Poetic enquiry:
1616: A one man play about the life of William Shakespeare
written and researched between the years of 2013 and 2015 and performed in 2015 and 2016
The body of Shakespeare studies, when it departs from the few scant facts found in legal records, always involves a degree of co-mixing of textual analysis, archeological evidence, analysis of legal documents and writings, poetic imagination and intuition.
This final text of 1616 and some earlier iterations shown here, embody various conflations of: research, imagination, thought experiments, fictional dramatisations and what Robert Graves describes as poetic enquiry.
‘The work represents 3 years of research, re-writing, mini-collaborations, and the application of poetic imagination. As a narrative-driven text it offers a series of possibilities and provocations for further research.’
The play was published in the German English Language and Literature Journal Hard Times
No99 1/2016 PP2-12
Editorial of the Hard Times Shakespeare issue 2016
Shakespeare is alive! This is least the impression every audience member gets who sees Gareth Somers as Shakespeare on stage in his play 1616. Somers' exciting performance cannot be done justice in words. But this issue’s cover photo might give you an idea of how powerfully he brings the bard alive. Moreover, he generously allows us to be the first to publish his poetic play text and thus to continue Hard Times's tradition to publish creative work. Somers beautifully combines the materiality of Shakespeare’s world and family situation with close readings of his works. By re-stealing heavily from Shakespeare’s works Somers unpicks Shakespeare as a national icon and illustrates the bard’s own plagiaristic way of working. At the same time he reestablishes him as a leading cultural figure and his works as fountains for artistic inspiration and playful adaption.
Stephanie Brusberg-Kiermeier