New production of Shakespeare's Othello at the Globe Theatre

Shakespeare: Othello; Mark Rylance, Andre Holland, Jessica Warbeck, Sheila Atim, Stephan Donnelly, Aaron Pierre, dir: Claire van Kampen; Shakespeare's Globe
Reviewed by Jill Barlow on 1 August 2018 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
"Rylance used to run the Globe and he still owns the SPACE
(Sarah Crompton-'What's On Stage ?' Aug 1st 2018 )

Shakespeare: Othello - Mark Rylance
(Photo: Simon Annand)

Our guest reviewer, Jill Barlow, sees the new production of Shakespeare's Othello at Shakespeare's Globe, directed by Claire van Kampen (who also wrote the music), designed by Jonathan Fensom. Mark Rylance stars as the treacherous Iago, with Andre Holland as Othello and Jessica Warbeck as Desdemona.

I first had the privilege to meet Rylance (Globe’s Artistic Director) face to face in August 2000 when interviewing his wife Claire van Kampen, Director of Theatre Music, behind the scenes at the Globe myself as Theatre music critic. When I asked him what was the role of music in the plays his considered reply was :- ‘The music is replacing lights and sets’.

This classical austerity of approach lasted through to circa 2012 with his much acclaimed Twelfth Night and Richard III, but with his subsequent sideways move into the illustrious tv drama ‘Wolf Hall’etc.

In his absence, things became more relaxed in Globe productions, I understand. However with Othello this season he has happily returned to ‘treading the boards' with his talented wife, Claire van Kampen as Globe director (and composer) and so have I returned as well to help celebrate the occasion and what seems a return to former classical austerity of approach on stage here.

However as Claire explains in the programme notes:-‘normally as composer I’d be making all sorts of suggestions to the director (now herself !) devising all sorts of interesting music cues, but with this production we’re barely having music other than that which Shakespeare has called for in the play; when Cassio gets drunk, the ‘Willow song’. We don’t have inter scenic music because the scenes are going to move extremely quickly –‘Righto say I, so over to husband Mark Rylance and his antics non-stop as Iago, much more fun'.

They say ‘everyone loves a villain’, but didn’t Shakespeare write overtones of treachery and skulduggery in Iago, not Chaplinesque jumping about clad in red beret and ill-fitting cloth trousers too short, which is what we got? The audience gleefully lapped it all up, with roars of laughter as Rylance threw asides galore to the groundlings at his elbow on all sides of the stage where indeed he ‘owns the space’.

Lively reminder: music from the Globe's productions of Twelfth Night & Richard III

Music for Twelfth Night & Richard III arr. Claire van Kampen; Musicians of Shakespeare's Globe; Globe Music
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 10 2017
Star rating: 3.0
Lively Renaissance music selections which do not quite evoke theatrical drama of the pieces

This disc on the still relatively new Globe Music label was issued to celebrate Shakespeare 400 (I'm a bit late with the review I'm afraid). It features the Musicians of Shakespeare's Globe in two of Claire van Kampen's scores for Shakespeare plays, Twelfth Night and Richard III. The music is selected from a wide variety of contemporary sources, and arranged by Claire van Kampen. Twelfth Night was recorded live at the Globe Theatre, whilst Richard III  was recorded in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse under studio conditions.

The music for both plays consists mainly of lively scene-setting pieces with occasional quieter moments. In Twelfth Night we get the two songs sung affectingly by Peter Hamilton Dyer's Feste and we hear part of Liam Brennan's 'If music be the food of love' speech as Count Orsino which introduces Dowland's Lachrymae Pavan. For Twelfth Night, Van Kampen's selection of music ranges widely and there are pieces by Dowland, Morley Michael Praetorius, James Lauder, Playford, and Anthony Holborne. The sense of the live-ness is mainly restricted to applause after some items, though we do hear the audience laughing at the odd bit of unexplained stage business.

Schlagsahne and High Art - The Viennese Salon with Felicity Lott, Michael Collins & City of London Sinfonia

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt, 1907

The Viennese Salon R.Strauss, Schoenberg, Bach, Berg, Schubert, Lehar, Oscar Strauss; Dame Felicity Lott, Michael Collins, City of London Sinfonia; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Jan 24 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Highbrow and middlebrow mix, recreating the Viennese salon by candlelight

At first glance the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is not an obvious venue for a concert celebrating Viennese culture. But in fact the candle-lit intimacy of the space worked extremely well for this re-imagining of the city’s 19th and 20th salons, presented by the City of London Sinfonia directed by clarinettist Michael Collins with soprano Dame Felicity Lott on Sunday 24 January 2016. As well as the frothy fare we automatically think of, these salons also hosted the serious: Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances was established in 1918 to give small-scale performances of challenging large-scale pieces. So we heard music by composers ranging from Bach and Schubert through Richard Strauss, Berg & Schoenberg to Lehar and Oscar Straus. And of course this mix of highbrow and middlebrow suits the ethos of the Globe perfectly too.

Vividly engaging solo cantatas from Anna Prohaska and Arcangelo

Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo
at an earlier concert at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Photo credit Andrea Liu

Lachrimae - John Dowland, Tarquinio Merula, Henry Purcell, Francesco Cavalli, Giovanni Felice Sances, Barbara Strozzi, Salamone Rossi, Domenico Scarllatti; Anna Prohaska, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Aug 02 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Intense and vivid performances of Italian and English solo cantatas

Though the interior of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre is remarkably acoustically flexible, allowing a remarkable range of events to be programmed, hearing 17th century music in a reconstructed 17th century theatre is highly evocative. It allows us to hear music performed in the sort of intimacy that the original would have received. The programme Lachrimae presented by soprano Anna Prohaska, with Arcangelo and director Jonathan Cohen, gave us a series of scenas in which the protagonist communicated directly with the audience, supported by just a few singers. An intense and highly vivid programme, which required much from the performers, Anna Prohaska and Arcangelo gave us a dazzling sequence of music by English and Italian 17th century composers John Dowland, Tarquinio Merula, Henry Purcell, Francesco Cavalli, Barbara Strozzi, Salamone Rossi, and Domenico Scarlatti.

Anna Prohaska
photo credit Monika Rittershaus

We started with an instrumental piece, Lachrimae Pavane by John Dowland (1563-1626) the melody from which crops up in the song Flow my tears which was in the second half of the programme. Played just by theorbo (Thomas Dunford) and harp (Angelique Maullon), the two instruments created a very intimate sound yet one with a rich, plucked texture so that the piece was highly evocative. Talking to Jonathan Cohen afterwards he explained that the programme is being performed on a European tour visiting a wide variety of venues, so that playing styles have to be adjusted accordingly. For the sympathetic but relatively dry acoustic of the playhouse chords have to be spread somewhat to elongate them as the sound dies away quickly.

Looking rather dramatic all in black (the lady sitting next to me thought she looked like a mermaid), Anna Prohaska then sang Hor ch'e tempo di dormir  (Now it is the time to sleep) by Tarquinio Merula (1594-1665). A lullaby for the Christ child, it started with just voice and theorbo playing a two note bass lane, the austerity of the music being offset by the haunting plangency of Anna Prohaska's singing. Other instruments joined, harp and finally viola da gamba (Nicholas Milne) as the texture developed supporting the increasingly powerful performance by Anna Prohaska with her intense concentration on the words.

The Tempest restored - Matthew Locke's music and more

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Globe Theatre

A Restoration Tempest; devised and directed by Elizabeth Kenny, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Watson, Scott, Boden, Logan, Tyrrell, Cookson, Sinclair-Knopp, staged by Caroline Williams
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 25 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Imaginative theatrical reconstruction of the 1674 semi-opera version of The Tempest

In 1674, Actor-manager Thomas Betterton wanted to put on a big show at his theatre, the Duke of York's Theatre in Dorset Gardens, to steal the thunder of his rivals at the King's Theatre. His plan to do an English version of one of Lully and Moliere's comedie-ballets, Psyche, which he had seen in Paris, were delayed (it finally came to fruition in 1675), and so Betterton decided to revive William Davenant and John Dryden's version of the Shakespeare's The Tempest. This had been premiered in 1667, with music by John Banister and Pelham Humfrey. To this mix, Betterton added his creative team from Psyche, thus creating the first in that typically English mongrel genre, the semi-opera. Matthew Locke (who was composing music for Psyche) wrote suites of instrumental pieces, act tunes and the curtain tune which depicts the storm at sea. GB Draghi wrote dances, Thomas Shadwell wrote words for the Masque of Neptune and Psyche for Act V. This and the Act II Mask of the Devils were set by Pelham Humfrey, whilst Shadwell's music teacher Pietro Raggio wrote a new song.

Add to this that the version of play completely re-writes Shakespeare adding new characters including a sister for Miranda, and you have the potential for a complete dogs dinner. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment admirably proved otherwise at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre on 25 January 2015, when musicians from the orchestra led by Alison Bury were joined by singers Katherine Watson (soprano), Frazer B Scott (bass), Samuel Boden (tenor), Harry Cookson and Andrew Sinclair-Knopp (trebles), and actors Molly Logan and Dickon Tyrrell. Lutenist Elizabeth Kenny devised and directed, whilst Caroline Williams did the adaptation of the text and was stage director. Rather than being offered a concert performance of the music, taken out of context, we were treated to a potted version of the play with all the music in its correct context.

Bringing the Jacobean bang up to date

Photo credit Nick Gutteridge

Jazz by Oak and Candlelight; Jacqui Dankworth, Brodsky Quartet; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on Oct 19 2014
Star rating: 4.0
A treat of jazz, blues, folk, and pop in a Jacobean theatre

'Jazz by oak and candlelight', an evening of music performed by the Brodsky Quartet and Jacqui Dankworth in the beautiful setting of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, was a treat of jazz, blues, folk, and pop – all rescored for this versatile ensemble.

A Jacobean theatre is not the most obvious of places in which to stage a jazz evening but the Sam Wannamaker Playhouse is an intimate and atmospheric venue, lit by candles and subtle lighting with a glorious black and gold back to the stage. The quartet entered the stage through a central door as though entering a private room while Jacqui Dankworth arrived from the back of the pit, climbing onto the stage via some stairs on its front edge.

Jacqui Dankworth
photo credit: John Kentish

Although it only opened in January this year the playhouse has been long envisioned. The shell was built at the same time as the main theatre but, due to lack of funds, the interior had to wait. It is based on plans found in the 1960's at Worcester College, Oxford which originally were thought to have been drawn by the 17th century London architect Inigo Jones, but were later attributed to John Webb (Jones' sometime assistant). These plans were realised by Jon Greenfield into an award winning, authentic structure. Its first production was John Webster's 1612–13 tragedy 'The Duchess of Malfi' on the 15th January (see Robert's review of the play on this blog).

The Brodsky Quartet (Daniel Rowland, Ian Belton, Paul Cassidy, and Jacqueline Thomas) and Jacqui Dankworth have been working together for more than 15 years. Their first collaboration was as part of an education project for CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) working with teenagers. Two of the songs arising from this appeared on tonight's programme: 'Abyss' by Kate Curtiss and 'Happy Hat' by Victoria Parfitt.

For Jacqui this concert was also a family affair. Her parents Sir John Dankworth and the singer Dame Cleo Laine had been very involved in touring America to raise funds for the Globe project and some of the arrangements for the music performed tonight were written by her father, her brother Alec Dankworth, and her husband Charlie Wood. This included Alec Dankworth's arrangement of the Federico García Lorca poem 'Narciso', Jacqui's own 'Time takes it time' and 'Please Answer', and the instrumental 'Patience' by Charlie Wood, inspired by a poem Jacqui heard on the World Service when she could not sleep.

Brodsky Quartet
Photo credit: Eric Richmond

Jacqui's voice has great flexibility. From the spare and haunting folk of the opening number 'She moves through the Fair' (arranged by Paul Cassidy) to the final trip-hop 'Play Dead' (by Björk, Jah Wobble, and David Arnold arranged by the quartet) she approached each song afresh. Big band show tunes took over for 'Speak low', (Kurt Weill arranged John Dankworth) and the Frank Sinatra/ Hollywood String Quartet 'Close to You' (also arranged by the Quartet). But it was the blues number 'Sittin' On Top Of The World' by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon where her voice really shone out, making the most of her range and vocal possibilities.

The different styles of arrangements kept the quartet on their toes - but this was nothing that they could not handle: performing with their customary skill and sensitivity. The vocal cello duet 'Like someone in Love' by Jimmy van Heusen and Johnny Burke (arranged by Jacqueline Thomas) was a lovely encore.

Finally,a set of Shakespearean poems - 'Shall I compare thee', 'Go lovely Rose', and 'The Triple Fool' (set by Harvey Brough - otherwise known as Harvey from Harvey and the Wallbangers) were included as a nod to the Globe.

Along with the plays and education events, the Globe have planned a series of candlelit musical evenings running through the winter of which this 'Jazz by oak and candlelight' was one of many. The next concert will be 'Judith Weir: Master of the Queen's Music' on the 27th October which includes 'King Harald's Saga', 'Blue-Green Hill', and 'Psalm 148', along with music by Sir Henry Walford Davies, Sir Arthur Bliss, Edward Elgar, Malcolm Williamson, Arnold Bax, and Peter Maxwell Davies.

A quick note for those who might be worried – the playhouse is all seating, even in the pit – and unlike the Globe it is closed to the weather.