On a perfect summer’s day by the Avon it was the turn of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater to take the stage at the Swan
It was really rather a surprise to stumble across Shakespeare in his native tongue after the revelatory pleasures (I do not jest) of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a cornucopia of Indian languages and of Titus Andronicus in a phenomenally eloquent guttural Japanese. On a perfect summer’s day by the Avon it was the turn of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater to take the stage at the Swan for its contribution to the RSC’s international exploration of the complete works of the bard. My only previous experience of Shakespeare performance on the other side of the pond has been Vancouver’s immensely enjoyable ‘Bard on the Beach’ summer festival held in tents on the very shore of the Pacific. The prospect of a Chicago company showing its paces suggested something rather grittier — the programme speaks of the city rearing actors who are ‘stormy’, ‘husky’ and ‘brawling’ — but in the event the experience wasn’t quite like that.
Somewhat improbably founded on the rooftop of a pub in 1986, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater now has a permanent home in the city’s popular tourist area of Navy Pier. There’s an affinity in that the design of its 500-seat Courtyard Theater is inspired by that of the Stratford Swan, but the panoramic views from its glass-fronted lobbies are of the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan rather than of the Avon. What, then, of the company’s view of the playwright whose name it bears?
Maybe the first thing to say is that there’s nothing very noticeably ‘American’ about the style of performance. No doubt the company would take that as a compliment, though as one who relishes the infinite variety of possible interpretation I confess to a degree of disappointment.
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