Propeller started life ten years ago at The Watermill Theatre in Newbury and has been touring and winning awards with its all male ensemble productions of Shakespeare’s work across the world ever since. In February they made their first visit to Norwich’s Theatre Royal, a venue they will hopefully return to having raised the bar of touring shows to the East with two of the finest productions of Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream I can remember seeing.

Artistic director Ed Hall has created a company in the truest sense of the word – they are all permanent members and cannot be sacked, instead sacking themselves if they wish to leave. This ethos seems to create a feeling of ownership on stage; that the performers have created the show together using the script as little more than a blueprint from which to develop a unique production. Coupled with this is very clear story telling; although at pains to point out that they are not making Shakespeare “accessible”, (thereby suggesting that normally the plays aren’t), Hall still puts at the root of his work the basic premise that anyone should be able to walk in off the street with no prior knowledge of the play and understand it.

There is no doubting the success of this approach. The inventiveness of the staging is by turns clever, funny and surprising, but no conceit ever gets in the way of what the actors are doing. The Merchant of Venice is set in a prison, whose towering barred walls well accentuate the heightened emotions and sense of entrapment and potential escape that run through the play. The Dream’s equally simple set is lent the vital sense of magic by wonderful costumes and Ben Ormerod’s beautiful lighting, together with some great stage trickery.

But it is the company who make these shows. Richard Clothier’s nonchalant Shylock, who calmly and laughingly continues to demand his pound of flesh as though it were no more than a couple of quid, revealed moments of deeper sadism with the cool execution of a barbaric act of violence, although sometimes his relaxedness became an irritation as he ploughed through some great scenes with an unconvincing lack of concern. The same actor’s Oberon the next night borrowed some of Shylock’s self assured arrogance to create a truly threatening and untrustworthy shadow, but one who spoke with simple and beautiful clarity some of Shakespeare’s most lyrical poetry. However in a non-star led company of this quality everyone deserves praise; from the sensitivity of Bob Barrett’s Antonio, to Richard Frame and Babou Ceesay’s hysterical Hermia and Helena, and Jon Trenchard’s feisty Puck the whole cast exuded a sense of proudly presenting something wonderful they were making for us each night. Someone said to me just before going into see The Merchant, “Isn’t it time we just got over Shakespeare and moved on?” As I sat surrounded by enthralled school kids, (admittedly some of them just waiting to have a laugh at two blokes kissing), Propeller proved that that may never have to be the case.

Listen to an interview with Ed Hall on the Platform show podcast of Feb 1st on www.futureradio.co.uk

www.propeller.org.uk

Words > Henry Layte