Review: Polishing Shakespeare (Assembly Rooms)

Brian Dykstra’s axe-grinding defence of Shakespeare is unshakably stiff

Who amongst us can say they didn’t use “No-Fear Shakespeare” for their English exams at school? No one who took them in the 2010s I assure you. I am a defender of the series offering line-by-line translations of Shakespeare plays in “plain English” to bring young people into the theatre. But I confess, I too bristled reading the description for Twilight Theatre Company’s Polishing Shakespeare, by Brian Dykstra and Margarett Perry. Based on a real project from 2015 in which 36 playwrights were commissioned to “translate” the Shakespeare canon, this three-handler imagines a power tussle between a wealthy donor (Dykstra), an artistic director (Kate Levy), and a playwright (Kate Siahaan-Rigg) to create an “accessible” (read dumbed-down) rewrite of Henry VIII.

It begs the question; who has actually seen Henry VIII? According to Siahaan-Rigg’s playwright, it is one of the least performed in the canon for how obsequious it was as a commission from Queen Elizabeth I. Wouldn’t it be good to give it a new lease of life? The debate is far from one-sided and provides plenty of food for thought on what art (particularly theatre) is for. The industry procedure that allows whoever has the deepest pockets to dictate what kind of work is made comes under heavy scrutiny, with barely disguised contempt in Dykstra’s script. In fact, Dykstra’s opinions are barely disguised at any point in the play. Even though the characters have different motivations (if not personalities) they all end up being mouthpieces for Dykstra, and not just in their attitudes.

Photo Credit: @CarolRosegg

The writing is essentially one long stream of consciousness, performed by a cast who have become experts at perfectly timed snappy delivery. It is the exact same style fellow Twilight writer Brian Parks displayed in 2017’s Enterprise and last year’s Shortlist, the latter of which was also directed by Perry. Expect rapid-fire repetition, alliteration, and wordplay, like Dr Seuss on steroids. There’s no denying that being able to write like that is a talent (albeit seemingly heaving influenced by Parks), and to give Dykstra credit the Shakespearean touches (especially the meter) are commendable. But slow it down and it is insufferably baggy and stiff, and I would argue that it doesn’t treat the audience with much more respect than a dumbed-down Shakespeare adaptation. It is the ultimate literary overstimulation: a wordy overload that patronises the audience just as much as any Layman’s Henry VIII might. The only difference is just how smug both the audience and the company are. Two stars.