Angus Jackson DPS.qxp_Layout 1 23/01/2017 17:00 Page 2
by Heather Kincaid
Photo: Catherine Ashmore
depth in schools, and it's common to treat the Roman era as a single, easily digestible unit, forgetting that it actually covers a period of about 1000 years. To put that in context, it's about as long as a unified English (let alone British) kingdom has existed today – so the Romans of Coriolanus would have had about as much in common with the Romans of Titus Andronicus as 21stcentury Brits have with the Anglo-Saxons. With the help of designer Robert Innes Hopkins, Jackson hopes to emphasise that rolling on of centuries between the plays. “We thought we'd start with a kind of modern version of Rome, the idea being to give them an environment that will look to our eye now as it would have looked to them at the time. So it's got all the pillars and the steps and the togas, but rather than having cumbersome, heritage clothing and weapons, we've got people tearing around in garments they can wear in a very practical way. Then in Antony and Cleopatra, that very modern-seeming world comes into collision with the beautiful, rich, ancient society of Egypt. “By the time we get to Titus, which is hundreds of years and hundreds of emperors later, it will all be in modern dress, with things like severed heads in Tesco carrier bags. That fits in beautifully with the overarching season, because it's like this empire has evolved and decayed and become more complex and cruel, and it's difficult to know who's really in charge. Then after we've laid waste to it
all we go back and do Coriolanus in really deep period, where they're slugging out in the mud with broadswords and it's all about how much muscle you've got.” Cutting edge music from the likes of Laura Mvula and Mira Calix will help to open up the characters' emotional and imaginative worlds to contemporary audiences. “If HBO and Netflix have taught us anything, it's that you can get people really interested in historical figures if you shine the light on the people and what they thought and felt. Having a moment of emotion supported by something you might hear at the Mercury Awards today immediately tells the audience that these are people that think like they do.” Following the phenomenal success of last year's Shakespeare 400 anniversary celebrations, the Roman season was conceived by RSC Artistic Director Greg Doran partly as a way of marking 2000 years since the death of Ovid. In a sense, Ovid's Metamorphoses were to Shakespeare as Shakespeare's stories are to us: in the same way as Boris Johnson can describe post-Brexit machinations using Julius Caesar, so the tortured Lavinia in Titus Andronicus turns to the story of Philomel to explain the horrors she endures. Though best known for directing new writing (including plays by Kwame KweiArmah), for Jackson, who grew up in Birmingham, working at the RSC is like a
sort of homecoming. “It's funny - I just saw Simon Russell Beale playing Prospero in The Tempest, and I can remember seeing him in Nick Hytner's production when I can't have been much older than 12. My parents always brought me when I was a kid, and as soon as I got my driving licence, I would just go off by myself and see any number of shows in Stratford, so I feel incredibly comfortable there.” “I think when you're putting on Shakespeare, if you're too reverent to do anything new with it, you end up with something that can come over a bit academic, which has its own validity, but I'm big on narrative and dramaturgy and making things fresh and interesting. As a new writing director, you treat the play like it's just been written, and I think that's the best way to approach any play Shakespeare, Marlowe, Beckett or Brecht.”
The RSC's Rome season at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-uponAvon, commences with Julius Caesar, which shows from 3 March to 9 September. The season then continues with Antony And Cleopatra, 11 March 7 September, and Titus Andronicus, 23 June – 2 September. Dates for Coriolanus are yet to be announced.
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