'Winner' as Marie would say....

Well we had some success at the recent MEN Theatre awards. There was a nice article in the MEN on Weds (you can read it here) with some great shots of some familiar Octagon faces including Mr Mark Babych and his lovely lady wife. You can see a few pictures from the event here.

And to the winners.

Best Actor

The magnificent David Fielder for The Merchant of Venice (Octagon)/ Waiting for Godot (Library) - they don't say which production specifically

Best Actor in a supporting role

The very lovely Paul Simpson (for the Octagon's production of Road / Spring and Port Wine)

Best Design

The extravaganza that was the Octagon's production of Oh What a Lovely War. Thanks you to the whole production team but particular credit to the designer Mr Richard Foxton.

You can read what the judges have to say in more detail here but a very well done to one and all.

The Merchant - audiences reactions

As you may have read we have got some fine press reviews for Merchant of Venice. But audiences also really enjoyed it. I saw the show last Wednesday evening and there were a fair few young people in the audience who really seemed to be loving the show and gave the cast a great cheer at the end. If you were in the audience that night, thanks guys!

Image: Tom Scutt

We have also had a lot of comments from press and audiences alike about Portia's dress (see above). Perhaps we should put it on ebay? If we do I promise to let you know....


A few of our audience members have also written to us to tell us how much they enjoyed themselves. Here's some of the feedback we have received:



From: STEPHANIE OGDEN

Sent: 10 October 2008 05:55

Subject: MERCHANT OF VENICE

Just to congratulate all on the FAB production of the Merchant of Venice ...

Saw a production by the RSC in Stratford earlier this year, absolutely no comparison...cost and cast of thousands (!) yet the Octagon topped it in every aspect...

Many thanks

From: Philip Lombard
Sent: 07 October 2008 10:59
Subject: Merchant of Venice Production

Please pass on my thanks to all involved in the production of Merchant of Venice. I attended on Saturday afternoon with my 10 year old granddaughter and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I have seen the play on six previous occasions and can honestly say this was by far the best interpretation.

Verse speaking and clarity were excellent. What could have proved difficult for my granddaughter (even though I had told her the story etc) provoked a very thoughtful discussion on the way home.

Thanks again

Philip Lombard (and Eleanor)
PS Eleanor would like the theatre to do "Macbeth" in the near future

High praise indeed. Thanks so much....

The Merchant of Venice - more reviews

Here's another couple of pieces on Merchant of Venice. An interview with the marvellous David Fielder. Not only a great Shylock but also a very lovely man. Click to enlarge the image....

And here's another review.....

The Merchant of Venice - the film (not the one starring Al Pacino!)

The lovely Donna has been in again to capture some of the wonder that it the Merchant of Venice. If the magnificent reviews haven't been enough to tempt you, perhaps take a look at this and see what you think?

The Merchant of Venice - MEN review

Apologies I have to post this separately but it is some weird glitch in the blog software that if you post more than one image you can't enlarge them! So here is the MEN review. Click on it to enlarge!

The Merchant of Venice - the press hath spake!

The Merchant of Venice (David Fielder as Shylock and Catherine Kinsella as Jessica). Image: Ian Tilton

The Merchant of Venice opened on Friday night. If this first production of the season sets the tone for Autumn Winter 2008 then I am really excited about seeing the rest. I had high hopes for the look of this show as having heard the designer, Tom Scutt, talk about it in design meets I thought it could be something really special. And it is. The metallic, largely monochromatic, design is stunning. The set looks amazing and really quite beautiful, even with the muted colour palette and a back drop reminiscent of a tired, redundant office block. A visual comment, no doubt, on the current state of what's going on in the city and on the stock market. You can see more of the set here

Set design: Tom Scutt

There are some mesmerising performances. Despite being the villain (or that's how I remember the character when I studied the text back in my college days) David Fielder (Shylock) set my bottom lip trembling in the final stages as he is well and truly broken. Portia (Emily Pithon) is also fantastic, charismatic and has beautiful comic timing. Her on stage partnership with Jenny Platt (Nerissa) works well. And despite the difficult themes and the hard edge to Merchant there are also some laughs provided mainly by Paul Simpson's Launcelot Gobbo and Dan Poyser as the Prince of Morocco. Great stuff!

Anyway, enough of what I think. Here's what the press are saying:

'Theatrical perfection' WHAT'S ON STAGE. Read the rest of the review here

'a very accessible production of this controversial play with some very strong performances' BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE. Read more here

'A terrific start to the Octagon’s new season.' THE STAGE. Read more here

'It is a triumph of Mark Babych’s directing skills to have so upturned comedy into near tragedy, and a credit to the actors that, even in its toughest moments, the play never loses its sparkle.' THE BOLTON NEWS. Read more here

'This first-rate production is a great start to the Octagon's new season and judging by the response at the end the audience agreed.' MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS. Read more here

'...as a relevant, thrilling, and deeply moving impression of the play it would be difficult to beat this particular Merchant.' LANCASHIRE EVENING POST. Read more here

'a rewarding experience' REVIEWS GATE. Read more here

'This is an excellent introduction to Shakespeare for anyone who hasn’t seen one of his plays; for those who know The Merchant well, it bears comparison with the very best of productions.' UK THEATRE NET. Read more here

The Merchant of Venice - production images

So The Merchant of Venice opened last night and the feedback so far seems to be very positive. I sneaked into the dress yesterday to get a glimpse of how it is shaping up and it looks great. Tom Scutt's design works really well in portraying this rather murky, tarnished world.

It wasn't too murky though allowing super snapper Ian Tilton to capture some great moments from the play:

Friday Fun, Freebies and Five Reasons to see the Merchant of Venice...

As they say in Sesame Street, today's post is brought to you by the letter 'F' (Friday Fun Freebies Five (Reasons to see The Merchant of Venice))!

Okay, there is no real excuse for the video below apart from it's Friday and I love all things muppet. Plus, there is a tenuous link as this little piece is called the Monsters of Venice (see what they did there?). Although, it does little to unravel the plot of Shakespeare's original, Grover-Shylock's 'If you tickle us...' speech amused me muchly!



Anyway, that was the fun bit and here's the freebie bit....over at What's On Stage there is a competition to win free tickets to the Octagon's upcoming production of the Merchant of Venice. Unfortunately, Grover will not be performing in our production but I am sure the great cast we have will more than make up for it! You can see a full cast list here.

Click here for more competition details. You'll have to make it snappy though. The competition closes on Tuesday 16 September......good luck!

And not only that, there will also be another special offer on Saturday in The Bolton News. I am not going to ruin the fun and give away the details, so you just might have to buy a copy!

UPDATE: There's also a nice piece on What's On Stage where our very own Mr Babych lists five reasons why you shouldn't miss The Merchant of Venice. If anyone wants to post their own 'five reasons to see' why not leave yours in the comments section......

To blog or not to blog.....

Image taken from: http://www.mostphotos.com/

I'd like to think if Shakespeare was still alive then he would definitely have been a blogger. I have been having been surfing the net...ahem ...I mean doing some research on Shakespeare, as The Merchant of Venice kicks off the season soon, and it seems that there are fair few blogs dedicated to the Bard. I thought for those of you with an interest in all things Shakespeare, these might be worth a read...

The Bard Blog

Here's how this Bardolator (!) describes the site:

I love Shakespeare, I want to share that love, and I got bored. That’s how this website was born. I don’t consider myself an expert, I don’t have a PhD in Shakespeare. I read about and watch Shakespeare, I act Shakespeare, and might start eating Shakespeare.

I really like his Word of the Day where he explains Shakespearean language. Nice...

Shakespeare Geek

The Shakespeare Geek talks about inspiring a love of Shakespeare in his kids (even if it means changing the ending so Romeo and Juliet live), re-telling and adaptations of Shakespeare’s tales (Gnomeo and Juliet anyone?), his love of Diet Pepsi and pro-wrestling.

Bard's Eye View

Here's the skinny:

A Shakespearean glance at the people and issues of the day. Bardseye is intended for all who are interested, but I feel a specific desire to make it accessible to students and to those adult readers - including non-native English speakers - who may have missed their first opportunity to connect themselves to Shakespeare.

If you are such a reader, you may now find a daily dose of plot explanation, excerpted poetry, historical background and thoughtful meditation on Shakespeare's meaning a pleasant and gentle way to cozy up to the Bard.

Shakespeare Cartoons at Savage Chickens who has obviously had similar thoughts to me about the Bard's blogging potential.

Over at Savage Chickens, Doug draws amusing chicken-focused cartoons on post-it notes. He has done a Shakespeare series which made me giggle. Click on the image above for more....

There's also some useful and interesting stuff over at Shakespeare Teacher. He has some nice daily features including Shakespeare anagram on a Saturday. There is also The Shakespeare Blog that provides educational resources and some interesting discussions like who would be the modern day Shakespeare. There's some good stuff on The Merchant of Venice too. And last but not least there are blogs by both the British Shakespeare Company and the RSC.

I am a little disappointed that I haven't found a blogger that writes about modern day issues in a Shakespearean style, rather like someone did for Samuel Pepys. If anyone out there knows of such a site, leave me a link in the comments section....

I Design for Life!

Apologies for the rather bad corruption of the Manic Street Preachers lyrics for the title. Forgive me, it's Friday!

This post is about a brand new designer, Tom Scutt (he designs for his livelihood - does the post title make sense now!?) Not only is he brand spanking new, he is also award-winning! Tom was not only a prize winner at the 2007 Linbury Biennial for his work at Headlong Theatre, he also picked up the Jocelyn Herbert award. So pretty talented, I'd say! And nice. So nice that he has agreed to answer a few questions and has also sent some of his sketches for the costume for Merchant of Venice. A sneak preview if you will.



Which project, that you have undertaken, are you most proud of?


I guess ‘proud’ is the wrong word, but every project gives a sense of fulfilment in at least one area – hopefully! I’ve just finished Metropolis with 60 children for Theatre Royal Bath which was an immense physical challenge, but then a tiny show for two in a London pub theatre offers up great mental challenges which are equally fulfilling when solved.


I think the achievement I’m most proud of is not actually a realised show: Winning one of four awards for the Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design last year, and its sister award The Jocelyn Herbert Prize, was extraordinary. It’s a beacon I’ve always looked toward with excitement and fear! Winning it has opened up so many doors and changed so much for me that I don’t really know what I’d be doing right now without it!


If you could produce designs for any production, what would that production be?
The eternal question! Luckily – it’s rare that a designer gets to choose what’s put on stage so the weight of that question is placed squarely on the shoulders of the producer and director! If I had to choose, I guess I’d have to say ‘Macbeth’. Greg Doran’s RSC production in 1999 with Anthony Sher and Harriet Walter was truly inspiring and the reason why I decided to go into Theatre Design. That, and in 1998 at the Worcester Swan a certain Mark Babych directed a very gawky 14 year old Tom Scutt as Fleance in the same play. I’ve come back to haunt him like Banquo’s ghost! It’s a play that’s been with me all my life and for that more than anything I’d love to create the world for it.


Can you describe a bit about the process you went through to design the set and costumes for The Merchant of Venice?
Mark and myself both came with our own initial concerns. His was how we move fluidly from Venice to Belmont, mine was about the colour and the texture of these worlds. We discovered a surface that allows for the both the watery, harsh, steely world of Venice and the vain, opulent, glowing palace of Belmont. This discovery started to dictate the rest of the process. Sliding doors allowed the set to be permeated or sealed off completely in what started to look increasingly like one of Portia’s caskets – a set than can at once appear alluring and deadly. We also found that it began to resemble what has become known as ‘the corporate bombsite’. A kind of decimated skyscraper that has sinister overtones of Ground Zero - a warning in itself of what might happen if money is allowed to come higher than God.


And so the process went on, one problem answering the next, moving progressively forward towards a complete world – one in which all faiths find themselves up against the biggest religion of all: money. It’s the one thing all characters have in common and both Mark and I felt that the idea of wearing one’s wealth on one’s sleeve was exactly right for the costuming of a masculine Venice driven by highly-pressured money-makers and a feminine Belmont inhabited in particular by one super-rich, appearance obsessed Portia. Some design decisions like this were made after weeks of wrangling, others, such as “what if the Prince of Arragon were an ageing Flamenco dancer??” were just great one liners over a cup of coffee!

What were the biggest challenges of designing for Merchant and what was most enjoyable about working on this production?
I think the biggest challenge and the most enjoyable element are one and the same for me. The issue of race within the play is such a difficult one. It is essential when approaching the design – the direction, and the performance for that matter – that one treads very carefully. Coming from a generation that is, one the whole, much more tolerant of race, sexuality and class, it can often be hard to enter into the mind of an individual who has the ability to spit at a stranger in the street, simply because they are a Jew. Both myself, Mark and David Fielder (Shylock) were keen to raise questions, not answer them, but also to treat Shylock first and foremost as a man. Not a religion. We were keen that he look very much like everybody else in the play.


I was also particularly interested in how, when backed into a corner, religion can all too often be used as a sword to defend oneself from harm rather than an arm to reach out – as ongoing world events never fail to demonstrate. If the first part of the play is about the people that are Shylock and Antonio, the court scene distils them simply to the religious symbols they stand for. This issue is not one to be taken lightly, nor one to be solved here with this production but it has given us all big challenges and immense pleasure in discovering more and more about as we continue through the process.

The Merchant of Venice - cast announcement

Mark has pulled together a great cast for The Merchant of Venice. Not only are they great in talent but also fairly great in number - there's eleven of them. Not as many as The Crucible though who struggled to all fit on the stage when they took the curtain call (not that we have a curtain but you know what I mean!).

Not only are there faces from the recent past (a fair few you might recognise from our Anniversary Season) but also some that are new to the Octagon stage. Wyllie Longmore (Meet the Mukherjees / I Just Stopped By To See the Man) returns in the role of Antonio. David Fielder joins us as Shylock - can't wait to see these two trading verbal blows on stage! We welcome Emily Pithon as Portia and say hello once again to Paul Barnhill who plays Bassanio (Anna Karenina).

Other faces making a welcome return are Paul Simpson (And Did Those Feet / Road / Spring and Port Wine), Simeon Truby (Oh What a Lovely War / A Christmas Carol), Catherine Kinsella (The Crucible) and Dan Poyser (Blue Orange). Jenny Platt, Neil Madden and David Hobbs complete the cast.