If I were ever invited to appear on the TV programme ‘Room 101’ I
know what at least one my nominations would be: people who qualify the
adjective ‘unique’.
The definition of unique that there is literally nothing like the object,
experience or whatever being described. Nothing, therefore, can logically be
described as ‘very unique’, rather unique’ or ‘a bit unique’ – it either is or
it isn’t. If a comparable thing exists, uniqueness is lost.
Which means there are actually very few unique things in this
world: but on Saturday I experienced one of them. For – until and unless
another is discovered – The Rose Theatre on Bankside is the only remaining
Elizabethan theatre in the world – on the globe, I nearly wrote, but that would
tread on the toes of its near neighbour, which is of course – ha! – just a
replica.
Of course, The Globe does boast a few things The Rose lacks –
walls, a full size stage... not to mention heating and toilets. But at The Rose
one is in the presence of the actual, original, sixteenth century theatre –
admittedly only the foundations, but the intention is that once these remains
have been excavated and properly preserved, visitors to what will be a museum
and working theatre will be able to stand almost literally in the shoes of
Shakespeare, Marlowe and other great figures who trod the boards here.
To support The Rose Revealed Project towards this aim, the theatre
hosted its second Readathon on Saturday: anyone who wished to was invited to
sign up to take part in or watch the reading of one or more of six plays which
were performed, one an hour, from 2pm. Five Shakespeares and one Marlowe.
When I turned up for the first Readathon last year I expected
trained actors to be on hand to take the main roles, with those who had
effectively walked off the streets to be offered something like ‘Second Soldier
on the Left’.
Not a bit of it! Every person who has expressed an interest drew a
slip from a hat bearing the name of a character so each actor had an equal
chance of playing Hamlet, Lady Macbeth or Dr Faustus.
This did result in a few amusing castings, such as a strapping
young man playing Ophelia while a petite lady played opposite him as Hamlet,
but the actors and audience took this all – quite literally – in good part, and
if anything it added to the enjoyment and entertainment.
Although billed as a Readathon, and although there was no requirement
to do so, most readers performed as well, so rather than, as it could have
been, a static readthrough, the effect was that of an early rehearsal of a play
at which the cast had not yet had time to learn their lines.
As an audience member for one play, I found I could disregard the
fact that the actors were holding scripts and for the main part enjoy it as I
would enjoy a play in performance. As a reader for other plays, I thoroughly
enjoyed not knowing exactly how others would interpret their roles, and acting
and interacting with them.
