We are Madeleine Carter and Rebecca Feely, Australian and Irish theatre makers currently pursuing our Masters in Shakespeare & Creativity at the Shakespeare Institute.

Fury is a series of monologues based on Shakespeare’s characters that have been adapted into different modern contexts. Written, directed, designed, and performed by the MA Shakespeare & Creativity Ensemble.

As we have been doing the majority of our masters online, and our cohort was split in two for our last practical project, we didn’t really know each other very well before we took on this role together. Very quickly we realized we matched one another well artistically and we’ve yet to have a major disagreement over this project! 

From the beginning, we talked through and approached everything as a team. We knew that as Artistic Directors we had to work closely with each creative department (including Producers, Designers, Writers and Directors) in order to create a piece that followed a clear visual and thematic language. 

Writing was placed at the centre of this project, so each writer was free to explore the character they were really interested in. We had a wonderful writing workshop with Juliet Gilkes Romero who really encouraged our creativity and gave us great tools as we moved forward with our project. We collaborated with each Director to discuss their directorial decisions in relation to the overall piece, to ensure an overarching sense of ‘ensemble’, and also offer ongoing support. 

Fostering a sense of ensemble online while working on monologues was challenging and so we really wanted to impart a sense of collaboration between the various creative teams and partnerships to create that feeling of ensemble.Our priority was to instill a sense of trust and consistency; a challenge with half the process on Zoom!

After our first full read through we had a conversation with the producers about the various themes that arose and connections between the monologues. We noticed that each character reflects a rage against the world and/or its injustices, thus the title “Fury”. It also brings to mind The Furies, the ancient Greek goddesses of revenge and as all of our actors identify as female, it really resonated with us. We then worked with the dramaturgs to order the monologues so that as the production progresses, we begin to see characters deal with their fury in more constructive or positive ways away from characters who are dealing with their fury in destructive ways.This was important to us because we want to leave our audiences with a message of hope.

Please join us for a showcase of new writing that brings to life Shakespeare’s characters in all their fiery, ferocious glory as we explore their worlds; including King John, Edmund, Lady Macbeth, Ariel… and they’re begging to tell their stories. 

I understand a fury in your words (Othello 4.2)

My name is Eleanor Sutcliffe, and I am a 2020 Joint BA Hons in History and Drama graduate from The University of Kent, now studying for a Masters in Shakespeare and Creativity.

In Fury, I will be appearing in the role of Helena of Athens, who audiences will likely recognise from Shakespeare’s celebrated comedy A Midsummer Nights Dream. They may think they know Helena from the play, but I would like to invite audiences to stop and think again. While in the play, Helena chases after an unrequited love and achieves it with the help of mischievous fairies, my Helena is a woman who is searching for closure and comes to realise her own self worth which is not defined by how others see her, and thus moves forward into an uncertain but exciting future.

Before embarking on this project, I had little experience of acting for screen compared to acting for the stage. The limited experience I had to build on were brief roles in short student films created during my Undergraduate degree. The monologue was filmed in the kitchen of the flat I share with co Fury Artistic Director Rebecca, which presented its own difficulties such as relying on the natural day light, moving around on a floor that was covered by kitchen items such as pots and pans with boxes cluttered around, and finding positions for the camera to stand to capture what the director needed which was found by trial and error.

Moreover, I have seen multiple productions of A Midsummer Nights Dream over the years, and I have long felt that Shakespeare shows a woman who is reacting to the events that she is caught up in as a result of following Demetrius into the forest, and whose journey going forward in life is manipulated by others. A production of the play which I felt I wanted to draw some inspiration on was in 2015 at The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival where Helena was played by a wonderful actress called Alice Lamb, who brought a feistiness to Helena who wasn’t afraid to physically defend herself against the male characters, trying to woo her.

I felt I could relate to Helena in this in a number of ways. Particularly the feelings which come from being made to feel worthless by those I thought I trusted and battering my self-worth. These things made me determined to do the character as much justice as I could by using my performance to show her as a strong woman confronting and rising above the wrong committed against her. I would like to thank RSC Actor Martin Hutson for his advice in his Acting Workshop which boosted my own self-worth and thus enhanced my confidence in playing the role. In addition, by drawing on the current climate of progression being made of COVID easing, I wanted to use my performance to ensure that Fury ended with a sense of hope and excitement for the future to come for the audience watching.

I come from a theatre background. At university I worked in the scene shop building sets and painting backdrops. I worked in the costume shop. I did everything I could to learn all aspects of the theatre so that as I moved into being teacher I would have a solid understanding of how each part of a production works with another to create a successful show. Over the years I have taught theatre, directed school productions, been a member of a professional ensemble, and worked with children as a theatre technical director using their design work to create the set pieces for their shows. Each production I have worked on has taught me something new about working in theatre, with others, and about myself.  

There were three designers working on the Fury project. I was the designer for the monologues Richard III, Helena, and Edward. When I am working as a designer, the first thing I do is to read the script that I am going to be working on. As I read, I take notes on anything that the writer may suggest in terms of costume, props, and setting. From there I have a conversation with the director to talk about the vision. What is the director visualizing? How can I help make it a reality? Are there any suggestions that I have from my reading that might help with the overall visual concept? From there I start working on pulling together colors, set pieces that I think might work, and then I create drawings for the director to look over. Then there is another conversation to be had – what does the director like? What did I get wrong? There is some back and forth until we are in agreement on the designs.

In a theatre setting, I’d be working with builders and props and costume to bring these designs to life. In the world of Covid and an MA program I was pulling items for cupboards, looking in charity shops, and making do with what’s on hand, and occasionally putting in an online order. For me, having to ‘make do and mend’ is a creative work. It’s one thing to have a budget and scene shop making one’s designs a reality. But to have to figure out what one has on hand and how can it be made to work it an exciting adventure. Thinking about how things will look on a screen versus on a stage was another consideration that had to worked through. The original costume ideas for Richard III had to be re-thought due to the camera not being able to handle pattern. The director and I did not want the audience to be distracted by pixelated patterns on the screen rather than the words Richard says. So, in the end, a different shirt was chosen. It's a small thing that might not be anything to worry about in a staged production, but was important to work out for filming.   

Fury is a collection of individual monologues and one duologue put together under a common theme. I wanted to figure out what I could do with my designs that would bring these three individual pieces together. I thought a lot about color palette and then prop pieces that could be used in all the pieces. You will find black and red in the three pieces. Candles show up in two of the pieces that I designed and the duologue to reach across another of the pieces. It’s a small detail, but visually I hope it will subconsciously work on the audience to bring the pieces together on another level than merely the overarching title and the thematic concept as set by our Artistic Directors.  

Enjoy! 

Reimagining Shakespeare—whether it be as an actor, a director, a writer, or designer—can be intimidating. The cultural memory (and sometimes baggage) that is attached to the Shakespearean canon means that situating his characters in a new context has the potential to provoke passionate responses in your audience, especially if they venerate the Bard. With Fury, we are asking our audience to put their trust in us as we take beloved characters from Shakespeare and reimagine them as modern people living in a complex, messy world—while still retaining their Shakespearean essence.

My personal writing ethos is inspired by one of my favorite poets, Adrienne Rich, and her theory of writing as “re-vision.” In her essay When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision, Rich defines re-vision as “the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction…an act of survival.” With a playwright like Shakespeare, who was writing in an historical moment when so many voices were excluded from public discourse, let alone the public stage, I believe this re-visioning is imperative. With a project like Fury, we invite our audience to see themselves in Shakespeare’s canon, and imagine further possibilities for inclusion.

My piece, which re-visions Edmund from King Lear as a disaffected young woman seeking an identity separate from her father and brother, reflects my life-long obsession with the dark side of Shakespeare and my love of playing with gender. I’ve always been drawn to Edmund as a character, and I jumped at the chance to imagine him in a new context, this time as a young woman. There’s a reason why actors salivate over Edmund’s “bastard” speech in 1.2, after all—Edmund is a master manipulator, a skilled wordsmith, an unrepentant playboy, and an emotional powder keg. He has a magnetic quality to him that draws us in.

But what I was really interested in with Edmund (or “Eddie,” as I call her in my piece) is the “Why?” What was it like for Eddie growing up? What sort of modern-day familial conflict might compare to the events of the play? When did she first realize that something in her family life didn’t feel quite right? How long was the pain boiling inside her, waiting to bubble over? What do you do when you’re becoming an adult, trying to find yourself, and you find out a painful secret from the past that threatens your sense of identity?

I hope the audience of Fury will go along with us on a journey through Shakespeare’s canon that asks such questions, allowing us all to see another side of this iconic stories. It was a truly wonderful experience to work with my classmates, the RSC, and the Shakespeare Institute to imbue these classic characters with new life, and I cannot wait for our audience to reimagine Shakespeare with us.  

Unlike many of my peers in this cohort, I do not come from a background in theater. I’m more experienced in the literary side of Shakespeare. I’ve always loved seeing plays and performances, but never really got involved with it personally. However, I’m slowly growing to really enjoy the technical aspects of theater, not only seeing the finished product. In this collective ensemble piece titled Fury, one of my roles was to direct the re-imagined monologue of the character Portia. From the beginning, I was excited to tackle this challenge of directing (which was a new role for me) even if we couldn’t be there together in person.

With directing Portia’s monologue, it was not easy, as my actor Allison lives in another state halfway across the country. At the start, the two of us sat down and discussed how we wanted to see Portia portrayed on the screen, and brought our ideas to the writer, Rebecca. Allison is very talented and brought this wonderful script to life. We collaborated through most of this process (on Zoom, naturally) and created a mood board, discussed costuming, makeup, and every other detail you can think of.

Our overall vision for Portia, was to have a sophisticated and intelligent woman facing her fears of failure and visions of guilt swimming through her subconscious. They come to a head near the end of the monologue and become evident through her emotional state. As a less experienced director, I really wanted to make sure that the writer’s wants were taken into consideration and bring our collective vision to life.

This has been an interesting learning experience, to say the least. One of the best things about project, is that we are allowing other audiences to experience it with us. Nearly anybody can watch this production – you don’t have to be there in person, you can just log onto the website and see how all our hard work has manifested into these theatrical performances of re-imagined Shakespearean personas.

Please, take some time to explore these thought-provoking and complex monologues inspired by some of your favorite Shakespeare characters.

King John
Actor: Evey Reidy | Director: George King | Writer: Allison Acuff

Jessica
Actor: Madeleine Carter | Director: Lucy Hines | Writer: Emma Ettinger

Lady Macbeth
Actor: Evey Reidy | Director: Eleanor Sutcliffe | Writer: Emily Wilson

Richard III
Actor: Bethany Latham | Director: Kristian Comer | Writer: George King

Portia
Actor: Allison Acuff | Director: Chantelle Reider | Writer: Rebecca Feely

Cecily & Elizabeth
Actors: Ruth Bertram & Bethany Latham | Director: Liesl Bolin | Writer: Lori Shanebeck

Edmund 
Actor: Madeleine Carter | Director: Bethany Latham | Writer: Evey Reidy

Ariel
Actor: Emily Wilson |  Director: Emma Ettinger | Writer: Madeleine Carter

Marc Antony
Actor: Allison Acuff | Director: Lori Shanebeck | Writer: Chantelle Reider

Helena
Actor: Eleanor Sutcliffe |  Director: Rebecca Feely | Writer: Lucy Hines

Producers: Liesl Bolin | Emma Ettinger 

Artistic Directors: Madeleine Carter | Rebecca Feely

Company Manager: Evey Reidy

Dramaturges: Ruth Bertram | Chantelle Reider

Designers: Ruth Bertram: King John, Lady Macbeth, Ariel | Liesl Bolin: Richard III, Edmund, Helena | Kristian Comer: Jessica, Portia, Cecily & Elizabeth, Marc Antony

Editors: George King: Richard III, Cecily & Elizabeth, Edmund, Ariel, Marc Antony | Bethany Latham: King John, Jessica, Lady Macbeth, Portia, Helena

Marketing: Eleanor Sutcliffe | Emily Wilson

Lighting Designers: Lucy Hines | Lori Shanebeck

Sound Designers: Allison Acuff | Kristian Comer 

Costumes & Make-up: Ruth Bertram | Eleanor Sutcliffe | Emily Wilson

This film was produced following Covid-19 protocols including social distancing and other health and safety measures as outlined by the British Film Commission and the University of Birmingham.


Sound and Music:

Epidemic Sound:
Ghost in the Machine – Craft Case,  Ravenhead – DEX 1200, Down the Alleyway – Damon Greene,  Shimmy – Moins Le Quartet, Diamonds in the Sky – Yi Nantiro, The Beach – Sonic Spark
SFX Producer: Crowd Walla 4, Fluorescent Light Flicker, Steel Door 21, Electric Short 2, Alarm Smoke Detect 1

Movavi Storyblocks Audio Library:
Bone Grinder – Jon Presstone, People Laughing, Classical Music, Ring Tone, Cellphone Ringer, Cellphone Alarm

Musopen:
Moonlight Sonata

Kristian Comer:
Click, Gavel, Windchimes

Abigail Rokison-Woodall, Rebecca White and Sally Delbeke at the Shakespeare Institute

From the RSC: Tom King and the Education Department,  Natasha Goodge and the Marketing Department, and the Video Department
 
Chandler Vance, Josh Duckmanton, J. David Brimmer
 
Juliet Gilkes Romero, Owen Horsley, Anisha Fields, Martin Hutson, Karl Dixon