Rehearsing for Bartholomew Fair.Ahead of the riotous play by Ben Jonson opening in the Sam Wanamaker

Rehearsing for Bartholomew Fair.Ahead of the riotous play by Ben Jonson opening in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse next week, assistant director Diane Page reflects on the road that led her here and what the 400 year old play means today.Before becoming part of the Bartholomew Fair company at the Globe, it’s fair to say that my experience and knowledge of Ben Jonson and his work was substantially less than my experience of working with Shakespeare’s texts. When I was studying for my degree, eager to absorb as much knowledge as possible (the dreams of a first year Theatre and Drama Studies student!), I had read about Jonson in a chapter on Jacobean theatre in a book I had picked up in my university library. It mentioned a play called Bartholomew Fair. I found the play, skimmed through it and left it at that.A few years later I was invited to the Globe with the possibility of assisting on a Jonson play called Bartholomew Fair, directed by Blanche McIntyre. I quickly re-read the play and as soon as I had finished reading I couldn’t believe what I had missed the first time around. It was striking how much this play seemed to mirror much of the London I knew and had grown up in. I laughed because I recognised and knew many of these characters… and this was from a play written over 400 years ago! The lines that the characters had in the play didn’t seem a million miles from how people speak today. Being London born and bred, I was immediately excited by what Jonson’s play could mean to audiences now.Ben Jonson was born 1572 in Westminster. In his time he was a student at Westminster School, a soldier, a criminal - in 1598 he was imprisoned for a time for killing an actor, Gabriel Spencer. He was a Roman Catholic convert, a poet and a playwright. In 1614 Jonson wrote Bartholomew Fair and it was first performed in the Hope Theatre. Jonson appears to have captured a lot of the essence London, and there’s no doubt he drew inspiration from his own experience of London and the people he knew.In the play, Jonson throws these characters into a fair where suddenly we, as the audience, get to observe how people of different classes and social statuses move amongst each other and interact. Most interestingly, we get to see how those class and social statuses are largely what these characters are judged on and we get to see how they affect how others engage with them – a lot like now.When I think of growing up in Bermondsey and the changing landscape of some of the areas in South East London and other areas of London, there are some moments in Jonson’s play that aren’t so different from what I have seen. People from different walks of life still live and experience things side by side. Power and authority and who it belongs to is still as much of a talking point now as it is in Jonson’s play, and we can’t ignore the fact that money always plays a huge part.Through all of this, comedy does shine through in Bartholomew Fair, but there are moments of darkness in Jonson’s play. And just like Jonson’s London, as much as we all might love London, we can probably agree that it isn’t always fun and games.  One of the first things Blanche and I spoke about when we first met were the amount of different accents and languages in London, and what an amazing thing that was. In rehearsals the actors have been making choices that are representative of London today, one of these has been in regards to accent.  Similarly, it has been very enriching for us all to hear the company’s stories about similar events to Bartholomew Fair they’ve experienced in modern London, or what they’ve experience by just living in London and how much we collectively share just by being here. It’s probably even richer as not everyone is originally from London.As much as now, Jonson’s London was one that wasn’t without its problems. Thinking of the divisions in society in Jonson’s time, it isn’t hard to think of the divisions we face as a society now - and so it makes sense that this production of Bartholomew Fair is set in a contemporary way. The characters that Jonson came across and wrote about are the people we walk past every day and who we interact (or don’t interact) with. In a way nothing has changed. No one is out of place in this city until someone tells them that they are. Although this is a play about London, it’s also a play about people living out and being judged by their social identities. So, here it is! A snapshot of London, then and now, in all its glory and grittiness.  Bartholomew Fair opens in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 23 August 2019.Photography by Marc Brenner -- source link

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