Creation's decade

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Once upon a time, Romeo -- not to mention Juliet, Hamlet, Bottom, and just about every other Shakespearean character -- emerged each summer from behind the bushes in almost every Oxford college garden.

A bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but there used to be an awesome amount of outdoor Shakespeare to choose from -- and, let's be frank, not all the productions were of the highest standard.

I still have vivid memories of a dire Romeo and Juliet, whose director believed that not a single word of text should be cut.

As all the college clocks struck 11, the production was still grinding relentlessly on. Even the mosquitoes had gone to sleep.

Many of those old companies have long since vanished into oblivion, but that certainly doesn't apply to the Creation Theatre Company, which is just embarking on its tenth anniversary Oxford summer season.

Creation also began with Romeo and Juliet, but I bet their production didn't go on for half the night.

This is one reason, no doubt, why Creation founder and artistic director David Parrish is able to report: "We planned Romeo and Juliet on a bedroom floor, and 3,500 people saw it.

"Now, in our tenth year, we are expecting 45,000 people to attend our shows over the next 12 months."

Juliet was played in that first production by Nina Bowden, who was just 13-years-old at the time.

Speaking from her present home in Paris, Nina told me: "I still remember that summer very clearly, from the first audition on my 13th birthday to the final performance at the end of the summer.

"I was the youngest member of the company by at least ten years, and we spent practically every day together for about ten weeks, but it was a fantastic experience and an incredible learning curve.

"There are a few moments that stand out, such as flying off to Dublin to find an Irish Romeo just after I had been offered the part, or performing in street shows in the centre of Oxford for publicity.

"For one of these shows, the other actors in costume pretended that their Juliet could not make it, and so they asked for a volunteer from the audience to help them out.

"I, pretending to be just another passer-by, offered to fill in, and after I had 'miraculously' produced the entire balcony scene 'out of nowhere', one astounded American exclaimed 'gee, these English kids really know their Shakespeare'.

"The production was quite low budget, but that only added to the sense of ensemble, as we would all pitch in in every way possible to make the show a success.

Although the performance was in an idyllic setting (Juliet's balcony being a Japanese bridge over the river), we had to battle against all sorts of distractions and interruptions -- from sirens constantly sounding on Magdalen Bridge to rowdy picnickers passing on their punts, and the ringing of church bells, which once went on for the entire length of a matinee performance.

"I remember having to work quite hard on my voice projection, to make sure that I could be heard -- projecting to be loud enough made it quite difficult to convey some of the more sensitive scenes in a convincing way, such as the sonnet spoken when Romeo and Juliet first meet.

"Another difficulty was the weather. One night, mid-performance, lying as Juliet 'dead' in the tomb, the heavens opened and I was left on stage in the pouring rain, not knowing whether to get up and run, or to stay put to maintain the suspension of disbelief."

The idea of setting up a new Shakespeare company came to Creation founder David Parrish a little over ten years ago.

He explained "I made up my mind when I was in drama school that I should at least produce a show whilst I was there. So I did that.

"Then I came to Oxford, and I was in a show at St Edmund Hall. To be honest, it wasn't very good, but I had a thoroughly enjoyable summer, it was beautiful. There were 200 plus people coming along every night, it was something like £8 a ticket back then."

"The idea of forming Creation actually came about in some men's toilets in Teddy Hall, which I shared that year with a chap called Adam Stephens.

"This was our dressing room. There we were, slicking back our hair, and getting changed in these out of the way toilets.

"I said to Adam 'This is ridiculous, this is basically an amateur show, directed by a student. We could do this better'. So we started talking about it, over the sinks, while getting ready to go on stage."

But given the amount of competition, did David really think he could 'do this better'?.

"We had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for, in a sense it was foolish arrogance.

"And then when it nearly kills you the first time you do it, you're perhaps a little bit chastened.

"But the show was quite good, and a lot of people came. So by the time we said 'what shall we do now, let's do it again', we had decided we needed to up the stakes, and up the ante, so that's what we did for year two.

"We did a production of Macbeth in 1997, and managed to learn so many lessons from year one.

"But even though year two was tough, really hard -- I found myself playing Macbeth as well as running the thing -- it went so much better. So our baptism of fire helped us."

Why has Creation continued to flourish, when so many others have fallen by the wayside?

David thinks long and hard before answering this one.

"It's because, somehow or other, I've been able to talk some very good people -- actors, directors, backstage staff - into working with us. How do I do that? I suppose I convince them that we have high aspirations.

"Even though things are still done on a shoestring, people have kind of believed us when we've said 'we want to do fantastic theatre'. We want audiences to leave saying 'wow, that was something special'."

And David's worst potential disaster?

"In 1999 we were about to do Antony and Cleopatra.

One week before we were due to open, something went horribly wrong with the Antony we were supposed to have, without going into the details.

"So we lost Antony. Then the next day the actor playing Cleopatra phoned and said 'David, I've just been to the John Radcliffe, and I've broken my foot. But I've got a plan'. And there I was, due to open five days later.

"But by opening night we had a new, very muscular Antony, called Damian Davis, who had already learnt half of the script, and Cleopatra was there on crutches, acting her heart out."

Creation Theatre's tenth anniversary season opens with As You Like It on June 3, and runs until August 9. A Midsummer Night's Dream joins the repertoire on July 7, continuing until September 10. Both shows are staged in Headington Hill Park. The box office is on 01865 245745.