Done/Undone, by Canadian playwright Kate Besworth, invites audiences to engage with Shakespeare while taking him off his pedestal.
For a theatre company whose main source material was penned more than 400 years ago, staging the world premiere of a living playwright’s work is a rare experience.
Presented as a series of vignettes, Done/Undone is all about taking the Bard off his pedestal and examining his work through different lenses. After all, before Shakespeare’s name and works acquired a sense of grandeur, weight and near-legendary status, he was just a man — and a man of his own time, place and specific point of view.
“A lot of the questions that come up in this play are things that I feel and that I’m also wrestling with — and I feel better, ethically, doing Shakespeare when we’re also having these kinds of discussions.”
Fellow Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan actor Bongani Musa said Done/Undone is all about breaking down dichotomies — a work is great or it’s terrible; it’s contemporary or it’s irrelevant — and finding ways through the grey areas instead.
“It answers a lot of questions that I had as an artist, and as somebody who was not a pro-Shakespeare fan for the longest time, when I’m thinking about whether or not we should still be doing Shakespeare,” he said.
“There’s lots of relevancy in Shakespeare, but at some point a part of me wonders if it takes away from all the new things that are happening in today’s world. And this is a fun play that asks questions a lot of us have been asking for a long time.”
For director Anita Smith, Done/Undone is a spotlight and an amplifier: Besworth’s script takes the quiet ‘background noise’ of thoughts and conversations people are already starting to have about Shakespeare, and putting them right on centre stage.
“I loved this play from the moment I read it, because I’ve had all these thoughts,” Smith said. “I’ve felt all these things. I’ve struggled with that same love/hate relationship with Shakespeare; I’ve wondered if we should continue to do these plays.
“What are we missing out on by continuing to do these plays? And what are we gaining?”
In Done/Undone, Smith promises “some really memorable interpretations of Shakespeare’s work” that even the most enthusiastic Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan audience member may not have seen before, as well as an invitation for Shakespeare-skeptics to see their perspectives on stage as well.
“Most people who come to Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan do like Shakespeare,” Smith said. “But I also think there’s a good amount of people who come who don’t necessarily love Shakespeare; they just know the name of the play because they read it in high school, or wherever else. And I think that both sets of people will really get something out of this play.”
Done/Undone opens on Monday and will run until Aug. 24 at the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan main stage.
Each show will be followed by a ‘facilitated conversation’ with the artistic director of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan.
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