LANGUAGE is the very essence of Shakespeare, encompassing both the matter that builds the plays and the cement that binds them together. And it gains a new significance – and a strong Scots twist - in a new production of one of the Bard’s least performed plays.
The action in A Winter’s Tale, which opened at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh last night starring John Michie and Maureen Beattie, has been transposed to Edinburgh and Fife, with scenes and characters translated into Scots by novelist and poet James Robertson, author of The Testament of Gideon Mack.
A Winter’s Tale is a particular favourite with many Shakespeare fans, including this production’s director Max Webster and the Lyceum’s artistic director, playwright David Greig, who adapted the play. A story of loss and redemption, jealously and anger, family and loss, this late Shakespeare "dramedy" spans 16 years and features one of his most moving denouements.
It turns out Robertson is also a big fan of the play, though he was aware that translating Shakespeare into the language of rural Fife could have pitfalls.
“I was brought in to tweak the language to fit in with the ideas that David [Greig] and the director Max Webster had for this staging of the play,” he explains.
“One doesn’t go lightly into tweaking Shakespeare but he’s big enough to take it, I think. You can endlessly reinvent and reinterpret him and the plays will still be there standing up at the end.
“What I’ve done is quite a light touch – Shakespeare’s words are still very much there, it was more a case of strengthening the accent and changing some of the vocabulary.”
Robertson says he approached the task with the aim of making the language authentic but also accessible.
“I’ve not made it authentic Methil or Kirkcaldy or Anstruther but more loosely an east coast Scots,” he says. “I saw a rehearsal last week and I really am happy with the way the actors dealt with what I’d done.”
A Winter’s Tale runs at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh until 4 March
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