Notable English stage director takes over Globe's Shakespeare festival


The Old Globe has two things to celebrate this month ---- its 75th anniversary and the arrival of Adrian Noble, new artistic director of the Summer Shakespeare Festival.

Noble, who spent more than two decades with England's Royal Shakespeare Company (including 13 years as artistic director), is directing two of the festival productions, Shakespeare's "King Lear" and Alan Bennett's "The Madness of George III," and is overseeing Ron Daniels' direction of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." Daniels directed the hip-hop musical "Kingdom" at the Globe last year.

A repertory company of 26 actors (including 13 students from the Globe's MFA program at the University of San Diego) will perform all three plays, which will rotate in repertory six nights a week Saturday through Sept. 26 on the Globe's outdoor Lowell Davies Festival stage. Starring in the title role of "King Lear" is Robert Foxworth, the film and television veteran who was seen last year in the Globe's "Cornelia" and 2003's "Julius Caesar." And playing the lead in "The Madness of George III" is British TV and stage star Miles Anderson. He replaces Globe vet Patrick Page, who withdrew last spring.

Noble ---- whose credits include directing more than 100 plays, two musicals, a film and an opera, as well as a recently published book on Shakespeare ---- replaces Darko Tresnjak, the much-honored, Yugoslavian-born director who founded the festival seven years ago and left last fall to return to freelance directing (Tresnjak's production of "Twelfth Night" opens Friday at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival).

Noble talked about the festival in an interview last week:

Question: After leaving the RSC, you took an extended break from directing Shakespeare. What attracted to you to this job?

Answer: I was still directing, just not Shakespeare. I felt I needed a break. Then I did it in Canada ("Hamlet" at 2008's Stratford Shakespeare Festival) and enjoyed it immensely. I wasn't wild on the cold, but I realized I missed it more than I imagined. What really stimulated it was writing the book. When you spend several months writing about Shakespeare, it sharpens the appetite. So when Lou (Spisto, the Globe's executive producer) invited me to come take over the festival, I thought it sounded like just about the perfect offer.

Q: Many of the actors you worked with at the RSC have gone on to huge careers in film and television. I read a review where a critic said Kenneth Branagh did his best work for you. Do you think that grounding in the classics in a Shakespearean company is the secret of their success?

A: Absolutely. Doing the classics is more difficult than doing new plays, and when you spend years playing all of these characters, you build up a body of skill that can't be matched in any other way.

Q: How do you find the training of the American actors at the Globe?

A: Actors are actors the world over. The difference is that here they're dealing with formal language, so that's a challenge. But I found that the cadence of the American accents works rather well with Shakespeare's words. They're very talented, very keen and very quick.

Q: Most of your career has been concentrated on the classics, do you like directing new plays?

A: I've done one or two. Early in my career, I was good at doing big classical plays with big casts, so because I had a knack for it, I was asked to do a lot of big productions and not the smaller plays. But I've done new plays by Brian Friel and Nick Wright. And I really enjoy plays by Tom Stoppard, Nick Dear and Yasmina Reza.

Q: Do you see any differences between Shakespeare audiences in America, Canada or the U.K.?

A: We brought a lot of (RSC) shows to Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., over the years, and it's very interesting. Audiences in New York were sharper than they were in London or Washington. We brought over "Cymbeline," which is a very witty play, it's sharp with a lot of puns and wordplay, and we found that the lines got a huge number of laughs in New York and we weren't used to that in London. They laughed a bit less in Washington. I've never directed Shakespeare for an audience on the West Coast, so we'll see how they react.

Q: Your predecessor, Darko (Tresnjak), was known for creating beautiful stage pictures and using a lot of elements like music, puppetry, dance and bawdy humor in his shows. I read somewhere that your productions used a lot of color and props. How would you describe your style?

A: I did have a phase where I used a lot of umbrellas and balloons, but now I don't think I have a specific style. I guess I don't like lots of scenery and I really don't like naturalistic scenery. I mean, if you put "As You Like It" in a naturalistic forest, you'd have to have rabbits and lions to keep to the theme. I think it's best to avoid it.

Q: Do you believe in cutting Shakespeare's plays or changing the time setting and locale?

A: Yes, of course I cut. People today have a short attention span. In the 19th century, audiences would watch two plays in one evening. They'd have watched "King Lear" and then sat through another play. People just can't do that today. I've cut "Lear" quite a bit, all the way through the play.

I don't change the settings for plays very often unless it works. The key is, you've got to make a world in which the play makes sense. And I certainly don't go in for having American actors perform Shakespeare with an English accent. That's silly.

Q: This is the third time you've directed "King Lear," isn't it?

A: Yes. There are one or two plays that one never goes back to because I feel like I have nothing more to say about it as a director. But with "King Lear," that's never the case, because doing the play is largely to do with the man playing Lear, and where you are in your own life. I would go back to "Lear" again in the future, too.

Q: So how is your latest Lear, Robert Foxworth?

A: He's marvelous. He's a really strong actor. He's physically, intellectually and vocally robust and he's tough as nails, but he has a very vulnerable side to him.

Q: Are you doing anything different with this production of "Lear"?

A: We move across 1 1/2 centuries. We start in the late 18th century and end in the 20th century. It starts out in a highly structured court and then moves into 20th-century civilization where we progressed to barbarianism. We got better and better at finding ways to hurt each other. "King Lear" seems the appropriate play to explore that in.

Q: Let's talk about "The Madness of George III." You had your star drop out just days before rehearsals were set to begin. How did you salvage the production?

A: Yes, we had a terrible disappointment just 48 hours before we were set to begin. It really could have been a very serious situation, because you don't do plays like "Madness of King George" without a George. But we had enormous fortune in finding Miles Anderson. When I joined Bristol Old Vic (in 1976), Miles was the lead actor there and we worked together several times over four years, then we all went to the RSC within 12 months of each other. He stayed on and off during the '80s and then went on to movies and television, then he moved to America. I didn't know what we were going to do, and then we found out that Miles was not only in L.A., but he had a green card. Talk about landing on your feet.

Q: What's he like as an actor?

A: He's brilliant. He's a wonderfully gifted actor of both very serious roles and comedy. Nigel (Hawthorne, who starred in both the play's London premiere and a film adaptation) had similar qualities as George. That's what you need, because the role requires both serious and comedy skills.

Q: Had he ever performed the role before or has he been learning it in rehearsals?

A: No, he's learned it on his feet. Fortunately, he's a quick study, and he's so focused. This play requires great concentration and effort, but I'm thrilled with the play. We've had a ball rehearsing it. You learn shocking things about how they treated mad people, and the whole script satirizes modern medicine. The play is very funny and very satirical.

Q: "Taming of the Shrew" is being directed by Ron Daniels. Have you ever worked with him before?

A: I've known Ron for a very long time, longer than he knows me. When I was a drama student, we would help fit up the set for his productions. And then when I went to Stratford (England, home of the RSC), I assisted Ron. Then I worked with him as an associate director during the 1980s. He's a terrific director, very thorough. And he's a very good teacher with young actors. He's quite eclectic; he doesn't have a style. I know he's passionate about telling the story clearly and wittily, and he's as passionate about the language as I am. That's why I asked him to do it. You have to have a cohesive style so all three plays work together, and we work together very well.

Q: "Taming of the Shrew" has always been connected with a little controversy because feminists say the play is misogynist. Are you producing it with the prologue (which treats the story of the shrew-taming as if it were a play within a play)?

A: The controversy is a bit passe in England. We're doing it without the prologue. I think it stands fine on its own. I think Ron sees it as a very romantic love story, which I think is absolutely correct. I saw a production of it when I was at Stratford (in Canada), and I was so upset I took my kids out at the interval. It was about bashing up Kate. I didn't want my children to see this. This is not what the play is about. You think you're making it feminist having people treat her like s---, but this is a lie. It was a production that hated women.

It's a play about love, but love is complicated. Love does contain violence and passion plus emotion plus sex ---- It's fireworks.

Q: Do you get fireworks from the two actors you've cast as Petruchio and Kate?

A: Samantha (Barrie, Globe casting director) found them in auditions, and she's a genius. I told her I wanted actors with volatility, a great skill with language and very attractive. We found Jonno Roberts on the West Coast and Emily Swallow on the East Coast, and they've got great chemistry.

Q: You've brought in your own design team for this year's festival. What can you tell me about them?

A: I brought over the costume designer and lighting designer from England. Deirdre Clancy worked with me for 20 years, and she's one of the world's great costume designers. Alan Burrett and I worked together on my last "King Lear" and he now lives in San Diego. And Shaun Davey, a great friend of mine in Ireland, did the music for "King Lear" as a favor. We're using the same set designer, Ralph Funicello, whose work I liked a lot. He came over to England and worked in my house with me on the set design.

Q: Will this year's set be different from the standard one Ralph has designed over the past several years?

A: Yes, it will. For one thing, it will wrap around the audience a bit more.

Q: You've said you have enjoyed working at the Globe this spring and summer. Is there any chance you will make this an annual thing?

A: We're already talking about next year and I've got some ideas. We'll see how it goes.

Summer Shakespeare Festival

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, June 12-Sept. 26 (some performances begin at 7 p.m., check schedule for details)

Where: Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, Old Globe, Balboa Park, San Diego

Tickets: $29-$78; there are 14 onstage seats for "Taming of the Shrew" performances priced at $19

Info: 619-234-5629


"King Lear"

Shakespeare's late tragedy is the story of a foolish English king whose kingdom is destroyed by his own vanity. King Lear is driven mad when his two cruel daughters and their power-hungry husbands take control of the government, banish him to the wilderness and ultimately kill those he loves most.

When: Previews, 8 p.m. June 12, 13, 24, 25, 26; Opens July 6 with performances July 10, 14, 16, 19, 22, 24, 29, 30; Aug. 3, 8, 10, 11, 15, 19, 25, 28. 29; Sept. 3, 5, 8, 11, 17 and 23; 7 p.m. Sept. 8 and 14

"The Madness of George III"

Alan Bennett's 1991 political satire is inspired by the true story of how the English king's bouts with mental illness led to the Regency Crisis of 1788. The play was made into a 1994 film titled "The Madness of King George."

When: Previews, 8 p.m. June 19, 20 and July 1, 2; Opens at 8 p.m. July 3 with performances at 8 p.m. July 9, 13, 15, 21, 28, Aug. 1, 5, 13, 18, 21, 24, 26, 21, Sept. 4, 16 and 24; 7 p.m. Sept. 7, 12 and 22

"The Taming of the Shrew"

Shakespeare's early comedy is the story of a fortune-hunting rogue who marries a temperamental woman for her family's fortune and seeks to tame her willfulness with kindness.

When: Previews, 8 p.m. Wednesday and June 17, 27 and 29; Opens at 8 p.m. July 7 with performances at 8 p.m. July 8, 11, 17, 20, 23, 25, 27, Aug. 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 22, 27, Sept. 1, 2, 9, 10, 15, 18 and 25; 7 p.m. Sept. 19, 21 and 26