Tis not the season to be too jolly

THE announcement that the Royal Shakespeare Company will bring a schools’ version of Henry V to Newcastle Theatre Royal in June and, this month, starts the hunt for North-Easterners to fill small roles in a Northern Stage pro-am A Midsummer’s Dream in 2016 has to be balanced against the realisation that the multi-million-pound Tyneside seasons may have gone for good. Unless there is a rethink, the season might not be part of the RSC’s plans until 2017... if at all.

Since 1977, the jewel in the crown of the region’s arts’ year has been the visit of the best Shakespeare-speaking people on the planet to Newcastle, starring luminaries such as Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Patrick Stewart, creating a theatre experience that is the envy of the UK.

Having covered the seasons for 30 years, I can only express anxiety about replacing what was once an extravaganza of seven to nine plays taking in Newcastle’s Theatre Royal, Northern Stage and Live Theatre with an RSC decision to “strengthen our education presence” and next year's project that falls into the category of Strictly Come Shakespeare.

Seeing the seasons wither to two or three plays in recent years with the best productions from the RSC’s Stratford Theatre, such as the sell-out 2008 Hamlet starring David Tennant, destined for the West End instead of North-East, has been an anxious experience, particularly when the season was called off back in 2011 when the Stratford-based company began struggling with funding.

Once, the company’s education programme was in addition to rather than instead of the full-blown Shakespeare experience on our doorsteps. The question that haunts someone like me, who became enthralled with the bard thanks to Macbeth in O-level English Literature, is the troubling concept of creating a new generation of Shakespeare fans without offering them the glittering prize of watching the RSC’s best work.

It could be regarded as particularly ironic that the changing face of the RSC’s output is in the hands of Erica Whyman, who was once artistic director of Newcastle's Northern Stage and is now assistant to RSC boss Greg Doran. She says: “We have long had a special relationship with Newcastle audiences and we love being here. In 2016, as part of the national celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, we will open our national tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Northern Stage. Amateur actors from the North-East will play the rude mechanicals alongside a company of professional actors from the RSC, in collaboration with the Theatre Royal and Northern Stage. We will return in 2017 as part of our national touring programme.

“We have been coming to Newcastle for more than 30 years and are committed to continuing our relationship with the city. We are changing our approach a little as we and our audiences have changed, but we absolutely want to be part of the really rich offer already available in the city. We will tour here regularly, strengthen our education presence in the city, and are looking forward to finding new ways to collaborate with Theatre Royal, Northern Stage and Live Theatre, including co-commissioning work.

“This year, we are deepening our education relationships with schools and theatres in Newcastle by bringing our First Encounter production of The Famous Victories of Henry V for young audiences to the city, playing Newcastle Theatre Royal and local schools. Over the next three years we will also work with St Michael’s Primary School, and Archibald Primary School in Middlesbrough, each of whom work with seven other local schools and the Theatre Royal as part of our long-term partnership programme, the Learning and Performance Network.”

Meanwhile, back in Stratford later this year, the RSC has announced that the Royal Shakespeare Theatre will see Iqbal Khan direct Othello, with Hugh Quarshie in the title role and Lucian Msamati as Iago. Polly Findlay will direct The Merchant of Venice, which is, as yet, uncast. In the Swan Theatre, Trevor Nunn directs Henry Goodman in the title role of Ben Jonson's Volpone.

All of these plays are likely to transfer to London. None are currently destined for the North-East.

RSC artistic directors have always promised that the Newcastle Season would continue. It's beginning to have the ring of the Scottish play’s predication that “Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill, Shall come against him”... and all but future Shakespeare students know how that one ended.