When in Rome: The Bard’s Italian Roots

Typing “Shakespeare” into Google returns 152 million search results in a heartbeat. Impressive, no? “JK Rowling” flags up a comparatively half-hearted 93.4 million, “Bronte” warrants a paltry 45.8 and “Roald Dahl” a barely worth mentioning 8.43. Even with cyberspace E-readers and newfangled publicity campaigns, contemporary writers don’t hold a candle iPhone camera light to good ol’ Bill’s pulling power. Dare to utter the word “Shakespeare” in the majority of public places, though, and you’ll be sniggered at, swerved and branded pretentious. Despite being lauded across the syllabuses as top dog of British literature, the Bard remains a question mark to thousands: apparently off-limits to the masses and the guarded preserve of the world’s snootiest. I took a module on Shakespeare during my first year as an English undergrad (it was obligatory) and found it Countdown-dull until I did my own digging. The snag in the course, for most of us at least (a select and overwhelmingly pompous few claimed to relish it), was that we were pitched in the deep end without a float. Having hitherto scraped by with knowledge of one or two plays, Wills was still a great, fat, bearded blank. Exams aside, it hits me now as a crying shame that Shakespeare’s connotations precede him; if he could be dissociated with the idea of drabness and stodgy plots it might just mean those 152 million search results could inflate still more. Now, BBC2 isn’t renowned for its particularly enlivening subject matter but last night’s Francasco de Mosto-fronted “Shakespeare in Italy” did a stellar job of sprucing up Shakespeare’s image. Was it all factually accurate? Who knows; conspiracy theories about what the man behind the pen actually wrote rather than nabbed off others are ten-a-penny, but the show’s attempts to excite genuine interest in those very sorts of issues shouldn’t be sniffed at.

Brought to life: The show used actors to recreate certain scenes

Crucially, the focus of De Mosto’s Italian excursion was Shakespearean work itself; it must have tempted the show’s producers to make it a sideline of the picturesque Italian scenery or mute it with failsafe and recognizable adaptations, but Shakespeare claimed centre stage. First order of business: explain why Italy is even remotely connected to the most quintessentially British of powerhouses. By beginning with the basics (over a third of Shakespearean plays use Italian backdrops, Italy was the cultural hub of the Renaissance, etc) the show ensured the most clueless watchers were swept along for the ride. De Mosto succinctly outlined (as well as anyone can, with Shakespeare) the premises of “The Taming of the Shrew”, “Othello”, “Much Ado About Nothing” and, to cover all eventualities, “Romeo and Juliet”, and let the works dictate the shooting itinerary. Constant and unedited reenacted scenes sprung up whenever De Mosto relinquished control, and, in one segment, he gave “Romeo and Juliet” some contemporary grounding by dropping in on the building rumored to have once belonged to the family behind the Montagues. Continuing in this vain (eat your heart out, Luhrmann), he headed to meet the nearby “Club of Juliet”. This troupe of bubbly Oprah-ettes act, in the name of the play’s heroine, as agony aunts to dozens of troubled lovers worldwide each year, and producers wanting to give the Bard some modern applicability hit the jackpot when they sought them out; the “Guilliettas” obligingly shared their most touching notes, including those from a prison inmate desperate for a visitor and a homosexual looking for love.

Inspiring: De Mosto toured Italy searching for Shakespearen influences

Not content with detailing and breathing some long-awaited freshness into the plots, De Mosto braved the sticky area of intertextuality. In my own ill-fated module we spent a couple of lectures on this that bored me to tears; the idea that Shakespeare essentially stitched together others’ work and in cases even neglected to edit names. When the initial revelation is over it gets a bit stale, and this was far and away the hour’s lowest point. Ovid was quoted, the (apparently) renowned Italian poet Petrarch was credited with handing Shakespeare the sonnet form, and it was all left behind before it got too painful. Again, drab as it might have been the show’s producers were resolute in making this a legitimate exposition of Shakespeare, and credit must be given to them for not letting it detract from his wider rejuvenation.

The producers openly stressed that a lot of what we “know” about Shakespeare is conjecture; when talking about his so-called “lost years” (between 1985-92, when his whereabouts is still disputed) De Mosto conceded that Shakespeare having ever been to Italy was a debated point. It was a risky strategy: to call a show “Shakespeare in Italy” and then admit Shakespeare might have always stayed out of Italy, but it opened up doors that other producers would have been forced to keep closed. De Mosto was like a journalist on heat when investigating Shakespeare’s supposed unhappy marriage, affair with “The Dark Lady” Emilia Bassano and eventual eccentricity. Kind of takes Brad’s thunder away, doesn’t it?

Passionate: De Mosto took his job seriously

With the show’s success resting on whether or not it could ignite a spark of passion in the face of Shakespeare-apathy, De Mosto was the model presenter. His own passion for the Bard was tangible, his heavy Italian twang spot-on (and although the snaps of his childhood were unjustifiably irrelevant, they at least gave us a glimpse of how he had evolved into such a curious Raymond Blanc/Margaret Mountford mash-up). When he was briefly joined by Emma Thompson, who was struck by Shakespeare-mania when starring as Beatrice in 1993’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, I thought they would implode with eagerness. The pair wound up visiting a stage director for the play who proudly showed them the cream of his 27000-strong prop collection. Much as I wanted to be carried away with Emma and De Mosto’s hysteria, it sadly dipped into the shameful for a few moments; Emma caressed a piece of cloth that could have been my mother’s old net curtains like it was Shakespeare’s own hand and her counterpart got disproportionately distracted by a fan. The Renaissance stage was a colossal part of the reception to Shakespeare’s plays, granted, but it struck me as markedly redundant to a modern audience and removed from this show’s agenda.

I guess any way of making Shakespeare less of a big bad for contemporary audiences deserves commendation, and a show as determinedly anti-highfalutin as this one is especially welcome. After stacks of coursework, presentations and handouts Shakespeare remains a no-go area to the majority of our school leavers, but De Mosto rustled up engagement after less than 60 minutes. Someone, please, give Michael Gove his number.

One Line Wonder

Chief Guillietta (similing sanguinely, unaware of how her advice has affected countless people around the globe): We don't have any background in psychology so we just give suggestions, just like a friend would, maybe even making mistakes.