T his promenade production, with a talented cohort from Dulwich and James Allen’s Girls’ School, showcased the terrific commitment, collaboration and skill-sharing that had taken place in the rehearsal room. It was thrilling to watch them own the material and absorb the rich heritage of the Elizabethan and Jacobean world of playmaking on Bankside, breathing life into the charac- ters and realising they’re not so different from the actors, writers, chancers and creative entrepreneurs of today. The writer, Ollie Norton-Smith OA, explained: ‘as the play builds towards its climax with the team hurrying to ensure everything was ready to print, I wanted to create a sense comparable to the final stretch of rehearsals before opening night. That sense of urgency and excitement with a whiff of panic as all-nighters are pulled, favours are called-in and some crunch decisions are made that have echoed through history.’ In the spirit of risk-taking and working to a deadline, the performance was staged on the very day that 400 years previously – on 8 November 1623 – the inky pages, both brilliant and imperfect, went to press in Jaggard’s print shop, The Half Eagle and Key. Hats off to the young company who, in this remarkable spirit, took over every corner of the theatre to create the different scenes and put the show together in just three days with flair, theatrical invention and daring! FINDING THE FOLIO Finding the Folio was a newly commissioned play allied to the joint Art, Drama, English and Archive project inspired by documents ‘exploding’ from the 1619 Treasury Chest, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
THE ALLEYNIAN 712
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