Rehearsals proving festive for Shakespeare's return to Ludlow

With less than two weeks to go, rehearsals for the return of the Bard to Ludlow's annual festival are coming along apace, with actors John Challis and Eric Potts set to come to arrive for final dress rehearsals next week.

The performance of As You Like It, produced in association with Stafford Gatehouse Theatre, will run from June 14 until June 22. It will be the first Shakespeare performed at Ludlow Castle as part of the festival for two years.

Director Peter Rowe said rehearsals were two and a half weeks in.

"We're all really looking forward to seeing what it will feel like in the grounds of the castle," he said.

"I've directed the last five years at Stafford Castle, but I've never played Ludlow, so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with it.

"There's something magical about doing these shows outside, when the sun starts to set and the lights come on - but there are the vagaries of the weather that make it a challenge."

During the show's 11 performances the audience will be covered over for comfort in a specially constructed seating area, but the actors will be performing under the stars - or rain clouds.

"There is a lot of talk in the play about how the characters would much rather be out in the wind and rain, so that will be tested by the weather.

"But if there are any showers it will all be taken care of by the script," he said.

He said the historical play was being brought up to date - almost - by being set in the 1960s, following two exiles, one a duke who creates a court in the woods, contrasted with their former city home, an austere cold-war-era court.

"There's a sense of this alternative culture, like a 60s love and peace encampment," Mr Rowe said.

"The grit in the oyster is this melancholy loner Lord Jaques (Challis) who is very keen to moralise at everyone - he's entertained by this hippy-dippy community, but he's not taking part."

He said Challis, best known as droll yuppie Boycie in Only Fools and Horses, was proving ideal for the part

"He's great, it suits him very well, it's perfect casting for the character," he said.

"The more regular clown is Touchstone (Potts) who is always joking around."

Potts is an actor director, best known for roles in TV soaps Coronation Street and Brookside.

He said the show would be full of music and have an appropriately festive mood.

"It starts as a tragedy, these people having their homes taken away, but the progress from dark to light in this is very strong, and it end with four weddings and a song and dance," he said.

"I know there's been a break in the long-standing tradition of Shakespeare at the Ludlow Arts Festival, so we're really looking forward to reinstating that, and this particular play will suit that environment very well.

"I think it will be really full of energy, we're having a great deal of fun putting it together."