All the world's a stage at Ripley Castle

Sprite productions is back at Ripley Castle with its now well-established outdoor Shakespeare performance. Nick Ahad spoke to members of the company about this year's production.

UNFORTUNATELY I appear to be bad luck for the brave souls of Sprite Productions.

Whenever I'm in Ripley watching their outdoor performances I seem to bring bad weather.

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Today they are safe as I speak to director Alex Hassell and producer Liam Evans-Ford from the safety of Leeds, and it's hard not to be envious as the sounds of birds chirping in the background provides accompaniment to Hassell talking about the beauty of the grounds where he will stage this year's production.

"It's so thrilling to get to do a production in a place like this, especially to come up from London and have such beautiful grounds to work in with the actors," says Hassell.

"It is the perfect play to stage in the grounds, with the themes of the forest and nature, I really can't imagine anywhere more perfect."

This is the sixth year that Sprite Productions, run by husband and wife team Liam and Hester Evans-Ford, have brought their outdoor brand of Shakespeare to Ripley.

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Now a firmly established fixture in the annual calendar at the castle, Liam has big plans for the future, including, possibly, a tented autumn production – but first, to the present.

As You Like It, this year's production, is already guaranteed to be an audience favourite.

Through its own website and through the Yorkshire Post, Sprite Productions asked its audience members what play they would like to see performed by the company.

Evans-Ford says: "We had a fantastic response – around 700 people emailed to tell us what they wanted to see.

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"It was another way of talking to our audiences and engaging with them and essentially giving them what they wanted. It was really interesting to see their responses, there were a lot of surprises in there as well."

Sprite had left the question open and asked their audiences to pick whatever they wanted. The Famous Five, The Odyssey and Peter Pan were some of the more surprising answers – all of which received multiple nominations. Perennial favourite A Midsummer Night's Dream came in second place and the surprising choice for number one spot was As You Like It.

Evans-Ford says: "The reason we asked people to vote was because I didn't want to do As You Like It. Now that we've been here for six years, we're in a position where it would be easy to get on a cycle of shows and just do all the obvious ones and this, a comedy set in a forest, is absolutely the obvious choice. I would have chosen something a little less likely, but when the audience resoundingly said to us that this was the one they wanted to see – and A Midsummer Night's Dream came in second place – it was great to have the decision made

for us."

As You Like It is set largely in the Forest of Arden and while not regarded as one of Shakespeare's best plays, it does contain one of his few brilliant female roles.

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The play tells the story of Rosalind, daughter of a usurped Duke who flees to the Forest of Arden disguised as a man, accompanied by the jester Touchstone.

A complex tale of love ensues in the forest, with love notes posted on trees from various people in love with various others.

While As You Like It is one of the lesser performed of the Shakespeare canon, it contains one of his most famous speeches: "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players". Director Alex Hassell has taken this as a way into his version of the play.

The obvious great strength of Sprite's annual productions in Ripley is the setting in and around the grounds of the castle, owned by Sir Thomas Ingilby, who has supported the young company since its inception.

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Hassell says: "To have these grounds to work in is really quite something. I wanted to bring something of that famous speech to the grounds, turning the whole space into our performing area, and having the actors explore the spaces we have is a fantastic way to do that."

Hassell has collaborated with Evans-Ford for the past couple of years through the company they run together, The Factory. This experimental company brought it's anarchic version of Hamlet to Ripley for one night last year.

The concept of their work sees plays like Hamlet done on the hoof, with audience members interacting, bringing their own props to be used and the actors choosing their parts by the toss of a coin or a vote from the audience. The shows are a huge hit in London and Hassell is bringing some of that sensibility to Ripley.

"Touchstone is a great character and we are working with a fantastic actor, who is able to improvise and who we've worked with through Factory," says Hassell.

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"There are historical records that suggest Touchstone may have been an improvised role during Shakespeare's day and there are certainly parts of the script that suggest he makes topical jokes and references, so we decided to bring some of that spirit to this role."

With the quality of the past few years to rely on and the excitement of Factory's reputation, the ingredients are there for another memorable Sprite production.

If only the weather stays fine.

Ripley Castle, June 22 to July 11. Tickets on 01423 770632.

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