While I was watching one of Sky Arts TV shows about Shakespeare, I was very much impressed by one of the contributors, a woman called Marjorie Garber. I liked the clear and friendly way she spoke. I looked for her on Twitter, thinking, it would be nice to follow her and pick up some bits and pieces of Shakespearian knowledge on the way. I didn’t find her on Twitter but, what I did find out was, she is a lecturer at Harvard University on Shakespeare and to my delight, she has up put an online course, free, on the latter plays of, William Shakespeare.

The first in the series is: Troilus and Cressida. So what we were instructed to do was, read the play from a good edition, such as Arden, Penguin or The Oxford, as long as it has notes and a commentary with it. Secondly, read the relevant chapter in her excellent book: Shakespeare After All. Then thirdly, listen to her online lecture. I purchased both books and settled down to study. We are supposed to do one play a week, that’s not going to happen with me, I’m already at the back of the class and I’m sure if I had enrolled properly I’d be way behind all the rest of the students, thankfully, I‘m only doing this for my own interest and not to gain a diploma. That would be very nice though.

This is a great play and I did read it fairly quickly, although one or two of the speeches were almost impenetrable, but I just pressed on and finished it. Then onto the chapter in the book. This book is a real find, she has written a whole chapter on every one of the plays and I think! it was the basis of her early lecturing career, before she actually wrote the book. After she published, Shakespeare After All, I think she changed her method of teaching. That is just a thumb nail sketch of her. You can find out more on her web site http://www.marjoriegarber.com Finally, on the road to Aberdeen in my truck, I listened to the lecture. Now, I am going to read it and listen to it all over again, I have to. One a week! Yeah right…

George.

Mon 6th of April

During the summer, I was in Edinburgh for a day out. I love walking round the old town, the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket. There are lots of old book shops and antique shops, with old jewellery, rings and watches etc for sale. At the bottom of the Grassmarket, there is a music shop called Red Dog Music. They sell guitars and keyboards. Next door, there was, a record store, sadly closed down since but, on this day, still open. After we had a look at the Fenders and Gibson guitars, I took my boys in to have a look at the LP’s. I have been telling them for years, how good they were in my day. How we used to carry them under our arms and bounce along the road with our long hair blowing behind us. How we would sit at home, reading the lyrics on our new gate fold sleeve album covers. I have never really considered the option of buying LP’s, I gave away my turntable years ago but, this particular day, I saw an old Elton John album, can’t even remember what one it was, it had  a lovely gatefold sleeve and that is what planted the seed in my head.

Later on in the summer, and a long awaited book from Amazon arrived at home. It had been on order for ages and was a fantastic, Victorian gothic, murder mystery. The Pierced Heart by Lynn Shepherd. It was a hard back copy, I don’t read many hard back books but I loved reading this one. I even took it to work with me, keeping it in a plastic bag to make sure it stayed in perfect condition. Left the dust cover safely at home, of course. After I finished The Pierced Heart, I really enjoyed it, Lynn Shepherd on top form. I took a trip to my local Waterstons in the Almondvale shopping centre, Livingston. I had a good look through the new releases, mostly hard back editions and decided to buy Leaving Berlin by Joseph Kanon. It was okay I suppose, three stars. I know that a book I had only rated three stars in the past, would never have been finished but, because it was a hard back copy, I ploughed on and finished. Bit of a weird logic there I think. Well you can’t half read, an expensive, hard back book, can you. At the moment I am reading The Zone of Interest, the new one by Martin Amis, a Christmas present. I have never read him before, I do hope he is good. It would be great to read all his back catalogue.

These things I have been writing about, LP’s and Books, are perhaps an old fashioned love of mine. I was told, a few years ago, by a lot of people and led to believe by the media that CD’s, were the future. The music was better and the small cases where the disc is stored were much easier to handle. It was all rubbish, we were hoodwinked by a load of know it all’s, because, you can’t beat having an LP on your knee, as I’ve said, with all the sleeve notes and lyrics to read while you listen to the music. Why does it have to be smaller? Just because the big corporations think we want everything small and disposable. It is even worse now with music downloading. I have a lot of music on my Ipod and because of this, I couldn’t tell you the name of the tracks I’m listening to. So you end up listening to all of Coldplay’s albums and not being able to name one of their songs. That’s not progress, In the old days I knew all the songs by the bands I loved. Why should we listen to all those people trying to tell us small is best. It does not make sense, an LP is a thing of beauty.

Now books are a bit different. You can’t download a book. Oh yes you can! But, downloading books, still means you have to read it. Unless you buy an audio book of course. I like my Kindle and good luck to everyone who uses them. They are great for new authors to self publish their own work and great for us readers to read it. It’s fantastic as a mobile device, taking it on holiday, or as I do reading when I’m on the road, during my break. But, I still love to read a real, hard back book. I am a slow reader, so buying one book every couple of months is not going to break the bank.

Books and LP’s. I think I have to take the time to once again cherish my music and my literature. Nothing wrong with being a bit old fashioned. Is there?

Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

From Titus Andronicus to Hamlet, this has been my Shakespearian year. I have not read as much as I would have liked, got stuck on Much Ado About Nothing and found myself agreeing with a good friend of mine, Eli. She told me she thought I was a bit obsessed with the tragedies. I don’t think she is one hundred percent right, I love the comedies on stage, but I do find them difficult to read.

I feel I have become, a little detached from Shakespeare over the last few months. I think this was due to coming down from the high of seeing the murderous, Titus Andronicus at the wonderful Globe theatre in London. The Globe has left such a yearning in my heart, I wish I could go there every day. With a bit of luck and forward planning, that’s a good one, forward planning, I will try to organise a London trip, at least once a year. I will try and fit in The National Theatre when I’m down. I have been told by a lot of people it is a special place and I should do my best to get there. It would have to be Shakespeare. I know that sounds a bit narrow minded, but I feel I can only concentrate on his work. Then again, I would love to see Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple on stage, it‘s one of my favourite films, so maybe I should not be so narrow minded. I did have a slim chance of seeing Simon Russell Beale as King Lear at the National, it was just so soon after Titus, I let the chance slip away. Everybody says it was outstanding.

A while back I started to follow The Citizens Theatre on twitter and Facebook and luckily I saw a tweet mentioning they were staging Hamlet, so I got online and booked two seats for me and my boy Tom. Tom makes faces and pretends he is board, but I know he really does like Shakespeare. Jack my youngest, on the other hand, fell asleep during a very noisy battle scene in Macbeth, at the Edinburgh Festival.

The Citizens is a wonderful old theatre in the Gorbals district of Glasgow. We were seated in the main auditorium, which holds five hundred, there are two smaller spaces for a more intimate experience. I had tingles in my spine when I walked into the dress circle and looked down at the stage. Then the lady usher, handed me a couple of programmes and told me, in a lovely and warm Glasgow accent to enjoy the play. The setting of the stage took a bit of working out, there were three banks of reel to reel tape recorders, there was guitars, a bass and a lead lying around at the back. There was a piano and drums and cymbals. At the front of the stage there was a long table and some chairs.

While we were sitting chatting, waiting for the play to begin, various people were wandering about the stage and we were all wondering who they were. Suddenly and very abruptly, all the talking stopped as if someone had thrown a switch. I don’t know how they did that, it was very good. The play begun.

I have watched Hamlet on DVD, at the cinema in a live screening from the National in London and of course I have read the play, but this was the first time seeing it live. Hamlet was played by Brian Ferguson, he was very good, though sometimes I thought his voice was a little sharp, that is just a small observation, his descent into madness was chilling and very funny at times. The get thee to a nunnery scene with Ophelia, was disturbing and I felt the sadness of her more than any other version of the play I have seen, so far. Ophelia was played by Meghan Tyler. She was fantastic, small, lifted of her feat in huge bear hugs by everyone, beautiful with long flowing fair hair. She sang like a heart wrenching a rock star, then lay in a bath soaking wet and blowing bubbles, drowning. She then sat at the graveside, water running of her, before she was lifted into the grave and laid to rest by her brother Laertes.

Polonius, played by Cliff Burnett was outstanding. He reminded me of Bill Nighy a bit. He is a great multitalented actor, playing a character I have always found annoying, I think, he is supposed to be? He could be so funny and a bit creepy with his daughter. It is a huge part and he walked through it with great skill. He also played the afore mentioned guitars. A few of the cast played the musical instruments at the back of the stage. The music was sensational, matching the mood and the action going on in the play. I am so glad I got that programme, I can tell you who was responsible for the music. The composer and sound designer was Nikolo Kodjabashia, an eminent representative of the Balkan and eastern European musical avant-garde. Free programme, they only ask for a pound donation, it’s been priceless for this post.

Claudius, played by Peter Guinness and Gertrude, Roberta Taylor were both wonderful. I have definitely saw them on TV. All the other actors were brilliant and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Adam Best and Crighton, were a riot. Horatio, played by Citizens theatre intern, making his professional debut, Martin Donaghy. He was great and I’d never have known it was his debut. The play was a brilliantly boozy affair. Bottles and bottles of what looked like Smirnoff vodka, were drunk throughout the performance. Think Smirnoff should send them some samples, for free advertising. Or me, for mentioning them twice.

My first live performance of Hamlet. It was a huge production and I loved it. So this year I have been very lucky to have seen two, world class plays by William Shakespeare. Titus Andronicus at The Globe and Hamlet at The Citizens. In the years to come I want to see many more, including a trip to Stratford Upon Avon and the RSC. An overnight stay and a night at the theatre would be great. I would love to see round the Shakespeare birthplace. It looks fantastic. I will keep more than an eye on The Citizens, it really is a fantastic theatre.

I hope you liked this post. I know it was a bit of a showbiz review, but Hamlet is a very long and complex play. There are a lot of words to get to the bottom of, I think you could make it your life’s work, just studying Hamlet, that is the genius of Shakespeare. The more I see Hamlet and re read it, the closer I will get to the centre of it.

George. 8^th October 2014

Another one of my diversions from the long road on my Shakespeare journey, hope you enjoy.

Its four o’clock in the morning, I have stayed up half the night to finish The Undertaker’s Daughter by Kate Mayfield. After I closed the book for the last time, I had read this memoir very quickly. I came down stairs and turned on my laptop, I know from experience if I didn’t write this as soon as I could, any thoughts I have on the book will slowly fade away.

This is the story of a young girl growing up in southern Kentucky. Her family live in a house above her fathers undertaker business. There’s her Mother and Father, a brother and two sisters. Frank Mayfield, is the undertaker, who opens the door of the dead for his daughter Kate, to freely observe him at work and learn about death. This book is full of the dead. Now that might sound morbid but it is not. It is definitely gothic, sometimes funny and sometimes sad. It is the story of two people, a father and his daughter. There is mental illness, dangerous racial liaisons and secrets. It is a complex story and a very brave and honest one. From a very young girl, who does a bit of her own haunting, when having to stay very quiet, when there is business of the dead taking place down stairs. To the rebellious teenager growing up in the seventies, with an urge to leave behind the small town of Jubilee, where southern ladies play bridge and gossip about every one they know and all the goings on in their small town. To the black side of the town, still segregated, even in the seventies.

The writing in this book is wonderful. It just flows along and the language is pure southern. I loved every sentence. The narrative jumps about a little, sometimes going from Kate as a teenager to her as a little girl again, but you never loose the thread for a second. The peripheral characters come and go and they only add too, and enrich the story. There is so much going on and so much between the lines that Miss Mayfield, skilfully allows you come to your own conclusions. This is really an autobiography, but reads like a novel, with shades of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mocking Bird. The Undertaker’s Daughter is in the tradition of that Great American writing.

I have paid for a new version of WordPress. Not sure how it works, so this blog post is really a test piece.

I am going to see Hamlet on Tuesday night. My oldest boy Tom is going with me, bless him. I will try and write a post on our experience. I hope by setting up this account, it will encourage me to do more writing in the future.

Thewhitespike.