Val: We hadn’t been to the amphitheater at the Pumphouse before – and given the heck-awful weather around that week, I think we saw the venue and the performance at their best.  

 

Jay: Yes, it’s kind of a wee Auckland gem isn't it.  The audience is on open, stone seating and you’re looking down onto a semi-circular stage. You walk into the amphitheatre from the lake – which is beautiful and then it just sits out of sight behind the stage being all serene and lovely and generally ambient.  You can take a picnic to eat before before or even during the show. 

 

V: Or you can eat at the French Rendez-Vous Café at the front.  Or at the very least do NOT walk past the chocolate mousse in the drinks and snacks kiosk they set up in the theatre area. 

 

J: While we're handing out free advice – take insect spray and a cardy for later.  Also, they do provide cushions as you go in, but you can bring your own.  Or better yet – festival chairs! 

 

V: Is the theatre modelled on Minack Theatre in Cornwall?   I’ve never been, but it featured in one of the Josephine Tey mysteries  (must reads, by the way).  It has a wonderful history and looks very similar from the pics.

 

J: The setting gave it a real back-to-roots feel.  The set was not ostentatious so the focus is on the actors and the words.  They use whole amphitheatre right through the performance so you have characters coming down the steps between the rows from behind you, or the scene is split between the stage and the balcony that dominates the right side. Sometimes there’s an actor in a tree. Having the action move in all directions and around and through the audience really expanded the experience.  

Once again, listening to Shakespeare, I had that delightful realisation after about 10 minutes when I suddenly notice I'm getting the language. I think this happens to a lot of casual bard-watchers.

 

V: Now you know how much of a philistine I am, and I’m hardly The Bard’s No1 fan. But I have been to Shakespeare plays and there are some actors who seem to have this attitude that it’s enough to just get the words out like some sort of poetry recital, and they don’t do much acting at all.  Am I hideously wrong to think that’s only doing half a job?

 

J: I’m going nowhere near that can of worms as it can only lead to someone bringing up Kenneth Branagh. 

 

V: Well, I just wanted to say I didn't notice that happening here. There was actual acting going on. And lots of accents! Melissa Williams played Goneril with her native US accent and the bit parts that all get played by one actor are differentiated by various ‘international’ accents.

 J: Haha yeah I think some of the minor characters' accents revealed a mispent youth watching 'Allo, ‘Allo and Monty Python…  But gamefully attempted!  Can’t fault the effort!

 

V: The "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!" scene was interesting wasn't it, with the chorus dancing up a storm.

 

J: Yes, there was some interesting directorial creativity, although the text was not messed with.  And it all came together very well for the most part.  Of course the big controversy was the casting and gender-switching of Edmund. Apperently many pearls were clutched!

 

V: But I thought that was frikkin awesome!  And the way Goneril and Regan were played as the real powers in the kingdom – right up to and including spousal abuse of their ineffectual husbands.  So you had a character who was female AND illegitimate, making good against all the odds stacked against her.  The only thing I thought was going to cause a controversy, was that they stuck with the hand-off of the kingdoms to the son-in-laws, not the daughters.  Which kinda destroys the whole concept around Edmund getting her inheritance, and seemed like a massive plot hole.

 

J: But that was in keeping with honouring the text I guess.  And that wasn’t the thing that caused the outrage at all!  It turns out that in 2016, poor Craig had audience members berating him after the show for changing such a ‘clearly masculine’ role into a woman.

 

V: Women are still not allowed to play bastards, it seems!  And yet Amy Maclaine does a fantastic job as Lear’s Fool, and no one says a word.  In fact, apparently it’s reasonably common to have the Fool played a woman.  Do you think it’s because a female Fool is a sort of period Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

 

J: Because she's only really there to help the male protagonist learn his life lessons, and not a character allowed to pursue her own life goals?  Maybe!  But that takes nothing away from the job Amy did in the role

 

V: And Kate Young acted her socks off as Edmund.  Tons of expression and passion.  No poetry recital there!  I thoroughly enjoyed every moment she was on stage.  And she did the best death scene of the whole lot.  That’s hardly a spoiler, before you jump on me.  It’s King Lear! - just about everyone dies!

 Z I N G  !

Great venue, great casting choices, great use of the space

Shoreside Theatre group. Director - Craig Julich Serventy. Lear - Rex Steele. Cordelia - Alex Sutherland. Sound & Lighting - Julia Rutherford.