Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon

Although Stratford-upon-Avon remains a small market town closely linked with the Warwickshire countryside, it has now become a gathering-place of all nations. This has been brought about by the remarkable growth of the interna­tional appreciation of Shakespeare, due in part to improved communications and publicity, but largely to the development of education, in which the teaching of English and the study of Shakespeare's plays have played an important part. Whereas a century ago visitors to Shakespeare's Birthplace numbered some six thousand a year, the number is now nearly a quarter of million, of whom more than half come from abroad representing nearly a hundred different nationalities. The other Shakespearian properties attract similar attention, while the international audience at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre during the Shake­speare Season emphasizes that Shakespeare no longer belongs to Stratford but to the world.

Since 1949 Stratford companies have visited Australia, New Zealand, Ger­many, Holland, France, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia, Poland and Russia.

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre now has a permanent London home in the Aldwych Theatre. At the same time the academic side of Shakespearian study has received considerable impetus. Students and teachers from abroad come regularly to take part in courses of study and the library, records and theatrical collections of the Birthplace and Theatre are increasingly used.

It follows that provision for visitors in the way of hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and amenities has been made and the Shakespeare had added not merely to the prestige, but also to the prosperity of his native town.

remarkable — замечательный; appreciation — оценка, уважение; to represent — представлять, изображать, указывать, символизировать, быть представителем; to attract attention — привлекать внимание; to emphasize — делать ударение (на слове, на

факте); permanent — постоянный, неизменный; amenity — любезность, приятность; prestige — престиж prosperity — процветание, благосостояние, благоденствие

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A Great Saga

We went to the theatre at 2.00 p.m. and left at 11.45 p.m. — fifteen minutes before midnight. A long time to sit in a theatre, and hard work for the actors too. A lot of them played two or even three roles. But the actors did not show their fatigue and the only signs of tiredness from the audience were the creaking of seats as they changed position to get comfortable after long hours of sitting still. And for eight and a half hours the theatre was filled with laughter, tears, cheering and booing.

The play was adapted from Charles Dickens' novel "Nicholas Nickleby" and it was directed by Trevor Nun and John Caird. It was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre in London.

The theatre was packed and going to that play was like going to a huge party. The audience talked and laughed with each other and with the actors during; intervals. Then the actors rejoined the rest of the cast and continued to entertain us with this magnificent saga.

Well, my friends and I talked about the play until 3.00 a.m. The wholeexperience was triumph for a fine British writer and for British theatre at its best.

Fatigue — усталость; creaking — скрип; booing — освистывание; to adopt — принимать; to be packed — быть заполненным; huge — огромный; magnificent — великолепный, пышный, первоклассный; triumph — триумф, победа, торжество, ликование

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Theatre

Four hours later it was all over. The play went well from the beginning; the audience not with standing the season a fashionable one, were pleased after the holidays to find themselves once more in a playhouse and were ready to be amused. It was an auspicious beginning for the theatrical season. There had been great applause after each act and at the end a dozen curtain calls. Julia took two by herself and even she was startled by the warmth of her reception. She had made the little halting speech, prepared beforehand, which the occasion demanded. There had been a final call of the entire company and then the orchestra had struck up the National Anthem. Julia, pleased, excited and happy, went to her dressing-room. She had never felt more sure of herself. She had never acted with greater brilliance, variety and resource. The play ended with a long tirade in which Julia castigated the flippancy, the uselessness, the immorality of the idle set into which her marriage had brought her. It was two pages long and there was no another actress in England who could have held the attention of the audience while she delivered it. With her exquisite timing, with the modulation of her beautiful voice, with her command of the gamut of emotions, she had succeeded by a climax to the play. A violent action could not have been more exciting nor an unexpected denouement more surprising. The whole cast had been excellent with the exception of Alice Crichton. Julia hummed in an undertone as she went into her dressing-room.

to amuse — забавлять, развлекать; auspicious — сулящий счастье, благоприятный; beforehand — заранее, вперед; to demand — требовать, предъявлять требование, спрашивать; the National Anthem — Национальный Гимн; to be sure of oneself — быть уверенным в ком-то; brilliance — блеск; variety — разнообразие, многосторонность; resourse — способ, средство, изобретательность; tirade — тирада; to castigate — исправлять, бичевать; flippancy — легкость, невдумчивость, дерзость; immorality — безнравственность; idle — праздный, бесполезный, пустой, ленивый, тщетный; to deliver — произносить; exquisite — изысканный, прелестный; denouement — развязка, заключительный эпизод, исход

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Sibley and "Manon"

Ballet fans will no doubt have read James Kennedy's article about Antoinette Sibley. In it he mentioned the new ballet "Manon" which Kenneth MacMillan created for her and Anthony Dowell and which made its very successful debut in March.

She herself talked revealingly about this new work in an interview which appeared in "The Times" of 7 March and from which we have taken the following extract.

"To have a three-act ballet created for you", she said, "is absolutely the most important thing in a dancer's life. One has to search one's heart and soul for the truth to bring alive whatever the choreographer intends. But it's so tremendously fulfilling to have the chance to do it and know that a little bit of you, something of the way you moved, is going to become part of ballet".

By coincidence, she and Dowell had seen Visconti's production of the Puccini opera while they were dancing at last year's Spoleto Festival. They were so bowled over by it that one getting back to London they told John Tooley, Covent Garden's general administrator, he simply must get this production for the Royal Opera, and were surprised how non-committal he was. The explanation came shortly afterwards when MacMillan gave them both a copy of Prevost's novel for their holiday reading.

How much help was the book in creating the character in movement?

"Well, the ballet is nearer to the book than the opera, but where Kenneth has been so clever, I think, is in simplifying it and making it all clear. When I first read it I found all those jumps in time confusing, one person telling another about what happened in the past.

"I think Manon really was just a girl who wanted to have her cake and eat it too. Because she had been so poor, she wanted sensual things and the kind of happiness wealth can bring, then she fell in love with someone who was poor. And when she finally made up her mind what she really wanted, it was too late. But I suppose she could have said "No" when her brother tempted her to the other kind of life; she wasn't really that innocent."

She relies a lot on the music and is delighted to be dancing to Massenet. "It's so wonderful to have really passionate music again, music you can sing when you come home.

“I get all my motivation, as they sat now, from the drama and from the music. These are what get me moving, enable me to find something inside myself that goes into the role. I have to be able to listen to the music, that is why I cannot dance to electronic music, because I simply do not know how to hear those plinks and plonks and bumps."

to make a very successful debut — очень успешно дебютировать; revealingly — открыто, откровенно; three-act ballet — балет в трех частях; to search one's heart and soul for — проникать (пронизывать сердце и душу); to intend — намереваться, значить, подразумевать; tremendously — страшно, ужасно to have the chance — иметь возможность; coincidence — совпадение; случайное стечение обстоятельств; to bowl over — сбить, привести в замешательство; to simplify — упрощать; to make smth. clear — прояснить что-либо; sensual — чувственный, плотский, сладострастный; wealth — благосостояние, богатство; to fall in love with smb. — влюбиться в кого-либо; to make up one's mind — решить; innocent — невинный, простак

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