Memories of unusual Shakespeare productions

There was also a production of The Shrew set in an ice-cream parlour.

Others will remember The Merry Wives Of Windsor set in the 1950s and Titus Andronicus relocated to the wake of World War Two.

Over the years, John Hyatt has consistently urged his audiences to look at Shakespeare in new ways '“ an approach which is undoubtedly at the heart of the continuing success of the company he founded.

New Theatre Productions - always a popular feature of the Chichester Festivities marks its 30th anniversary this year - an anniversary which is itself a tribute to the vision with which John kicked it all off.

"I like to think that we have achieved good quality drama - and that is borne out by the growth of audiences, never mind the weather!"

John brought to it all a background in weekly rep, an experience which taught him the short-cuts and keys to success which he has used to such fine effect with New Theatre Productions for three decades now.

"I set it up in 1979 because there were a lot of companies down here but nobody was doing big drama, by which I means classics like Shakespeare - though having said that we started off with Chekhov!

"We wanted to do The Cherry Orchard, the only decent play he wrote. But we weren't at West Dean then. We were at Bishop Otter College. It was a super venue and so we thought about what we could do next. We decided that we would do The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

"We started rehearsals for it and then word came from the copyright holders that we could not do it because it was being revived in London and they couldn't have any rival companies doing it. With about six weeks to go, we thought what to do - and we did Murder In The Red Barn for the first time."

Shortly afterwards they did Rebecca, borrowing an impressive staircase from a recent Chichester Festival Theatre production and manoeuvring it across to Bishop Otter.

"This was spring 1980 and it was then that we heard the rumour that they were going to discontinue doing Shakespeare for the Festivities at West Dean. David Clarke, who had been doing it there, had another job. He went around various cities putting on pageants.

"So I went to Richard Gregson-Williams (who ran the Festivities) and said 'Are you really going to stop Shakespeare at West Dean and if you are, would you consider me as a replacement?' He said 'OK, go ahead' - just like that.

And so New Theatre Productions moved from indoors to outdoors and from Bishop Otter to West Dean Gardens to make its debut there with The Merry Wives Of Windsor.

"Of course we now had to factor in the weather element, but for the first few years we were very lucky at West Dean with the weather. We hardly had a wet night at all as I recall. But after three years of putting on a play at West Dean for the summer, people thought it was really a bit too much. They could not cope with playing for a whole fortnight when they were working during the day."

And that's when the decision was taken to adopt the current format, two separate productions with separate casts running in repertoire for the two weeks - a decision which enabled the company to use a greater number of actors more sparingly and also increase its audience by offering two different shows to see.

The tradition became to offer a Shakespeare plus another contrasting play. The first double dose was The Tempest and Dandy Dick.

Things changed again during the 1990s recession when casting became more difficult for the Shakespeare. John takes the view that any Shakespeare needs a minimum of 16 people - which became harder to find when people were focusing on their jobs or needing to move around more to find employment. And so the Shakespeare dropped out for a couple of years.

But even so, the Hyatt brand was firmly establishing itself, always respectful of the Bard but playful and inventive with the setting.

As John says "I have never been keen on what people call the traditional Shakespeare, all the tights and uncut text."

More recently things have changed again, with John stepping back as artistic director of the company five years ago - though he has continued to direct one of the two plays each year.

"What I really stepped back from was being the administrator. Peter Breskal and Ken Strudwick have taken over and are doing a wonderful job, but they say to me 'How did you ever manage to do all the 1,001 things that you have to do backstage?

"They have now sensibly set up a committee to run it. I never did that. If you have a committee, people are going to argue with me!, " John laughs. "It's too much a waste of time!"

l For this year's New Theatre Productions season at West Dean Gardens, Outside Edge plays in repertoire with Much Ado About Nothing.

Much Ado will be at West Dean Gardens on Monday, June 29 at 7.45 and also July 1, 3, 7, 9, 11. Picnics welcome. Outside Edge will be on June 30, July 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, also 7.45pm. Again, picnics welcome. Tickets on 01243 780192.