GALLERY GUIDE

19 March – 18 September 2016Stratford-upon-Avon

An exhibition commissioned and curated by the Royal Shakespeare Company

Well Said! is an exhibition inspired by some of Shakespeare’s most memorable and inspiring words.

The artworks in this room have been created by artists and craftspeople. They have responded to quotes from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets selected by a mix of performers and writers.

Using a wide range of disciplines and techniques, the works span from illustration, video and calligraphy, to letterpress, stone carving, animation and sound.

The Royal Shakespeare Company would like to thank the contributors for kindly sharing their favourite Shakespearean lines, and the artists for creating such surprising and beautiful artworks.

ContributorsAyaan

Ayesha Dharker Doc Brown Gary Owen

Hiran Abeysekera Isobel Waller-Bridge Jeanette Winterson Margaret Atwood

Paapa Essiedu Russell Kane Tanika Gupta

Yusra Warsama

ArtistsAn Endless Supply

Gary Breeze James Bulley

Gareth Courage Freee Art Collective

Paula Garfield Jonny Hannah

Harrington & Squires Lara Harwood Soraya Syed

The Brilliant Sign Company Karina Thompson

How base is the coin, which coins such phrasesboding nothing but baseness and change… Fakespeare: The Tragickal Saveings of King Nigel

The quote was selected by writer and comedian, Russell Kane, from his own Shakespeare inspired play. Russell has compered many of our Live at the RSC comedy nights. “In 2008/9 I wrote a satirical play (it is funny, I promise) about an Essex banker who wants to commit suicide. It’s even more relevant today, sadly. This particular couplet attacks how language is often co-opted by financial greed; when words themselves are born of cash, avarice. People often said that in countries under communism, artistic expression died. We should be careful that rampant capitalism doesn’t do something much worse: seize art for profit without anyone noticing.”

Russell Kane

The quote was interpreted by graphic design studio, An Endless Supply. “On 15 September 2008, following the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, employees were photographed leaving the Canary Wharf offices with their desks cleared into Iron Mountain-branded storage boxes. We have produced an edition of 10,000 coins embossed with Russell’s quote. The audience is invited to take a coin, gradually depleting the pile over the length of the exhibition.” An Endless Supply

ARTWORK 1 – An Endless Supply

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

The quote was selected by actor Paapa Essiedu, starring as Hamlet in our current production in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. “It’s a brilliantly curious and incisive line. I love how in a handful of words he crystallises the limitlessness of the mind’s power and its potential to release as well as imprison. There is a childlike wonder about the way he acknowledges the power of imagination to deconstruct the framework of the material world and cram ALL things into relative nothingness. But also a trepidation about the potential depth of darkness, that could leave him vulnerable to bad dreams. He posits that the entire universe is a fluid and malleable structure that will take whatever shape you allow your mind and imagination to give it - your perspective. There’s a beautiful duality and balance to the way he tackles such an enormous idea and he cuts right through to the core of it with razor sharp precision - it’s like splitting an atom bomb.” Paapa Essiedu

The quote was interpreted by lettering sculptor, Gary Breeze.

“My work with spheres began as a way of breaking free of the constraints of working flat and exploring further ways of expressing ethereal ideas in the customary solidness of words carved in stone. Of course I threw off one kind of constraint for another.

The quote expresses the idea that our mind holds the keys to our limitations. It is so perfectly connected with my previous work - the infinite thought ultimately defined by its boundaries.And it’s a Globe!” Gary Breeze

ARTWORK 2 – Gary Breeze

Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well: Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme: of one whose hand, Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe: of one whose subdued eyes, Albeit unusèd to the melting mood, Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees Their medicinable gum. Set you down this, And say besides, that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk Beat a Venetian and traduced the state, I took by th’throat the circumcisèd dog And smote him, thus. Othello, Act 5, Scene 2

The quote was selected by playwright, Tanika Gupta, MBE. Tanika was commissioned by the RSC to write The Empress, for the Swan Theatre Summer season 2013.

“I studied Othello for A-level English and memorised Othello’s ‘farewell’ speech for my exam. Othello captivated and entranced my young mind and to this day, remains one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. I enjoyed the drama and the language of the honourable, passionate Moor and marvelled at how easily he was duped by Iago’s poisonous words. I was fascinated by the themes of jealousy, and of course the genius Machiavellian villainy of Iago. As a British Asian child, growing up myself in sometimes difficult times, I identified with the fact that Othello at once belonged but still felt an outsider in a racist Venetian society, which made him both strong and vulnerable. To read a play, written hundreds of years ago, with a main character who was black, intelligent and heroic meant a great deal to me at the time. The references to ‘Arabian trees,’ ‘Aleppo,’ and a ‘malignant and a turbaned Turk’ mark Othello as an eloquent speaker, from a distant land. For me, there is so much pathos, humility, beauty and exquisite language in this speech as Othello realises his tragic mistake in killing his love – Desdemona. It is a redemptive speech which raises Othello up from the ‘barbarian’ Iago made him before Othello kills himself. I watched the recent excellent RSC production of Othello and was reminded again of how much I admire the play.” Tanika Gupta

The quote was interpreted by artist and composer, James Bulley.

“My artwork Then Must You Speak, is a sound-based exploration of Othello’s farewell speech. Othello is my favourite of Shakespeare’s plays and reading his farewell speech alongside Tanika’s thoughts reminded me of how beautifully musical Shakespeare’s poetry is.

My piece explores notions of pathos and redemption in the speech. I have selected sections from Othello Suite, a music composition by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (written in 1909) and re-arranged them alongside a recording of Paul Robeson’s delivery of Othello’s speech (Broadway, 1944).

The work is a player piano scroll featuring a score whose holes are made from Gum Arabic. Othello’s verses are spaced according to the sound and rhythm of Robeson’s 1944 speech.”

James Bulley

ARTWORK 3 – James Bulley ARTWORK 3 – James Bulley

The moon methinks looks with a wat’ry eye,And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,Lamenting some enforcèd chastity.Tie up my lover’s tongue, bring him silently. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 1

The quote was selected by actor Ayesha Dharker, starring as Titania in our production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation, currently touring the UK. “Part of the reason I wanted to do this play is because I wanted to hear it over and over again until it became part of my DNA. This is one of those beautiful pieces. I love the repeated imagery of the moon and its shifting meanings in this play. There are other images that appear all the time (dew, tears) transient, real and truly magical. People argue over the meaning of this quote - whether Titania means that the moon and all her flowers weep over a violated chastity or whether it is a forced chastity or ‘chastity compelled’ which I think is more consistent with her very strong desire for the character of Bottom. I find Titania’s love for Bottom delightful and delightful to play. Even though it is Oberon she truly loves, this sort of love is something she has never experienced because she is under an enchantment. Though what exactly happens is a mystery, Titania is as changed by her ‘dream’ as Bottom is by his.” Ayesha Dharker

The quote was interpreted by designer and illustrator, Gareth Courage. “In this project I have utilised my long-standing interest in found, vernacular imagery and ephemera in a purely illustrative approach using a broad photographic collage style. The resulting digital imagery represents the uncanny, otherworldly elements of the text while giving the imagery a handmade, textured feel.” Gareth Courage

He hath a daily beauty in his life That makes me ugly Othello, Act 5, Scene 1

The quote was selected by Welsh playwright, Gary Owen. Gary translated the play A Soldier in Every Son – The Rise of the Aztecs, by Mexican writer Louis Mario Moncada. The play was part of the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival. “I wish this wasn’t my quote. I wish it was something beautiful and inspiring. But these are the lines that stick in my head. Iago’s deadly envy of Cassio. Shakespeare captures in a dozen words how we can feel belittled by those we perceive as superior to us; and the play portrays resentment and envy run riot. It’s a warning to a society that is ever more relaxed about entrenched inequality.” Gary Owen

The quote was interpreted by Freee, an art collective made up of Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan. Freee work on slogans, billboards and publications that challenge the commercial and bureaucratic colonisation of the public sphere of opinion formation. Freee have produced 50 new versions of the Othello quote ‘He hath a daily beauty in his life / That makes me ugly’. They have asked a number of people to choose one statement they believe in and invited the participants to handwrite the text on paper. These acts have been photographed to create a full size billboard poster which has been pasted directly onto the gallery wall. Freee Art Collective

ARTWORK 4 – Gareth Courage ARTWORK 5 – Freee Art Collective

When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste.Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe, And moan th’expense of many a vanished sight.Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan, Which I new pay as if not paid before. But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,All losses are restored and sorrows end. Sonnet 30

The quote was selected by performance poet, actor and writer, Yusra Warsama.

“Because it’s the wail of an old man but I feel this heavy at 30,

Because someone of my blood died and we didn’t speak for four or five years to that point,

So I had to go into silent thoughts,

Because Rumi also speaks of a beloved,

Because Rumi and Shakespeare make it sound so easy to think of someone and your sorrows disappear, and that makes me envious,

And maybe because it’s not true but it’s the hope that makes the silent thoughts sweet”

Yusra Warsama

The quote was interpreted by the Artistic Director of Deafinitely Theatre, Paula Garfield.

“In the forest a woman walks alone.

There is nothing but the leaves on the trees and her own heartbeat.

Each tree is a family, every branch a generation.

With each falling leaf a life returns to the earth.

The woman treads carefully amongst the ochre, threading her way back through the past.

A haunting rendition of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30, featuring Deafinitely Theatre’s trademark visual storytelling, through British Sign Language, in this poignant meditation on love and loss.

What’s left in the silence that is grief?”

Paula Garfield

Director - Paula Garfield Creative Interpreter - Kate Furby Filming & Editing - Fifi Garland Performer - Nadia Nadarajah

ARTWORK 6 – Paula Garfield ARTWORK 6 – Paula Garfield

It is a manacle of love. I’ll place itUpon this fairest prisoner. Cymbeline, Act 1, Scene 1

The quote was selected by actor Hiran Abeysekera, starring as Horatio in our current production of Hamlet in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. “Love is great. Manacles, not so much.We are manacled to many things these days. Our phones, bank cards, Oyster cards, things that are always with us, things that we can’t seem to get away from. You would think Love would be an ultimate freedom and of course as a hopeless romantic I want to believe it is, but it’s interesting to see Love as an unshakable, restricting, sometimes uncomfortable bond. Not just kisses, cuddles and sweet pillow talk, it is a wonderfully strange thing that imprisons us but also the only prison we’ll fight to walk into.”

Hiran Abeysekera

The quote was interpreted by artist and illustrator, Jonny Hannah.

My contribution to this exhibition is a fairly literal one. A man declares his undying love for a woman. I couldn’t help but set it in a toy theatre, constructed with my usual limited DIY skills.

My inspiration for this enclosed space, comes from the films of Powell and Pressburger. I’m not much of a theatre-goer (seems a good time to confess that), but I’ve always enjoyed filmmakers who knew exactly how to get the most out a set, and with films like I Know Where I’m Going and especially The Red Shoes, Michael and Emeric did it better than most.

It’s quintessentially English storytelling (yes, despite Pressburger being Hungarian), much like the great Bard himself. Flamboyant and visually exciting, their moving pictures gave British post-war cinemagoers a delight and surprise to the eye. A chance for everyone to experience warm and passionate storytelling. A bit like our favourite playwright.

We still enjoy those tales. We still enjoy Shakespeare. Timeless, great stories, never fade or go away. I like to think that had those two made a film of Cymbeline, they might just have asked me to scribble out their sets, complete with Pictish tattoos.

Jonny Hannah

The quote was interpreted by letterpress printers, Harrington & Squires. “The quotation is slightly impenetrable out of context so our interpretation of it – an ‘open book’ – is an exploration of its meaning for ourselves as well as making it accessible to the viewer. Jeanette Winterson’s analysis is incorporated as an ‘invisible’ text running alongside the words of Hermione (set from wooden type diminishing in size and colour underlining her despair) and Leontes (set from metal type in one size underlining his implacability). We have worked into the pages to add an extra dimension and theatricality. A path of holes is drilled over Hermione’s pages, indicating a spiral of decline; Leontes’ pages are scratched, indicating anger and paranoia.” Harrington & Squires

HERMIONE: My life stands in the level of your dreams, Which I’ll lay down.LEONTES: Your actions are my dreams. The Winter’s Tale, Act 3, Scene 2

The quote was selected by writer and novelist, Jeanette Winterson. Jeanette has recently published The Gap of Time, a reinterpretation of The Winter’s Tale, as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare Series. The RSC has supported the launch of the series curating a number of events and talks.

“Leontes has accused his wife Hermione of adultery – this is her reply.

Life – the one real thing we possess, is lost here to the delusional world of someone else’s paranoia. The Winter’s Tale is a post-Freudian play 300 years before Freud – the problem is all inside Leo’s head – but with frightening consequences for everyone else.

The verbal beauty of Hermione’s reply is one of Shakespeare’s strange twists – why ‘level’? not just ‘dreams’. Level gives us the sense of worlds layered on worlds – and Hermione has fallen from the world of light into the shadowed world of dreams. Grammatically, it is the dreams, not her life, she would lay down.

Leo’s reply – ‘Your actions are my dreams’, betrays himself as the one who has lost power in the real world and who compensates for that loss by forcing the real world into his necrotic fantasy.

It’s just a few lines but it is a sum of what Shakespeare does time and again – the strangeness of the idiom (that level and dreams) clue-ing a message between the lines – as though he is writing in two kinds of ink – one invisible.”

Jeanette Winterson

ARTWORK 7 – Jonny Hannah ARTWORK 8 – Harrington & Squires

These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air, And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,The solemn temples, the great globe itself,Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuffAs dreams are made on; and our little lifeIs rounded with a sleep. The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1

The quote was selected by novelist and poet, Margaret Atwood. Margaret is currently working on a reinterpretation of The Tempest as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare Series.

“Today I met a young Indian writer – 15 years old – who has written a book about a 16-year-old ‘exploring death.’ I said, ‘Maybe he should wait a bit?’ Peter Pan may have thought death was an awfully big adventure, but that too is a young opinion.

Prospero’s famous speech, whether or not it is a farewell to the stage, is certainly a farewell. To young people it might seem gloomy – ‘everything will vanish’ – but, to the less young, it simply seems like a recognition of what is. Note, however, that Prospero does not therefore seek inaction or resignation; no, he drives forward with his plans nonetheless. Our lives may be ‘little’ and rounded with a sleep, but they are nonetheless ours while we inhabit them.

Thus it is with plays: they’re very alive (we hope) while they are being enacted, but once the curtain falls, that particular performance can never be duplicated. Does that mean it wasn’t worth doing? Of course not. Permanence is overrated.

So that’s one reason I like this deservedly famous speech. Then there’s the magnificence of the language. What more can be said?”

Margaret Atwood

The quote was interpreted by illustrator and printmaker, Lara Harwood.

“The idea was to create images that could appear and ‘melt into fine air’, as this was integral to Prospero’s speech. I wanted to make a simple animation and to have it projected, ideally onto layers of delicate, fine fabric with echoes of the storm, the shipwreck, the ragged torn sail and the fabric of life.

The content was more mixed. Firstly, a reflection on our own time of what is fading into non-existence by our own carelessness - of what we risk in terms of the threat to our planet’s ecology and biodiversity. Secondly, to suggest a dream-like subconscious world of metaphorical monsters and mythical creatures. These represent fears and joy, the music and magic of each life that in turn will disappear in time.”

Lara Harwood

ARTWORK 9 – Lara Harwood ARTWORK 9 – Lara Harwood

My gracious lord, my father,This sleep is sound indeed. Henry IV Part Two, Act 4, Scene 5

The quote was selected by Ayaan (eight years old), who took part in an RSC Education workshop. This was the line Ayaan performed on the Swan Theatre stage. Her experience inspired a real love of Shakespeare and reading plays and poetry aloud. “This quote makes me think about the old king. And I wonder if he might die. It’s nice to say out loud because it is gentle and caring and shows us Hal is feeling sorry for his dad. It makes a nice pattern with the next lines.”

Ayaan

The quote was interpreted by artist and Islamic calligrapher, Soraya Syed. “I tried to immerse myself in Prince Hal’s position. This quote made me think about the transition between different physical, emotional and psychological states. On the one hand, we have a king passing from life to death and on the other, a frivolous prince about to be transformed into a responsible monarch. The crown is an incredible symbol of authority and alters not only how the wearer feels, but how she or he is perceived. It seemed to me a fitting response to merge a powerful symbolic headdress with the quote in Arabic calligraphy.” Soraya Syed

The quote was interpreted by heritage signmakers, The Brilliant Sign Company. The company specialises in the manufacture and restoration of traditional glass, gold leaf and handpainted signs. “It could be argued that our quotation has transitioned from the page and stage of theatrical realms to the popular lexicon more than any other Shakespearean phrase.

On this theme we have imagined it emblazoned on the walls of a Victorian gin palace, then the stage of the working people. In place of words warranting the quality of the house’s articles we have our quote. No doubt stated many times as drinkers discussed the affairs of Cupid under its reflective gaze.

The letters are a microcosm of the signwriter’s art – acid etching, gold leaf, silver, pearl and shadow – all play their part in our production.” The Brilliant Sign Company

The course of true love never did run smooth. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1

The quote was selected by comedian and actor, Ben Bailey Smith, also known by his stage name Doc Brown. He performed his tongue-in-cheek take on hip hop culture here in 2014, as part of Live at the RSC.

“File this under the ‘Never A Truer Word Said’ category – Shakespeare had an uncanny knack for blending the profound with the relatable and this is one of the greater examples.

Whoever had a meaningful relationship that was completely without incident?”

Doc Brown

ARTWORK 10 – Soraya Syed ARTWORK 11 – The Brilliant Sign Company

Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not:Sometimes a thousand twangling instrumentsWill hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,That if I then had waked after long sleep,Will make me sleep again, and then in dreaming,The clouds methought would open and show richesReady to drop upon me, that when I wakedI cried to dream again. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 3

The quote was selected by music composer, Isobel Waller-Bridge. Isobel recently composed the music for the RSC production Hecuba.

“To put it briefly, Shakespeare’s The Tempest is as equally ever-changing and powerful as its title metaphor. While the play begins with anger and chaos, it ends with forgiveness and resolution. This intense shift in play dynamics, in only four hours, can be attributed to the layers of metaphor that tie the piece together. As magic quickly changes the natural world around these characters, so does metaphor and language change their understanding of the world around them.

Caliban’s Dream is a stunning speech about the beauty of an island’s voice, and the brilliance is that it’s delivered by the outsider Caliban, who seems to have a better understanding of the island’s beauty than the man who rules it. Caliban is more than a wild beast of the island, and his personality is more complex than his brief scenes have thus far disclosed. The songs that Caliban describes and the beauty of his dreams reveal a humanity that is lacking in his descriptions of the plot to murder Prospero. The natural beauty of the island permeates Caliban’s world, but he is able to separate this beauty from the violent acts that he plans. In Caliban’s world, there is mutual existence of both poetry and barbarity.

In these times of global conflict, devastation, and mass migration, I often think of these words.”

Isobel Waller-Bridge

The quote was interpreted by textile artist, Karina Thompson.

“I see myself as a storyteller with threads and fabric as my words. I use computer programmed sewing machines and digital print onto fabric to make my work. For this work I have created four pieces exploring Caliban’s speech in a playful, speculative manner. I was interested in the reference to ‘a thousand twangling instruments’ as the quote was chosen by Isobel Waller-Bridge who is a composer and uses instruments as tools to create. I have also explored the second half of the speech for its references to clouds, sleep and dreaming and specifically the line ‘I cried to dream again’.”

Karina Thompson

ARTWORK 12 – Karina Thompson ARTWORK 12 – Karina Thompson

An exhibition commissioned and curated by the Royal Shakespeare Company