Bell Shakespeare explores the poetry of violence

Understanding the codes surrounding violence in Elizabethan times and its role in many of Shakespeare’s plays is the subject of a series of talks by members of the Bell Shakespeare team in September, titled In A Nutshell.

That violence, which manifests itself in so many of the bard’s plays, is not unusual when one considers that Elizabethan England was such a violent time for civilians, particularly for those of high rank.

The murder rate at that time was around one in every 10,000, compared to one in 100,000 nowadays, which was not surprising as men of certain social classes carried deadly bladed weapons for defence, attack and/or fashion reasons.

In real life this has extended to playwrights and actors. This includes Christopher Marlowe, who died from a stab to the eye, William Knell being killed by fellow actor John Towne, and actor Gabriel Spencer who challenged playwright Ben Jonson for a second time and lost.

London’s theatre district at the time was also home to bear baiting, cock fighting, prostitution and gangs who had a free hand as there was no formal police.

“And there is always a duelling culture,” Peter Evans, artistic director, Bell Shakespeare said.

“Certainly Shakespeare’s plays are full of violence, but he also seems to go out of his way to show the cost of that.”

Think Hamlet, Macbeth, Titus Andronicus, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Henry IV, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet, which opens with a sword fight between the houses of the Montague’s and the Capulets.

“Romeo and Juliet is very interesting because in a sense the tragedy is set up in the initial violence,” Evans said.

“We learn about the feud between the two families and we learn that it has been intensifying and causing public discord.

“It’s a brilliant piece of exposition, and while Shakespeare points out that no-one can remember how this rivalry started, the young people are pushing this onto the streets and causing problems inside the community.”

Evans adds: “This is a society not wiling to accept this violence and Romeo is given mercy by the prince and is exiled.

“The way that it’s plotted, the violence is integral to the play and one of my points in the show is that it is in no way gratuitous. It’s put under the microscope about how dangerous it is.”

A modern parallel might be the postcode wars currently being fought across southern and western Sydney where just your postal area can be a dangerous trigger for violence.

Evans says that the violence in Shakespeare’s plays differs from what we are used to in films and series where psychopaths and sociopaths often operate without moral frames or consequences, citing Macbeth as an example whereby both central characters are wracked with guilt.

“In Macbeth, Shakespeare goes out of his way to show the consequences of murder, so we get that the violence drives Macbeth and Lady Macbeth mad, Evans said.

“Their minds cannot deal with the images of violence so it is a deeply moral play.”

Evans and the team will also explore how women are often the victims of extreme violence and suffer its gravest consequences, or when they are the originator of violence, such as Queen Margaret in Richard III, how that impacts on them.

Also appearing in the talks will be Bell Shakespeare’s fight and movement director Nigel Poulton, who has been responsible for some of the company’s most memorable fight presentations.

Anyone who saw the company’s recent production of King Lear saw his skill as a fight master with dazzling effect in the onstage swordplay between Edmund and Edgar.

Evans and Poulton will be joined onstage at the Neilson Nutshell by Jessica Tovey (Macbeth), Lucy Bell, James Evans (Bell Shakespeare associate director) and recent NIDA graduate Madeline Li.

“For a contemporary audience these codes can be tricky to understand, so we are going to unpack a few of those, and hopefully this will open up the plays for the people,” Evans said.

In A Nutshell: The Poetry of Violence by Bell Shakespeare
September 4-8, 2024, Neilson Nutshell, Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay
https://www.bellshakespeare.com.au/in-a-nutshell