Maureen Sullivan, the director of our summer 2024 production "The Taming of the Shrew" gives us an insight into ADLIB Theatre's current passion for Shakespeare!
Ad Lib Theatre has been well known across the Island for many years for its open air entertainments, including historical (Return of the Musketeers), literary (Canterbury Tales) mystery (Toby’s Treasure) and comedy (Daisy Pulls It Off). More recently Ad Lib has also brought to the open air stage a range of Shakespeare plays which have been just as well received as previous successes. Here’s how it happened….
2020 – yes, we all know what happened then, and a group of Shakespearean actors were planning to stage an open air production of Hamlet. The play was cast, the director all ready to start rehearsals, when the country was put into lockdown – and the production was one of so many that never happened.
By 2021, Si Lynch, the director, was determined to get Hamlet on to the Island stage – he knew he had a great cast (with one major exception – more of that in a moment); it’s a brilliant play – and Island audiences deserved to see it. I was equally keen to see it staged – Si had cast me as Gertrude, a role I’d long wanted to play! The only thing we didn’t have was a space to stage it.
The one exception was the incredibly talented Robbie Gwinnett, cast as Hamlet himself, had thoughtlessly moved to the mainland…..but Si managed to find an equally gifted actor to take the role, and once Emily Scotcher accepted, we knew we had an amazing show.
We approached Northwood House in early 2022 with a view to staging the show in association with the House – and this is when Ad Lib stepped in to offer to support us with production arrangements. An offer we accepted very gratefully: Ad Lib had an agreement with Northwood House enabling them to stage shows in their grounds – we had the play; they had permission!
So our little Shakespearean group formed the alliance we still have with Ad Lib: in fact, many of us were already Ad Lib members, including Patrick Barry who has written, directed and performed in many Ad Lib productions; we have also welcomed more long-standing Ad Libbers into the Shakespearean ranks.
Since Hamlet in 2022 (which was reprised as an indoor autumn production and became the first exterior booking for the brand new Jenny Kerry Performing Arts Centre at Ryde School) we have staged The Comedy of Errors in June 2023 and Macbeth at Bembridge Village Hall in November 2023 and we are now in the last stages of preparing the latest Shakespeare to be hosted by Northwood House in June 2024: The Taming of the Shrew. I would personally like to thank Ad Lib Theatre for taking us under its wing – we are now an integral part of Ad Lib and look forward to whatever the theatre group do after ‘Taming’ – Comedy? History? Mystery? Literary? Watch this space!!
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