Mixing fact with fiction

Nick Fearne’s new light-hearted romp, Playing A Round With Shakespeare, is currently entertaining audiences across the Highlands and Moray, writes Susan Welsh

Published:

TAKE the history of golf, add a dash of witchcraft, ancestry and the story of Macbeth and throw in a drop of whisky for good measure and what do you get?

Playing A Round With Shakespeare, a comical play which mixes historical fact with fiction, myth and invention.

The production, penned by Nick Fearne and presented by Wildbird, an arts company based in Moray and founded in 2006, is currently visiting venues across the Highlands and Moray.

Nick, who is arts development officer with Moray Council, has previously hosted two visits by the Royal Shakespeare Company and commissioned the National Theatre of Scotland to present The Elgin Macbeth in the ruins of Elgin Cathedral as part of Moray’s Highland 2007 programme.

Prior to joining Moray Council, he was director of Aberdeen Alternative Festival and arts development officer with both Ross and Cromarty and Banff and Buchan district councils.

He has written and directed for youth theatre, Christmas shows and community plays, and recently adapted Romeo and Juliet for three actors.

His latest play, which combines golf and Shakespeare, is especially relevant in the Year of Homecoming.

The plot sees James VI of Scotland become James I of England.

As a true Scot he introduces the game of golf, a Scottish invention, to England.

William Shakespeare is at the peak of his popularity and a favourite with the king. In order to keep on the right side of his king, Shakespeare reluctantly agrees to accompany James, who has a keen interest in ancestry and witches, on a homecoming golfing trip to Forres.

Shakespeare hates the game and as he struggles through the wind and rain his mind starts to turn to evil thoughts, plotting to kill his king with a blow to the head from a five iron.

But, realising which side his bannock is buttered, he finds an outlet for his frustration and misery in a new play set in Scotland in which a lord murders his king in order to claim the throne and fulfil his destiny at the same time.

Perhaps with a suitable ending showing James’s lineage, the play will take the king’s mind off golf.

You can see Playing A Round With Shakespeare at the following venues: the Public Hall, New Deer, tomorrow at 7.30pm; Edinvillie Community Hall, Edinvillie, near Aberlour, Saturday, at 7.30pm; Pennan Village Hall, Pennan, Monday, November 16, at 7.30pm; Warehouse Theatre, Lossiemouth, Wednesday, November 18, at 8pm. Tickets for some of the venues are available at www.neatshows.org.uk, otherwise buy them from the venues.