Shakespeare is Dead
What’s in a Name?
Shakespeare is Dead
devised by the Junior Young Actors Company
Richmond Shakespeare Society’s Junior Young Actors Company at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 22nd June
Review by Ralph Stanhope
When I discovered that the Richmond Shakespeare Society was staging an hour-long play for their Junior Actors Company entitled Shakespeare is Dead, to be played by six teenage girls, I immediately wanted to see the results, and did so on their final Sunday matinée performance.. The results were quite something.
The plot is quite basic, but excellently composed. The schoolgirls are sheltering from a massive flood in the Town Hall and cannot venture outside; in fact they are marooned for nearly a week. They cannot find a key in the room they are trapped in and look without success, but they do find the entire Shakespearian plays in a cupboard. At this point, let us not bother about how such a thing could possibly happen; indeed there are several “clues” to steer them to investigate between each other many of the plays and see what they could learn. Each schoolgirl bears the name of a Shakespearian heroine, as I explain below, but the first speech starts with “All the World’s a Stage” and then expands to include a number of other well-known lines. We note how they befriend each other in what is basically an emergency and gradually start to relate The Bard’s 16th and early 17th Century words to a 21st Century situation.
Thus, the atmosphere has to be claustrophobic and indeed it was. The actors were trapped as they were in a waiting room with no windows and only one inside door. There were individual scenes, which occurred from time to time, where the girls were grouped in static, but different positions – a fine piece of direction – but it added to what they were discovering, namely the plays and indeed themselves.
As they read through specific parts of plays, they were able to compare some aspects of the plots to their own situation. In Hamlet, for example, they looked closely at “To be or not to be”. We were continually informed, via a radio which was presumably in the room, of the gradual drying of the floods and eventually they were able to leave. The finale was an excerpt from the play scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which – surprise, surprise – the RSS itself is presenting this coming July!
The pace of the production was extremely good, and the acting was of a high standard. Abi Best (Hermione) takes my main accolade: a strong, decisive performance. Salawe Notley (Helena) runs a very close second. Helena is quite an infuriating character, and Salawe got her absolutely right. Rebecca Malhotra (Miranda) was most interesting. She had little to do in the opening scenes, but as the action processed, it became clear that her calm composure and gradual domination made her the real leader. I do not forget Sandra Nistor (Juliet) and Daisy Turner (Viola), both of whom were essential members of the team and strong, steady supports.
The girls’ names in the play were thus linked to the characters they played. Hermione in The Winters Tale is fiercely protesting her innocence in front of her husband, Leontes, and giving him “what for”. Helena is the spirited, sometimes petulant girl in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Miranda is of course in The Tempest, with the famous line “O brave New World that has such people in’t.” Viola and Juliet are loyal to the end, one to Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night, the other to her Romeo.
My final comments constitute a day of enjoyment. It is most important we support Youth Drama Groups. They have a lot to offer and will surely advance further. The director, Jenny Tucker, has my sincerest congratulations for creating a fascinating production.
Ralph Stanhope, June 2025
Photography courtesy of RSS
Mark Aspen 