The Bard and Bowie unite in the Trestle Youth Company's latest production (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

The Bard and Bowie unite in the Trestle Youth Company's latest production

2:41pm Thursday 26th March 2009 in

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What do William Shakespeare and David Bowie have in common? Well, on the surface you would be forgiven for thinking not much, but that has not stopped Trestle’s Youth Company bringing the two together for a full-scale production of the Bard’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, which the group will perform for free next week.

“It’s going to be a modern production with an ‘80s twist,” explains Taking Part co-ordinator Anna Crompton, “think sparkle, lots of hair gel, and a little bit of a David Bowie influence. It is all set against a stark, minimalist background.

“The kids wanted to set it historically and the ‘80s is historical for them. The director of the youth theatre, Laura McFall, is keen on that period as well and has worked with David Bowie themes before. It came about as a joint collaboration.”

Following the teachings of the Trestle’s artistic director Emily Gray, this latest production, as with all the work that comes out of the Trestle, began from the point of “fun and playfulness”.

“We started by looking at the characters in terms of the physical, how you represent them with the body and how they interact,” Anna says. “Then we created images and those images were workshopped. Only after a month of doing that was the text introduced. That way the kids were comfortable with the characters they saw. The text is the finishing point rather than the place to start.”

And it is quite a text to grapple with, as lovers Claudio and Hero find their path to marital bliss fraught with betrayal, sabotage and trickery, while the stubborn Beatrice and Benedick continue to hide their true feelings behind their comic bickering.

In order to empower the young performers, who are aged 13 to 18 from various schools around St Albans as well as a few from north London, the whole three-month project has been a thorougly collaborative process. Indeed, the teenagers were even involved in the casting.

“There were no auditions as such, it was very democrative” Anna says. “They know each other well enough to know their strengths and weaknesses and first of all they worked out who was best suited to the character physically. It was a very mature approach, everyone was accessing each other’s performances. It’s very rewarding working with them.”

Much Ado About Nothing runs at the Trestle Arts Base from Monday, March 23 to Tuesday, March 24, 8pm. Details: 01727 850950 (free). The new TYC term starts on April 20