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Edward de Vere was one of the 16th Century notables,
one of the dashing young men much admired by Elizabeth I, proposed
as the real author of Shakespeare’s work. The main reason for
doubting that Will had a way with all those words is that he had a
relatively poor Grammar School education as opposed to the
University wits of contemporary writers, e.g., Christopher Marlowe.
Those supporting this view are dubbed anti-Stratfordians, their
cynicism possibly due to their lack of a tea shop or Band B upon the
Avon. I digress.
My main
reason for recalling de Vere is that he famously had a fallout with
another darling of the Elizabethan court, Sir Philip Sidney during a
game of tennis calling him ‘a puppy.’
‘You
puppy!’
So off I
trotted with my tail held high to Rosehill Theatre to see George
Dillon, solis, in his Edinburgh Festival Fringe 5 Star hit ‘The man
who was Hamlet’.
To me
it’s a bit like The Loch Ness Monster. You don’t really believe it,
but you still want to go along to have a look, and buy a tea towel
.Or a mug.
The stage
was empty, but for a red book and a skull. Enter a man in black and
white thrusting a sword in slow motion. Ominous music. So it began.
A veritable crusade through the life story of de Vere, beginning
with watching his own father perform on stage and liberally
sprinkled with allusions to Hamlet, Macbeth, Titus Andronicus, As
You Like It....and as I found out later de Vere’s own poetry. It
seemed a clever way to hang certain speeches in line with the
apparent influences of his writing.
Thus we
continued through a biography of de Vere; being adopted by Lord
Burghley, the killing of the cook, the marriage to Burghley’s
daughter, his affair and illegitimate child with the Queen’s lady in
waiting Anne Vavasour -and subsequent imprisonment in the Tower, the
Grand Tour in Italy, attacked by pirates at sea and so on until the
death of Elizabeth and finally himself. The rest was er... silence.
He
encounters the young Shakespeare twice to illustrate young
Shakespeare’s provincial lack of learning. Once at Dudley’s
Kenilworth Castle fireworks extravaganza and once in a cameo of
Midsummer Night’s Dream (disappointingly without a comedic Brummy
accent!).
It was a
cunning plan to pick a controversial subject and to deploy it so
economically. There was humour without it being hilarious. It was
professional and polished, with strategic lighting and music. I
don’t think he set out to convince , merely entertain us and he did
that in a very accomplished manner, leaving the audience in awe of
his stamina!
Whilst
having a quick post performance drink, a little man entered the
foyer carrying a huge rucksack on his back, armed with a long, thin,
green canvas package. He sketched a goodbye and headed off for his
train. We wondered how he would explain to the police having in his
possession a skull and an unbuttoned sword. There’s the rub.
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