The garden play is an Oxford Trinity Term special, and yet not every college offers one. Or rather, not every college offers one, yet. Hoping to start a new tradition at Green Templeton College (GTC) this weekend – staging As You Like It in the college gardens – I caught up with the producer Kapil Narain and director Fitzroy ‘Pablo’ Wickham. After convening at the Schwarzman Centre only a stone’s throw away from GTC, they greet me with big smiles as we settle down to discuss.
Since this is their first garden play, I inquire with Kapil why now is the time they have decided to bring the tradition to GTC and how he has become the standard-bearer. He tells me he is simply passionate about drama in general, and while indeed he watched various garden plays last year, he looked around his own college and realised they did not have the same opportunity. “GTC just didn’t have anything there, when we have loads of people who love theatre – I thought let’s get something going!”. Of course, he adds, it ended up being slightly more complicated than this, but his motivation and college cooperation was able to carry it through to actuality: “I did have to think of all the steps and processes of starting something new, but luckily college is so supportive and we soon got a full team, crew and cast”.
A part of this was selecting similar theatre-enthusiast Pablo as director, who may be at St John’s College, as opposed to GTC, but this actually leads him to appreciate the GTC gardens as a particularly unique space. He tells me that in his first tour of the premises, he sensed that the gardens lend themselves to a natural playing space, “so many colleges have beautiful gardens but they end up being not so good as a stage space. GTC has so many creative elements that can be incorporated seamlessly, so much going on with entrances and exits, for example – it is not another boring quadrilateral!”. This is the first time he mentions college Head Gardener Michael Pirie for his work and partnership; his name keeps popping up in admiration and appreciation as we continue our conversation.
GTC has so many creative elements that can be incorporated seamlessly
Sticking with Pablo, I ask him why he decided on Shakespeare’s As You Like It for this inaugural production. To my surprise though, he reveals that it was Kapil who chose the play, as GTC’s garden play originator and thereafter searched for a proper crew including director. Kapil blushes and tells me it was a big decision; he initially found a group of passionate students and at first they considered doing a series of short plays. But, the more he thought about it, the more he realised that never having done a garden play (let alone any play at the college) before was the very reason to go big: “this is our first production, let’s do a full, serious play!”. A “full, serious play”, of course, equals Shakespeare. As an English Literature student, I could not agree more.
I can also immediately see why As You Like It lends itself particularly to outdoor production, with a forest setting making up a large proportion of scenes. Kapil adds that As You Like It emerged as a perfect choice being one of Shakespeare’s not unknown but not-too-frequently performed plays, “it straddled the balance nicely”. It turns out that Pablo too, despite not having meditated with As You Like It for too long before being brought on board (“what’s your vision… well I don’t have a vision” he jokes was what the experience was like) is closely familiar with Shakespeare, including having acted in The Two Gentlemen of Verona directed by Sir Gregory Doran at the Oxford Playhouse.
Thus he was able to summon a vision quickly nonetheless, which had to start with cutting some of the scenes to a two-hour show with a fifteen-minute interval, “apparently it’s not ethical to keep people sitting for longer than that”. He immediately gives credit to the cast, saying it’s still a “whopping amount of lines to be learned, and the way they take to it, able to not just memorise lines but draw out emotions, makes my job so much easier”. This appreciation of the cast shines through from the both of them – apparently they did not get a huge amount of auditions, “but the ones we got blew us out of the park!” Kapil exclaims.
A part of these practical audition outcomes actually led to some artistic creativity. As if anticipating my next question of whether they are doing anything unique with their interpretation, Pablo tells me that they have cast the two Dukes as Duchesses: “I wish I could take credit for turning the dukes into duchesses, but we just got so many auditions from women, and when I saw them and was immediately like ‘they are my dukes’”. It happens to work fruitfully for a play that already features gender-swapping within the plot, as well as complicates the female relationships within the text; Pablo does not mind admitting the “brothers take back seat” for their interpretation.
A ‘full, serious play’, of course, equals Shakespeare.
Kapil adds that they have tried to tease out the fact that As You Like It is an extremely layered play, “lighthearted at times, but actually quite serious in theme” (as one starts to realise most Shakespeare comedies are). Pablo vehemently agrees, and tells me that his personal focus in this vein has been foregrounding forgiveness and accountability, particularly with regards to the ending – “I really want audiences to sit with the accountability aspect after”.
The one thing they then stress to me that they cannot be held accountable for though is the weather, which turns out has been their biggest challenge. Whether a heatwave or thunderstorm, within two weeks or a day, the changeability of Oxford’s weather recently has given Pablo and crew a real headache for scheduling rehearsals. They are even making a contingency plan for the performance weekend itself since there is a chance of rain, “though different apps give different things!” Kapil sighs, which would be a shame, since “the actors have fallen in love with the garden” Pablo adds.
But, they are both trying to remain positive – I ask them for their favourite memory to lighten the mood and Pablo suggests “teaching the cast how to skip: how to be whimsical, make a fool of yourself, liberate yourself!”. We are back to laughter while Kapil reflects that for him, it has simply been seeing everything come together, from starting with writing two-dimensional emails to now organising three-dimensional rehearsals. It is definitely clear to me that everything within their control has been handled with passion and attention, from the original compositions featuring four musicians, the hand-sewn costumes, and the creativity with props (a wheelbarrow anyone?).
I really want audiences to sit with the accountability aspect after
I have become thoroughly excited for the show by this point; as has the rest of Oxford, presumably because a highlight they both also mention is that they have sold out all show dates a week before. Kapil confessed he felt “huge relief”; Pablo tells me he had “no doubt”. A limited number of tickets have now been added here, for shows from 7th-8th June.
Before I leave, I ask what being part of this experience has meant for them and what they hope to leave as a legacy. Kapil emphasises that he hopes to have inspired an annual tradition: “if I were to come back in twenty years time and see a garden play, I would be happy”. Pablo leaves me with the elusive “I want people to question civilization in general”. As I say goodbye and walk out in the now-drizzling rain, I only hope that this weekend the play will go exactly as they like it.
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