwell. The production will employ Renaissance staging and costumes
designed by Jonathan Fensom, with a score by Claire van Kampen, who
both worked with Dromgoole on last year's Love's Labour's Lost.

In addition to the already announced revivals of A Midsummer Night's
Dream (opening 21 May, with previews from 10 May), directed by
Jonathan Munby, The Merry Wives of Windsor (18 June, previews from 8
June), directed by Christopher Luscombe, and Timon of Athens (6
August, previews from 26 July), directed by Lucy Bailey, Dromgoole
announced that Footsbarn Theatre would present the world premiere of A
Shakespeare Party for three days from 23 May.

Footsbarn, described by Dromgoole as "the parents of Complicite and
the grandparents of Kneehigh," have not been seen in London for
fifteen years and Dromgoole treasured a memory of a five-hour Hamlet
they produced with a gravediggers' scene that lasted for half that
running time.

The Globe is also touring last year's Romeo and Juliet between May and
August, with a European tour to follow and possible visits to New
Zealand and the United States; and John Dove's new production of The
Winter's Tale between June and September.


Before the announcement, Dominic Dromgoole led journalists on a guided
tour of the reconfigured exhibition area below the theatre, reminding
us that it had been initially designed in the full expectation that
the theatre itself, which does not receive public subsidy, would be an
economic disaster.

"The miracle of this place," said Dromgoole, "is that it hasn't worked
out like that. The theatre is the economic engine, and we are now
entering a new phase where we can celebrate the Globe being here; it's
one of the most exciting theatres for actors to play in, they love it,
and the audience does, too."

Dromgoole explained that the neutrality of the colour in the
auditorium - which has seats for 900 and standing room for 600 -- was
not "very Elizabethan" and he is hoping to change that soon, starting
with the four "gentlemen's boxes" on either side of the stage which
are about to be redecorated.

Other changes include a new restaurant team with a bar which is now,
says Dromgoole, "a great place to make merry in," and a Shakespearean
library donated by the American John Wolfson. Funds are still pending
to complete work on the small interior theatre on the site, currently
known as the Inigo Jones, but more likely to be re-named the Burbage
after the recent scholarship.

- by Michael Coveney

http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8821202312850&title=Dromgoole+Names+Calder+for+Globe's+King+Lear