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Shakespeare’s axiom, “All the world’s a stage,” rings especially true at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival with performers descending onto its stages from all over the world. That includes The Tempestuous, an amalgam of works by the Bard underscored with a wide range of classical pieces.
For performer Penny Ashton, the piece represents a reclamation of Shakespeare’s writings. “What I haven't liked about Shakespeare [is] that you often see the slavish adherence to all the scripts that a lot of it doesn’t make sense. And you know, a lot of people like to talk about, they hear the words wash over them and the rhythm and stuff like that. But if I don’t understand, I start to feel stupid and I don’t love that.”
“What I have enjoyed doing with my show is actually going through and finding tons of quotes and putting it all together into a coherent group,” Ashton explains. “When you see those Shakespeare actors who know what they’re saying and then they can really impart it, and that’s not always the case as well when you’ve seen Shakespeare.”
The classical music element of The Tempestuous adds to the timeless nature of the art that the show is rooted in. “There are these beautiful classical melodies that are timeless, that evoke these incredible emotional reactions,” says Ashton, noting the music of Verdi, Delibes, Gershwin and Puccini, among others. Her friendship with a classical music radio producer in Chicago has helped to cement the music’s nature in the piece.
“I’ve just sat and listened, you know,” explains Ashton of the process of selecting the music. “You get the ‘100 Classics’, classical songs and just sat down and listened. Like, ‘I need perky. I need sad. I need this, I need that,’ and just going through and listening to them all.”
Ashton hopes that audiences are able to take away an accessible and entertaining theatrical encounter with Shakespeare and music, with the latter being a driving force. “I just think it’s the wonder of musicals,” she smiles. “I just think it’s the power of music.”
The Tempestuous runs on the John Hirsch Mainstage at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre until the conclusion of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Tickets and more information can be found at the festival’s website.