Shakespeare

The Collector Earl's Garden and Arundel Cathedral

August is the month when Arundel’s annual Festival takes place. The town hosts a variety of events – art shows, concerts, live music, dragon boat racing, a duck race – to name but a few. The Festival attracts visits from near and far, but the flipside is that it can create havoc for anyone driving to and from the town and trying to park there.

Arundel Castle plays its part, by hosting the National Open Art show in the Barons’ Hall. This is an appropriate venue, as the Duke of Norfolk is currently President of the National Open Art Competition itself. It does, however, seem strange to see such modern art works being exhibited so close to paintings by the like of Van Dyke, Kneller and Millais.

Another feature of the Festival is the GB Theatre Company performing two Shakespeare plays in the Collector Earl’s Garden. This is part of the grounds of Arundel Castle and occupies what was formerly the car park. The inspiration for the garden was Thomas Howard’s London home, known as Arundel House, the gardens of which were inspired by his visit to Italy with Inigo Jones during the 17th century. The Collector Earl’s garden was opened by Prince Charles in 2008 and are maintained to an exceptional standard by the head gardener, Martin Duncan and his dedicated staff.

During the week preceding the Shakespeare performances, both the maintenance and the gardening team are kept busy erecting the stage and the seating, laying out cables and arranging lighting and generally preparing for the influx of theatre goers.

This year the GB Theatre Company presented “As you like it” and “Romeo and Juliet, on the Friday and Saturday respectively of the Festival. The setting is spectacular, with Oberon’s Palace being used as the stage and with Arundel Cathedral as the backdrop. The performance begins in daylight, but finishes after night has fallen, by which time the Cathedral is illuminated.

Sunset over the pergola in the Collector Earl's Garden

I usually help as one of the stewards, which consists of directing people their seats, pointing them in the right direction for the toilets, ensuring that no-one strays off into the main garden and then, as our climax to the evening, tidying up after the audience has left.

This year the weather was kind to us. It stayed warm and dry on both nights, in contrast to previous years, when it has been cold and wet. Appropriately enough, a performance of “The Tempest” was disrupted by heavy rain a few seasons ago!

Being an outdoor event means that noise plays a part, with impromptu off stage sound effects coming from passing motorbikes, barking dogs and the like. This year, the scenes when both Romeo and Juliet died were accompanied by the sound of fireworks, although the display itself could not be seen. The actors continued unperturbed and finished the play to a rousing round of applause. I think William Shakespeare himself would have approved of both the setting and the performance. The romantically inclined would probably say that he was watching it himself!

Sorry this one isn't quite in focus, but it gives an idea of what the setting looks like after dark.