Avon calling

WITH its new theatre, Sarah Freeman finds that Stratford finally has a venue that Shakespeare would be proud of.

Stratford has a funny habit of bringing the past back to haunt my family.

The last time I went, nearly eight years ago, an ex-boyfriend unexpectedly popped up on stage in The Merchant of Venice. He was standing with his back to the audience, but I recognised him by his ears. He didn’t have more than two lines, but I wasn’t listening to the iambic pentameter. For most of the three-hour production I was left wondering whether our relationship might have survived at least a couple more months if he’d just occasionally worn Elizabethan dress while we were going out?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This time, the trip is a belated birthday present to my mum. It was held over from last year when the Royal Shakespeare Theatre was still closed, undergoing a much-needed revamp. It turns out I have managed to book us into the hotel where she went on honeymoon – with her first husband.

Still, at least we are going to see Romeo and Juliet, who, when it comes to doomed relationships, hold pretty much all the trump cards. My mum also assures me that she’s looking forward to seeing what’s happened to the Welcombe Hotel in the intervening 40 years, and the last I heard, my ex had moved to New Zealand.

There is something comforting about visiting Stratford. It’s one of those places that doesn’t change much. Whatever the weather or the time of year, there will be groups of sixth-formers on a day trip with school, sitting along the river bank; in the Black Swan pub, known to locals as the Dirty Duck, you’ll always find aspiring actors talking as if they’re just one role away from an Oscar and, of course, there’s Shakespeare. Lots of Shakespeare.

There’s his birthplace, the room where he apparently ate his dinner as a young boy, the cottage where he and his wife, Anne Hathaway, raised their family, the farm where his mother lived, and numerous artefacts which almost certainly belonged at one time to The Bard.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, if you can see past the Shakespeare tea-towels, fridge magnets and pencil-sharpeners, the bulk of The Bard tourist industry is done tastefully.

His birthplace had a makeover a few years ago – and it shows. Gone are the dusty and overly highbrow interpretations and, instead, the attraction is now a cross between a theatre and the museum.

The house itself can be a bit of a squash, but thanks to the new introductory rooms, which come complete with a narration by Patrick Stewart, the experience has been given a much-needed lift and feels value for money.

Sadly, the same can’t be said of the Falstaff Experience. Entry costs £5. We were back in the gift shop within five minutes. It’s an odd collection of exhibits and mannequins which look like they were found in the back of a skip, and while it’s also the home of various ghost tours, the really frightening thing is that two years ago, someone decided it was the best visitor attraction in the whole of Warwickshire. It’s hard to imagine what came second.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Enough moaning, it’s the theatre that attracts most people to Stratford. The RSC only reopened at the end of last November, and its novelty value hasn’t yet worn off. The remodelling project took almost fours years and, as is the way with these things, the end result divided opinion.

Our taxi driver – it’s only a 20-minute walk from the hotel into town, but we’re on holiday – isn’t impressed with either the new one-way system or the theatre, which is now attached to a 118ft viewing tower. He says it looks like a crematorium chimney. He’s not wrong, but then the RST has never been what you’d call beautiful and it’s what they’ve done inside that counts.

The new thrust stage design of the main auditorium brings the audience up close and personal with Shakespeare’s plays and, thankfully, they also seemed to have spent a bit of money on the air-conditioning.

We were lucky enough to see Rupert Goold’s acclaimed Romeo and Juliet, perhaps the funniest production of a tragedy you’re ever likely to see.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Goold’s current updating of The Merchant of Venice to a 21st-century Las Vegas casino has just begun a six-month run, and the five-star reviews have already started to flow.

Back at the hotel, which has added a luxury spa since my mum was first there, we finish off the weekend with a gin and tonic. It’s an impressive, rambling, old-fashioned kind of place, and while some of the rooms would benefit from a lick of paint, it’s a welcome refuge from the crowds in the town centre.

We will definitely be back, and this time we won’t leave it so long.

GETTING THERE

* CrossCountry Trains run services from York and Leeds to Birmingham which connect to Stratford-upon Avon.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

* We stayed at the Menzies Welcombe Hotel, which is currently offering a two-night stay for £279pp. 01789 295252, www.welcombehotelstratford.co.uk

* For accommodation, special offers and more information visit www.Shakespeare-Country.co.uk or call Shakespeare Country on 01926 471 329.

Related topics: