It is St
George’s Day and it is also the 450th birthday of Germany ’s
National Poet. Before you think I am confused, Shakespeare for a time in the
early 19th century was venerated by German writers such as Goethe as
having qualities that they believed that Germans should aspire to. Of course although
Shakespeare is English Midland born he has been adopted by many different
cultures and is flexible enough to be turned into “West Side Story”, a Japanese
film epic of Kurosawa such as “Ran” or modified and set as a recent “Julius
Caesar” production in contemporary war torn East Africa .
And he may have had North Staffordshire roots as
Doug Pickford, a former editor of the Post and Times claimed he had ancestors
who moved from Trent Vale to Warwickshire during the 15th century.
Perhaps he was a Stokie after all! As a form of proof I came across the word
“sneap” in “Henry IV Part 2”.
I began to appreciate Shakespeare
from an early age. I was first exposed to him through a BBC production of the
“Age of Kings” and the very funny portrayal of Falstaff by Robert Hardy in 1962.
I was given the” Complete Works” for my 10th birthday and earlier
this year when my daughter a volume when she reached that milestone. I hope she
treasures it. It could be for her the beginning of a life long passion. Over
the years I have seen many memorable productions, Robert Stephen in “King
Lear”, Emma Thompson in “Midsummer Night Dream, Simon Russell Beale in “Richard
II” as well as some of the infrequently performed plays such as “Pericles” or
“Henry VIII”. I firmly oppose the argument that the plays have no relevance to
the modern day a view expressed by a Stoke Councillor at a meeting I attended a
few years ago. He cited “Romeo and Juliet” as having no significance, a poor
choice, as it is a play that features arranged marriages, gang warfare and the
relationship between the old and the young. What a fool!
It’s impossible to say when the
people of the Moorlands first saw Shakespeare’s play. My guess is that during
the 18th century with improved roads touring companies would have
visited. There is a playbill I have seen
of a production of “Othello” at the Red Lion in Leek in the 1840s as well as a
1877 “King Lear” at the Swan where one of the actors was accidentally stabbed.
The Mechanic Institute in Russell
Street would have had lectures and talks on the
plays a tradition that carried on into the next century with courses put on by
the Workers Educational Association. Shakespeare before the First World War
would have been well embedded into the culture of Leek.
The “Complete Works” I bought for
Phoebe contained an essay by the great Victorian actor Henry Irving rubbishing
the theory that the provincial, low born Shakespeare could not have written the plays, but they were
created by the well- placed Oxford educated Francis Bacon 1st Baron
St Albans. I have always thought that this belief is founded on pure snobbery. Three great cultural figures living in the 17th
Century Shakespeare, Newton and Bach all came from provincial towns- a fact
that we who live and work in a provincial town should hold on to this April 23rd.
