Five on Friday

It's Friday so I'm joining in with  Amy at Love Made my Home for this week's Five on Friday.  Click on the link at the bottom of this post to find others who are joining in too.

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon, photographed the last time we visited in May 2011

Tomorrow is the 400th Anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and there are lots of events happening all over the country to celebrate the life of one of our greatest writers and playwrights.  I've been a lover of all things Shakespearean since my early teens when I used to stay up quite late to watch, on black and white television, the BBC's adaptation of  the Royal Shakespeare Company's Wars of the Roses plays and being totally absorbed and enthralled by them.   I think it would have been about 1965 and I know my Dad hated it all but couldn't stop me watching as it was in his eyes educational. Unlike The Avengers and Ready, Steady Go which he also hated with a passion. 

Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon  photographed in May 2011

  My first ever visit to Stratford came a couple of years later when I went with a friend to see Coriolanus with Ian Richardson in the title role.  I've made numerous visits since and seen lots of Shakespeare's plays both at Stratford and in other theatres too.

I'm not a huge hoarder or collector but I do save all my theatre programmes and all the tickets too if I can.  Above are just my collection of programmes from the Shakespeare plays I have seen over the last fifty years, other programmes, probably twice as many again, stayed in the box.

I was amused to find the tickets above in the bottom of the box and I don't know now what plays I saw with them but they cost £3.30 in the stalls on one night and £1.70 on the balcony on the second night.  Obviously they were bought after 'D' day - decimal day which happened on 15th February 1971 - when we changed from pounds, shillings and pence to pounds and pence.  I was thinking that it didn't seem a lot of money but when I think I was earning only about £20 a week in the early seventies it is quite a chunk of that I suppose and with an overnight stay and coach fare to get there too.

Anyway, to get back to the theme of Five on Friday I have whittled down all the Shakespeare plays I have seen to just five of the most memorable ones, although I have cheated slightly as one programme covers three plays which we saw in one day - quite a marathon event.

Here are my most memorable five in no particular order

1.  Henry V with the late Alan Howard in the title role and it was an unforgettable performance that we still remember when we reminisce about plays we have seen.  Performed in Stratford in 1977 the cast also included Alfred Lynch as Chorus, Charles Dance as Lord Scroope and Barbara Kellerman as Princess Katherine. I went with a friend and we stayed overnight at a hotel on Bridge Street which is now a Marks and Spencer store I can't remember what it was called.  I remember we also visited the city of Bath as part of this short break.

2.  The Comedy of Errors - seen in 1976 we loved it so much we went back to see it again, it was funny and joyous and full of music and I remember that the cast came out into the audience at the end whilst singing the final song.  I've been looking at the cast list in the programme which included Judy Dench and her husband Michael Williams, Francesca Annis, Richard Griffiths, Roger Rees and Robin Ellis.  Three of those actors no longer with us.
 

3. The Plantagenets - seen at Stratford in 1988 we watched all three plays in one day, morning, afternoon and evening with lunch and tea breaks in between.  It was hard work for the actors in all three plays and a tiring but thrilling thing to do for us as we worked our way through the reigns of Henry VI,  Edward IV and Richard III.  It was a brilliant, young cast, some very well known now, including Ralph Fiennes as Henry VI and Penny Downie as Margaret of Anjou.  David Morrisey played the Duke of Clarence and Anton Lesser the Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III.

4.  A Midsummer Night's Dream - seen in 1992 at the Stamford Shakespeare Theatre at Tolethorpe Hall near Stamford in Lincolnshire.  It was an open air production and we went to see it on Midsummer's Eve with some friends.  The weather was dry and warm, the picnic we took with us was delicious and the amateur cast were brilliant.  It was made magical by the special animated wings worn by Oberon, Titania and the other fairies which flickered like glow worms in the fading light.  A truly unforgettable night.

5. Hamlet - seen in 1971 at Nottingham Playhouse. Ian McKellan played the title roll and it was a wonderful production.  I was living and working in Nottingham at that time and went with a group of work colleagues and yes, that is a programme signed by the great man himself.  Other cast members included the late Susan Fleetwood, who was a wonderful actress and sister of Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac fame, who played Ophelia and Tim Piggott-Smith.

I hope you have enjoyed my little wander down memory lane.

All for now.  Have a lovely weekend. 

Edit Saturday 23rd at 8.38a.m.  -  I've just visited A Shropshire Patch blog where Mrs Tiggywinkle has written a wonderful post about her love of all things Shakespearean and also included details of plays she has seen over the years.  All of them different to the ones I have included here.  Do pop over and take a look link above on the name of her blog.