SHAKESPEARE in the COWSHED

For 60 years, Shakespeare productions have been staged on a tiny Dorset island. A member of the theatre company tells us how this tradition evolved – and how a simple cowshed plays a crucial role

STEPHEN ANNANDALE

Outside there’s a face-stinging January easterly wind freezing the ardour of would-be Romeos and Juliets. Radiators are superfluous in the crowded audition hall, which hums with hope and anticipation. All are momentarily silenced by the Lady Bracknell-style utterance “A cowshed!” I’m an audition evenings volunteer with Brownsea Open Air Theatre (BOAT), explaining to an actor how we manage to turn a cowshed into a shared dressing room fit for traditional open-air Shakespeare. The cowshed on Brownsea Island is BOAT’s unseen star, serving as a storeroom, workshop and dressing room since 1964. That year, to celebrate Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, Joyce Caton and Edna Clarke, longstanding members of the Bournemouth Little Theatre Club, wanted to stage an open-air production, which then was a ground-breaking proposition. Finding a location was the challenge. Brownsea…

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Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, Mar/Apr 2024

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