Breaking Onward
Boundaries/ Take Two
Prison Diary by Adrian Fear, HMP The Mount, 26th April 2001
Having had a bit of a break from the LSW
Prison Project, I was particularly looking forward to the session at The Mount. It was
nice to see a mixture of familiar and new (to me) faces amongst the LSW crew and this
pattern was echoed by the prisoners that we worked with. I was fairly ignorant about two
of the most interesting aspects of the day: I'd never met our guest for the day, Claude
Chagrin who from first impressions epitomised French exuberance and would go on to
demonstrate why Olivier had chosen her to head his movement team at the National Theatre.
Most British drama training still tends to centre on the vocal tradition and important as
that is I was looking forward to working with somebody who would expose us to the
continental expertise of movement. The second unknown to me was the central feature for
the work-out itself: the massacre of the Incas from the recently knighted Peter Shaffer's
1964 play "The Royal Hunt of the Sun." Indeed, my only recollection of this play
was the fact that I had unsuccessfully auditioned for a school play when I was much
younger: a dangerous precedent indeed. The rejection was particularly ironic as the
English teacher had told me that casting preference had been given to those who intended a
career in professional theatre! Where are they now? In a fit of pique I don't think I went
to see the production or if I did the trauma of rejection made me blank it out. Either way
I think the only thing I could remember was how to pronounce the Inca leaders, name
Atahuallpa (At-ar-wal-pa) although Claude was on hand to help any LSW-ers who weren't so
sure.
Blessed with an excellent space (The Mount's hall for religious services I believe) and a
small (17 in all) but very enthusiastic group of inmates we were soon down to business.
After several warm-ups we gathered in a circle and were given lines of Shakespeare: the
LSW-ers were then given a minute or so to work on the meaning and an appropriate
performance of each line. I reckoned I could pretty much nail the one I'd got and one of
the inmates line but the line my other inmate got had me grasping around for what it
meant. Eventually I blurted out some stuttering explanation of what the line meant that I
did'nt really believe to which to my relief the inmate replied "Oh, you mean it
means. . ." and went on to give a far more articulate précis of the lines meaning; I
confidently assured him "Yes, yes that's exactly it." As we went around the
circle reading our lines the other inmate I was with kept asking me which plays they were
from. My replies followed a familiar pattern something along the lines of "Oh that's
"Richard III";" then for the next one "Uhhm "King John", I
think;" and then "I have absolutely no idea" and if truth be told was
probably winging it on the first two as well. The inmate had read "Macbeth" and
latched on to anything from it or one redolent of it and which would probably have earned
a note of cf.Macbeth in an Arden edition.
Patrick Stewart as
King John before he was Crowned Anew in Star Trek
We moved on to a reading of that quintessential
piece of acting advice; Hamlet's instruction to the players read by Clare. This was
juxtaposed with the American choreographer Martha Graham's dictums. This juxtaposition of
old and new was echoed in our next exercise when instead of a line of Shakespeare we took
a modern sound-bite whose intention was to inspire. One of them, Nike's slogan to people
to "Just do it!" would have been good advice (although no doubt ignored) for the
Prince of Denmark. Indeed you can't help thinking that the Bard's ability to sum up
complex concepts in inspiring one liners would have made him a pretty penny in the modern
world of advertising copy-writing and never a man to turn down a commercial opportunity(if
Edward Bond's "Bingo" is anything to go by) he probably would have.
However, war was brewing and the scene was set with Bruce exchanging images of England and
France from "Henry V" for Spain and the Inca Nation. The two nations squared off
to each other behind Glen playing the Inca leader Atahuallpa and Alasdair playing the
Spanish priest Valverde. The scene was narrated by the lines of Old Martin and the chorus
of De Nizza sung by Sarah-Louise just going to show that her time spent on the Musical
Theatre course at Mountview was well spent even though her straight acting mettle will be
tested with the likes of Anthony Sher and original "Royal Hunt" veteran Sir
Derek Jacobi later this year. I was playing Pizarro the leader of the Spanish
conquistadors, friend and eventual nemesis of Atahuallpa. Valverde's failed attempt to
persuade Atahuallpa of the superiority of Spanish Catholicim reduces Valverde in to
calling on Pizarro to dispense a more bloody sermon. I'm not sure whether my battle cry of
"SAN JAGO Y CIERRA ESPANA!" inspired my massed ranks of conquistadors to go on a
bloody spree by I certainly managed to strain my inter-costal muscles with frightening
regularity every time I was called on to do so.
After we had performed the text up to the point of the massacre of the Incas itself the
roles of Atahuallpa and Valverde were taken on by two inmates, Benson and Colin
respectively. These two young actors had proved themselves previously and they slipped
easily into their roles in a piece that they had only recently been introduced to. Colin's
physical and vocal strength meant that any role of a heroic disposition is well within his
grasp and I couldn't help thinking that in future he would need to be stretched with work
which was as far removed from what he naturally inclines to in order for him to grow as an
actor. Benson's quiet dignity provided an excellent foil for Colin's vorciferous priest.
We then moved on to the massacre of the Incas itself. Claude instantly took control and
immediately won respect from both LSW-ers and inmates with her pro-active and humourous
approach to the work. It was easy to see why some of the old National hard-nuts like
Michael Gambon, Robert Stephens and Olivier himself would have listened to her. Indeed,
earlier on in the day some of the LSW-ers had speculated about Claude's age and it would
be fair to say that if Claude is any example to go by then the secret of youthful vitality
would seem to lie in a life at the cutting edge of theatre rather than resorting to
Catherine Zeta-Jones-esque eye lifts. Having Claude on hand meant that we were able to
reproduce the scene as it was originally done at the National and to be able to circumvent
the second-hand apocryphal stage directions that our script gave us. The beauty of this
scene was that it involved everybody in the room in the dramatic action with any
individual's input equal to everyone else's. The piece had a balletic quality as to the
beat of the drum the recently slayed Incas rose from the dead to protect their King only
to be slayed again until the scene came to its dreadful conclusion.
The Late Sir Robert Stephens as the original Atahuallpa
in Sir Peter Shaffer's The Royal Hunt of The Sun
At the National the scene ended with Atahuallpa captive, Pizarro wearing his crown
and a huge blood red sheet covering the eventually slain Incas. We did'nt have this prop
so instead the lines of one of Shakespeare's most bloody revenger's words, Titus
Andronicus were given to Pizarro as he smeared the Incas' blood and entrails (which to
them personified their souls) over Atahuallpa and his own conquistadors.
This was a fitting end to what had been an excellent afternoon for all involved. I
would like to thank Bruce for organising the day and providing excellent leadership
through it, to my fellow LSW-ers Alasdair, Glen, Celina, Clare, Sarah-Louise, Oliver and
Robyn whose enthusiasm was matched admirably by the inmates and to our guest Claude
Chagrin who I hope will be involved in future projects.
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ADRIAN FEAR 2001,
Antonio, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Millfield Theatre Company, Michael Eriera |