The Shake-Cake-Bake-Off @ the Turl Street Kitchen
One of the stranger events of Bardfest was the Shakespeare-themed cake competition, the ‘Shake-Cake-Bake-Off’. On the afternoon of 22nd May people flocked to the library of the TSK with their cupcakes, sponges and biscuits for a celebration of ‘Shakey Baking’. With G&D’s judging and awarding prizes, the atmosphere was tense as the bakers passive-aggressively proffered their wares for tasting. One of the entries was a group of cupcakes emblazoned with letters spelling out ‘Alas Poor Damien’. The sequence was concluded with a cake depicting a skull. After staring blankly at this culinary display for a while, the link was explained to me: it was a reference to Damien Hirst, whose famous diamond encrusted skull is a bit like that one in Hamlet, which is addressed in the play with the famous words, ‘Alas Poor Yorick’. Hmmmm. Who knew food could be so intellectualised: cakes that comment on flagging artistic credentials? If you fancied tasting one of the cakes you had ensure the sequence still made a word. The winner of the competition was a trio of cupcakes decked in flowers and glitter and labelled ‘Titania’, ‘Oberon’ and ‘Peaseblossom’. A deserving winner in my opinion: easy to understand and consumable without any semantic challenges.
Carmella Crinnion
Montagues & Capulets @ Brasenose College Chapel
What do Prokofiev and Taylor Swift have in common? Romeo and Juliet, apparently, as Oxbard Fest 2012’s Montagues and Capulets displayed in an enjoyable, if frankly slightly bizarre evening of musical couplings which saw songs from Dire Straits performed alongside instrumental selections from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. Opening with the rousing overtures of Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ suite (made notorious through Apprentice fame), the gild and panelling of Brasenose’s 17th century chapel provides an interesting, but not overwhelming backdrop to the music of literature’s most epic tragic romance. With strong performances from all, special mention should be extended to Jaymee Coonjobeeharry on the flute for a performance both beguiling and well executed (and for having a pretty terrific name, let’s be honest). Sophie Giles sang strongly in her rendition of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’, but attempting to elevate pop schmaltz into any kind of meaningful ballad is always a difficult endeavour. Likewise, Jack Graham singing Dire Straits’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was solid and convincing but with only the soft accompaniment of the piano, the overall effect fell a little flat. In comparison to the emotionally wrought falsetto from the Killers’ Brandon Flowers in the band’s 2007 cover, the lack of a pained, highly strung energy seems palpably absent. While putting such a medley of genres on the same bill may seem at best, eccentric and at worst thematically incoherent, this should not detract from what was ultimately an evening of well-executed, well-rounded and highly engaging musical proficiency. A resplendent start to Oxbard Fest 2012.
Olivia Arigho-Stiles
Lend Me Your Ears @ Ashmolean
Set in the beautiful Randolph Sculpture Gallery of the Ashmolean, the concept of the show was to marry Shakespeare with a variety of modern music. The first half of the show consisted musical performances of twentieth century composers Igor Stravinsky and Howard Blake, both of whom wrote song cycles set to and inspired by Shakespearean verse. The performances were musically adept but it was often hard to hear the lyrics, a drawback considering the theme of the event.
Happily, there were no such problems in the second half which saw performances from two of Oxford’s favourite a cappella groups, Out of the Blue and The Oxford Gargoyles, both of whom were superb. Each group performed a set of songs, prefaced by a reading of an extract from a Shakespeare play or sonnet. The idea being that the audience frame the song they were about to hear through the thematically similar extract and thus find new meaning therein. Although the connection wasn’t always obvious, the idea was a good one and the listener couldn’t help marvelling at the continued relevance of the works of the great Bard. Considering this was the purpose of the event, it was, all in all, a great success.
Patrick Scott
Banter of the Bard @ Worcester Gardens
Closing the Shakespeare Festival is ‘Banter of the Bard’; Katie-Ebner Landy, student at Oriel and organiser describes the event as ‘enjoyable, light entertainment, a night filled with music, food, drink and Shakespeare.’ In one evening seven scenes will be performed in Worcester Gardens, with the audience voting for their favourite act. ‘We wanted to do something different,’ Ebner-Landy tells Cherwell, ‘not just another play in a garden. That’s why we turned it into a competition’. The idea arose from the wish to bring theatre into other areas of entertainment, to not just keep as a separate art. They decided to turn it into ‘a proper fest’ with the audience seated on cushions in the middle, surrounded by 4 stages. Phoebe Braithwaite, co-director of the Midsummer Night’s Dream scene, states that the setting of Worcester gardens is perfect for the event, describing them as ‘genuinely rural and very idyllic’. The different plays being performed are a combination of traditional and new scenes, including classics such as Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night. All food and drink is centred around the Shakespeare theme, with ‘Shrewdrivers’ and ‘Much Ado about Muffins’ on sale throughout the evening. Although the scenes have been put together by individual groups, the entire event will be hosted and brought together by MC Will Mendelowitz from Worcester, ‘The Bard’. The MC introduces each new act taking on a variety of appearances, including dance critic and naughty schoolboy. Braithwaite explains, ‘It’s a mind-trick for the audience with Will appearing as recognisably himself, but in different guises.’ The final night will see Worcester Provost and Shakespeare expert, Jonathan Bate, who holds a position on the board of the Royal Shakespeare Company, as special guest and judge. Ebner-Landy encourages all to come and enjoy ‘a great night and something which has never been done before. After all the plays shown during the Shakespeare festival, this competition will be a fun finish. See it as the final festival of the entire festival.’
Banter of the Bard takes places on the 3rd, 4th and 5th June in Worcester Gardens.
Isabelle Gerretsen
Titus Andronicus @ University Parks
Revenge, murder, rape, people baked in pies – the perfect way to spend a summer evening. With a character survival rate of about ten per cent, Titus Andronicus is not your standard light hearted garden-variety Shakespeare comedy. Nevertheless, sitting on the grass of University Parks, drinking Pimm’s and eating G&D’s makes for a pleasant evening, even with the constant, gratuitous violence of one of the Bard’s least respected plays. Admittedly, director Rebecca Claire Thomas toned it down a little by substituting the blood for red ribbons strewn generously over the grass, though perhaps went too far in the inclusion of a slightly irritating and overused drum. The purpose of it was presumably to add ‘dramatic’ emphasis to certain lines and events; a nice concept, but it may have required a slightly more judicious use. The acting, for the most part, was passable. A few of the central characters (Dionne Farrell as the titular general especially) were well-acted, though the remainder are mostly there to read out their lines in a suitably angry, sad or pleading fashion, depending on the prevailing mood. This is, not by any stretch, an especially good piece of drama. It is, however, outside: the glorious sun will likely blind you to this production’s various deficiencies, and, for the £3 you pay, it’s a perfectly pleasant evening.
Angus Hawkins
A Shakespearean Evensong @ New College Chapel
Before the English Reformation, English choral composition enjoyed a richness it was not to recover until Handel in the eighteenth century and Britten in the twentieth. This was an era before polyphony was seen as a barrier to worship, an immoral practice. Choral music was rich, contrapuntal, extravagant. The nationally acclaimed New College choir led by Edward Higginbottom performed some of these extravagant compositions in the shockingly ornate New college chapel. The frieze of saints stacking above each other like symbols at a catacomb; the eighteenth century glass windows illumined by this Great British Summer. Though the flyers for Bardfest were outside, there was no mention of it. The evensong service was performed as it has been for centuries. The choir process: small boys delicate or ungainly (clearly none of them good at sport), ruffed like little Philip Sidneys, precocious attendants of the liturgy. The service was advertised as singing the music Shakespeare might have heard : choral responses were by the composer Thomas Morley and by William Byrd. The anthem was Weelkes’ ‘Alleluia, I heard a voice’, a profuse and fluid stream of sound (Spotify it). The joy of polyphonic music is watching how casually the melody, or even the voice that you can pick out of the group, is tossed from singer to singer. It’s easy to think of Shakespeare as a modern man, an urban rebel, but he certainly went to church and would have been familiar with the divine services. Perhaps we underestimate the effect of antiphonal singing on dialogue, and the witty ripostes of lovers are heir to the call and response of choirs.
Christy Edwall
