Shakespeare adjacent pairings
It’s the Bard, Bill, just not as you know him
Following Necessary Cat’s brilliant pairing of Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the Fringe of 2023, the Edinburgh-based company is back with Macbeth and David Greig’s Dunsinane.
For out latest little listicle, company director Angela Harkness Robertson has provided a set of pairings with Shakespeare plays, that are connected, “yet sufficiently different that an audience may be compelled to see both without thinking they have watched exactly the same story twice.”
Colin Povey and Wendy Brindle in Macbeth. Pic: Necessary Cat.
Macbeth with Dunsinane by David Greig
Necessary Cat’s double bill for 2024. Greig’s 2010 sequel to Macbeth picks up at the end of The Scottish Play, with Siward and the English army arriving to install Malcolm as King in Scotland. Highlighting the timeless futility of war, it scrutinises the narrow perceptions of people towards other cultures, and examines how a decent man is corrupted and worn down by fighting in a seemingly impenetrable, complex country.
That’s not to say that the play is all doom and gloom; it is as full of humour as it is of horror, turning from hilarious to heart-wrenching and back again in the blink of an eye. It works wonderfully as a double bill because it is a direct continuation, with many of the same characters telling more of their story.
Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
One of the most successful and well-known of the many works based on Hamlet is Stoppard’s absurdist comedy. The titular characters, playing a relatively minor role in Hamlet, take centre stage here, stumbling hilariously through the ultimate play within a play, increasingly out of their depth as they face their own existential crisis.
Scenes from Hamlet are cleverly woven into Stoppard’s ingenious script, making it the ideal companion piece to its inspiration. Indeed, last year, many of Necessary Cat’s audience remarked that it was useful to see Hamlet directly before Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; it certainly helps to have a working knowledge of the source material to enable clearer understanding of Stoppard’s piece. Additionally, the comedy is in wonderful contrast to the dark tragedy of Hamlet.
Shakespeare’s own sequels
Shakespeare, perhaps unconsciously at the time, wrote many of his own sequels – look at all the history plays! Not just the Henriad, but other pairings have often been put together as a double-bill, or even triples and more.
Necessary Cat considered Julius Caesar followed by Antony and Cleopatra for our 2024 slate, but came to the conclusion that it would prove a heavy evening for anyone watching the two in one night. The same would arguably be true for putting any of the two history plays together, and besides, that’s been done many times before. What a shame Love’s Labour’s Won, the sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost was… well, lost.
The Taming of the Shrew with The Woman’s Prize, or The Tamer Tamed by John Fletcher.
A contemporary of The Bard, Fletcher wrote his comedy in answer to Shakespeare’s Shrew. He continues Petruchio’s story to ensure he meets his comeuppance at the hand of his second wife, Maria, who is even more headstrong than Katherine was. She and her friends work together to get the better of their husbands, the plot becoming more and more far-fetched until they are all at last reconciled, and everyone lives vaguely happily ever after.
The Taming of the Shrew, despite its content, remains surprisingly popular, and has been adapted variously (Kiss Me Kate, 10 Things I Hate About You etc.), but little is heard about Fletcher’s answer. However, the RSC staged a brief revival in 2003. As a double bill, both plays were put before an appreciative Charles I in 1633.
The Tempest with Return to the Forbidden Planet by Bob Carlton
While there is a case to include Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story on this list, I’d like instead to offer this pairing, as I think it’s far more fun (and besides, R&J gets quite enough hype). It’s a delightfully camp sci-fi retelling of The Tempest, but in a completely different setting, with classic rock ‘n’ roll music, shiny costumes, and a roller-skating robot. What’s not to love?
Written specifically for actor-musicians, Return to the Forbidden Planet won the Olivier for New Musical in 1989 and 1990, and continues to enjoy sell-out performances around the world.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Midsummer Mechanicals by Kerry Frampton and Ben Hales
The newest play on this list is Midsummer Mechanicals – a sequel to A Midsummer Night’s Dream specifically written for audiences of children aged 5-12 and young families. Opening at The Globe in 2022, it received rave reviews, though most commented that it was a little lengthy, particularly for the littl’uns.
The story picks up a year after the source material, seeing the characters making another attempt at staging a play – this time one based on Bottom’s memories of the previous summer. As it’s aimed primarily at children, there’s a fair bit of audience participation, and viewers are encouraged to provide the sound effects for the second half. Anything that encourages young people to enjoy Shakespeare has to be a good thing in our book – and the younger the better!
Troilus and Cressida with The Testament of Cresseid by Robert Henryson
OK this one’s a bit left field. The Testament of Cresseid is a poem by a late 15th Century Scots poet, and certainly not a play. I think a dramatisation of it would make a fantastic sequel and companion, and I’ve long contemplated adapting it myself. The source story would have been extremely well-known; Chaucer had written his own version over a century before, and it is believed that this was the inspiration for Henryson’s poem.
Henryson seems to have been somewhat perplexed that Cresseid was not adequately punished for her infidelity, so goes a little overboard in his imagined repercussions. It’s all a bit hellfire and damnation, but would make for a most excellent sequel to Shakespeare’s play. I’d better start writing …
Listing
Macbeth Necessary Cat Limited)
Hill Street Theatre, 19 Hill St, EH2 3JP (Venue 41)
Fri 2 – Thurs 15 Aug 2024
Daily: 6pm (1 hr 30 mins).
Tickets and details: Book here.
Dunsinane (Necessary Cat Limited)
Hill Street Theatre, 19 Hill St, EH2 3JP (Venue 41)
Fri 2 – Thurs 15 Aug 2024
Daily: 8pm (2 hrs 45 mins).
Tickets and details: Book here.
And as an added bonus, here’s a random selection of other Shakespeare, or Shakespeare adjacent, productions at the Fringe this year.
Sam Blythe: Method in my Madness (Sam Blythe)
Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU (Venue 139)
Thurs 1 – Sun 25 Aug 2024
Daily (not 14): 12.55pm. (1 hr)
Tickets and details: Book here.
Macbeth: Sleep No More (Shadow Road Productions)
theSpace on the Mile, 80 High Street, EH1 1TH (Venue 39)
Fri 2 – Sat 10 Aug 2024
Daily: 10.35am (1 hr 20 mins)
Tickets and details: Book here.
Whirligig of Time (Tortive Theatre)
TheSpace @ Niddry St, EH1 1TH (venue 9)
Fri 2 – Sun 17 Aug 2024
Daily (not 11): 3.05pm (1 hr).
Tickets and details: Book here.
Polishing Shakespeare (Twilight Theatre Company)
Assembly Rooms, 54 George Street, EH2 2LR (Venue 20)
Thurs 1 – Sun 25 Aug 2024
Daily (not 7, 19): 3.30pm (1 hr).
Tickets and details: Book here.
Henry V (Ghost Light Players)
TheSpace @ Niddry St, EH1 1TH (venue 9)
Mon 12 – Sat 16 Aug 2024
Daily: 3.50pm (1 hr 10 mins).
Tickets and details: Book here.
Hamstrung (George Rennie)
Pleasance Courtyard, 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ (Venue 33)
Wed 31 July – Mon 26 Aug 2024
Daily (not 12): 11.30am (1hr)
Tickets and details: Book here.
Panto Macbeth (Mermaids Performing Arts Fund)
Greenside @ Riddles Court, 322 Lawnmarket, EH1 2PG (Venue 16)
Mon 19 – Sat 24 Aug 2024
Daily: 1.50pm (50 mins)
Tickets and details: Book here.
At Home With Will Shakespeare (Pip Utton)
Pleasance Courtyard, 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ (Venue 33)
Tue 20 – Mon 26 Aug 2024
Daily: 1.10pm (1 hr).
Tickets and details: Book here.
After Shakespeare: Richard III (Slade Wolfe Enterprises Limited)
theSpaceTriplex, The Prince Philip Building, EH8 9DP (Venue 38)
Fri 2 – Sat 24 Aug 2024
Daily (not 11): 6.5pm (1hr)
Tickets and details: Book here.
Ends
