Guest Blog: The Faction's Rachel Valentine Smith On Staging Shakespeare In Selfridges

Shakespeare captures all facets of the human experience. It's this universality that is appealing to The Faction, and part of why his global playwright status is being so widely celebrated across the world with Shakespeare400: as a revolutionary with unending spirit and appeal; as a writer of mischief, mayhem and madness; as an artist with revolutionary ideas.

As a multi-award-winning company passionate about producing classic plays for a 21st-century audience, Shakespeare has always been the backbone of The Faction's work, and we wanted to capture some of that mischievous spirit in this anniversary year.

So, having heard a whisper on the Shakespeare400 grapevine, Mark (Leipacher) and I found ourselves in a rather zen office just off Wigmore Street to meet with a senior creative manager at Selfridges.

We were introduced to the entire Selfridges Shakespeare Refashioned campaign, which stretches from the infamous window displays to bespoke perfume design, grime gigs and of course to theatre. Setting a collaborative and open tone from the start, we were asked to present some ideas of what The Faction could potentially contribute.

What a joyful question to answer. Our brainstorming minds were set in motion and we presented a menu of small, medium and large-scale ideas (printed on yellow paper - The Devil's in the detail). The top of the large-scale list was the suggestion of a fully-fledged theatre with the aim of presenting a full scale Shakespeare production.

Indicative of Selfridges' commitment to innovation and ambition, fast forward nine months and here we are on the brink of technical rehearsals for our newly created production of Much Ado About Nothing in the reFASHIONed theatre, a custom-crafted, 122-seat Studio Theatre on the lower ground floor of Selfridges.

Much Ado About Nothing always seemed like an excellent choice for this project. It is a brilliant comedy, full of vim, vigour and vivacity, and its themes seamlessly speak to modern audiences. It is also the right scale for the space. The team at Selfridges were part of this decision, but all through the journey they have been very open and receptive to The Faction's ideas and expertise.

This has been very much in the name of authenticity. We were all very keen that the theatregoing experience for Much Ado About Nothing is as much like going to a permanent Studio Theatre in London. The fact that this theatre is to be found at the heart of the Selfridges building is of course going to offer a lilt on that experience, and one that we find very exciting.

Selfridges has long been forging collaborations with talent from a huge range of disciplines and backgrounds, such as Wayne McGregor and most recently James Massiah (who has been part of the spoken word performances for Shakespeare Refashioned). The overall company-wide campaign has had many strings to it and has presented and celebrated the whole process of theatre-making - from working with RADA, presenting training workshops, throughout the rehearsals and to performance.

We see it as a responsibility as theatre-makers to consider and devise new ways to bring new audiences to theatre. The joy of presenting Much Ado About Nothing in a theatre space exercising that idea to the maximum, making work in an already populated space that's housed in a building designed for another use, feels truly unexpected and, we hope, intriguing to new audiences.

New spaces, especially non-traditional theatre spaces where theatre happens, always present new challenges, but through challenges come opportunities. Communicating the rehearsal process to people from outside of the industry has been a fascinating, and often humbling, experience: having to take yourself right out of the process as if you've never made any theatre.

Space is one of the points on the triangle of theatre fundamentals. Architecture can be a silent partner in the relationship of play and audience, but it is something that is impossible to ignore as a director. That doesn't always mean the physical structures, of course, but the atmosphere, the people, the feeling of the space.

The shared passion and pursuit to deliver exceptional experiences for the public between The Faction and Selfridges has driven us to challenge ourselves in new ways and has opened up possibilities to work with Dusthouse and MAC.

The dialogue has already been opened with the customers on the shop floor, as a company of four actors are performing pop-up scenes from A Midsummer Nights Dream and Romeo and Juliet there three times a week. Seeing the joy that this brings the customers as they are going about their day is infectious, and I hope it will carry through to the audience experience in the auditorium.

Speaking of joy, Much Ado positively emanates joy. There are face ache-inducing scenes, and working with our magnificent cast who handle the text with aplomb is really wonderful.

The challenge is the unknown. As a new and yet temporary space in an unexpected home, it is impossible to know how people will receive it as an overall experience. Yet until you've tried something new - who knows where it will lead? It's that Shakespearean spirit which has been our guiding principle on this incredible journey.

Much Ado About Nothing is at Selfridges' reFASHIONed theatre, 23 August-24 September. Tickets available from www.selfridges.com

Photo credit: Ricky Payne

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