Source: Radio New Zealand
Original 1961 cast members Stephen Stedman (L) and Dougal Stevenson (R) with Stedman’s granddaughter Maegan Stedman-Ashford (C). All three will star in the upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet at The Globe. Supplied / The Globe Theatre
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
The iconic star-crossed lovers will soon be found in Dunedin’s Globe Theatre 65 years after curtains first opened with a performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The special season would feature cameos from two of the original 1961 cast and a local twist.
Not many people would think to transform their home into a theatre, but that was how theatre-lovers Patric and Rosalie Carey created The Globe in 1961.
Richard Stedman got involved with the theatre the year before after joining Rosalie’s drama school.
“Patric was building this theatre. I came in from time to time, helping him dig holes for the foundations and nail bits of structure here and there. The theatre was constructed by a whole lot of people who in their spare time came and helped Patric,” he said.
It was a family affair when Romeo and Juliet graced The Globe – Richard’s mum played the nurse, he played a couple of parts and his two brothers helped out behind the scenes.
Stedman remembered printing out programmes on one end of Patric Carey’s dining table.
“We were so hardpressed for time that the ink on the programmes was still wet when they were being handed to the audience coming in so some of them were quite smudgy,” Stedman said.
His acting career was relatively short-lived – about 18 months – but he said it had brought him joy to return to the Globe years later to watch his granddaughter Maegan perform.
He was excited to see Romeo and Juliet was returning for the theatre’s 65th anniversary.
“I thought ‘oh, I’ve got to be involved. I must do something in some way. What can I do?’ I went onto the internet and I found the script and I read all the way through the script, trying to find a little bit that I could do,” he said.
The Globe Theatre celebrates its 65th anniversary with a performance of the play it originally opened with in 1961. RNZ / Tess Brunton
Stedman and former broadcaster Dougal Stevenson, who joined him in the opening scenes back in 1961, would perform the prologue.
He was grateful to be so warmly welcomed back into the acting fold at The Globe.
His granddaughter Maegan Stedman-Ashford was delighted to be starring alongside her grandfather as Tybalt.
“He’s a wealth of knowledge that unless you ask, you don’t have. So he knows so much and he has so much history, just being in a space that I am so familiar with and treasure so much, and being able to share that with my family and my family being able to share that with The Globe, it’s very special,” she said.
It had been a decade since she first started acting at The Globe.
She was pleased they were marking the anniversary by returning to The Bard’s work.
“It’s always incredible to do Shakespeare at The Globe. I feel like because of the Careys and how they established the theatre with it being … entrenched in Dunedin history, it’s phenomenal,” she said.
“Every single time you do a Shakespeare piece, you are putting on a role that has been done for hundreds and hundreds of years.”
One of her favourite lines was during the party in Act 1 when Romeo sneaked in disguised and Tybalt was kicking up a fuss.
“Capulet turns to him and says ‘You are a saucy boy’,” she said.
“Shakespearean insults are always very funny when you hear them in a modern context.”
On the back of the door into The Globe, a small plaque marked its official opening on 29 May in 1961 as ‘Dunedin’s first Shakespearean Theatre’.
The plaque on the back of the door into The Globe. RNZ / Tess Brunton
Director Brent Caldwell could not wait for the audience to see two of the original 1961 cast members returning to the stage.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants. We’re only able to do what we can do here today because of all the hard work,” he said.
“I’m looking at the breezeblocks and the seating and the windows and everything that the Careys and everyone worked on.”
He said he would struggle to find someone in the Dunedin theatre community that did not have some tie or connection to The Globe.
Italy would be swapped for a setting closer to home in a nod to the 1961 performance, he said.
Instead of Verona, the tussocks of southwestern Otago would be home to the ancient grudge stirring between the two feuding farming families, Caldwell said.
He was proud to be carrying on the work of the Careys.
“We’re trying to bring Shakespeare to a new audience but also take them back in time and say ‘this was a period in New Zealand’s history and this is the period that our beautiful theatre grew out of’,” he said.
The Globe’s season of Romeo and Juliet starts in May – but Caldwell did not rule out a special celebration to mark the day the iconic Dunedin theatre opened its doors.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
