Greg Doran: Venus And Adonis director Greg Doran
GREG Doran, former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director, York Millennium Mystery Plays director and renowned Shakespearean, brings his revival of Shakespeare’s narrative poem Venus And Adonis to York Theatre Royal tomorrow and Wednesday.
Narrated live by esteemed actor Simon Russell Beale and animated by world-class puppeteers Bartolomeo Bartolini, Edie Edmundson, Rachel Leonard, Lee Maeda and Sarah Wright with live musical accompaniment, this unique production blends comedy, tragedy and Shakespeare’s poetry to bring the story of Venus and her obsession with the handsome Adonis to life in a rich, captivating 60-minute theatrical experience.
Drawing inspiration from the bewitching artistry of Japanese Bunraku puppets and the Jacobean Court Masque, this spellbinding production tells the story using marionettes, rod, shadow and table-top puppets, designed and created by Lyndie Wright.
Produced originally by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Little Angel Theatre, Doran’s staging of this powerful erotically-charged story of unrequited love marks his return to York 26 years since his 2000 production of the Mystery Plays in the Minster.
“I can recall being able to remember every member of the cast’s name because they had become so memorable to me, after pretty much everyone who auditioned got a part, especially the men, who are always in short supply,” he recalls.
“I remember being inspired by the Minster itself, like when Rob Jones, the designer, and I were trying to work out how to do The Flood [for Noah’s Ark] and we settled on two huge pieces of blue material filling the Nave.
“Then we thought, how do we do the rainbow – and I realised there were seven arches in the Quire, which Michael Gunning, the lighting designer, lit to create this wonderful Gothic rainbow.”
Venus And Adonis narrator Simon Russell Beale
Greg reflects: “The Mystery Plays remains not only a highlight of my career but my life too. I used to come to York every Corpus Christi day, from the Jesuit College in Preston, and it was a great occasion in 2000 to celebrate York’s two great cultural beacons: the Minster and the Mystery Plays.
“Brought up as a Catholic, I’m loathe to say I’m a lapsed Catholic, but I jumped away because of its position on homosexuality, but there’s something life enhancing and moving about these extraordinary Mystery Plays.”
Attention turns to Venus And Adonis, a production first staged when the Prince of Wales [now King Charles III], president of the RSC, invited the company to Highgrove House for a development event.
“Adrian Noble [RSC artistic director at the time] said to me, it won’t need to be very long, it won’t have many actors, and I thought, ‘rather than doing familiar scenes, why not do Venus And Adonis?’, which rather shamefully I’d never read. When I did, I just found it hysterically funny, and then it turns into a tragedy, and in that moment, I thought it would be great to do it.”
Toby Stephens’s Adonis and Alexandra Gilbreath’s Venus were complemented by Antony Sher’s Narrator. “It went extraordinarily well,” Greg recalls. “The next outing came at a villa garden in Florence where I invited Judi Dench, who is known for her love of Florence, to play Venus.”
Greg recalls Adrian Noble’s enthusiasm for Venus And Adonis. “He came up on stage at Highgrove to make his speech, then ripped up his notes, and said, ‘what this poem does is explain why Shakespeare is so great, with extraordinary characterisation, the most beautiful poetry and, with it’s wonderful fusing of comedy and tragedy, it’s Shakespeare in miniature’.”
Greg Doran’s 2017 production of Venus And Adonis. Picture: Lucy Barriball
After seeing the Bunraku Puppets, Greg was struck by the possibility of integrating puppetry into Venus And Adonis. “I just thought, this is a great opportunity to see if they could be involved after seeing these exquisite puppets manipulated by these master puppeteers, where the puppetry was of such a high quality,” says Greg.
“It became a company favourite and I put it down as one my favourite shows I did at the RSC because of the level of craftsmanship. I loved working with those puppeteers.”
This year’s revival was sparked by a call to Greg. “The RSC got in touch with me one day to say, ‘look, there’s still this great box of puppets…what would you like to do with it?’. I knew that meant, ‘can you clear it out, please, because we need the space’ and they’ve since taken puppetry to another level,” he says.
“What was lovely was that a whole series of people came out of the woodwork and said ‘we’d like to help you’, including the Backstage Trust providing seed funding and Mark Pigott coming on board as executive producer.”
Oxford Playhouse, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Europe’s biggest Shakespeare festival, in Craiova, Romania, and The Pit at the Barbican (London) were all confirmed for performances, along with York Theatre Royal. “Knowing that York has a proven interest in history and Shakespeare, it seemed a good place to bring it,” says Greg.
Better still will be the presence of Russell Beale, last in York for An Evening with Simon Russell Beale at the Theatre Royal in September 2024: “I was delighted when Greg asked me to join him in his production,” says the narrator. “I saw it just over 20 years ago and remember it vividly as a delicate and witty interpretation of this sexy, sad and funny poem.”
Venus And Adonis, York Theatre Royal, tomorrow, 7.30pm; Wednesday, 2pm (with post-show discussion) and 7.30pm. Age guidance: 14 plus. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.