Pippa Smith
Waking up at the Edinburgh Festival with a packed schedule of shows and meetings, I reluctantly dragged myself onto a bus to a remote, soulless venue — a community centre — to attend something enticingly titled Shakespeare for Breakfast. The reality was far from enticing: a mediocre, overly long performance preceded by instant coffee in a paper cup. The first words I heard upon entering were, “has anyone switched the urn on?”.
The experience lingered with me long after I returned home. In my imagination, the event had been rich, rewarding and delicious. Determined to bring that vision to life, I set to work. There were challenges, not least discovering that Shakespeare for Breakfast was already trademarked — presumably by the owner of the urn.
Thus, Shakespeare à la Carte was born. A superbly talented group of actors curated Shakespeare’s “best bits,” performing them in cafés and restaurants from Brighton to the Southbank Centre. These events unfolded in warm, welcoming spaces with great food, offering audiences an intimate, engaging experience. While it didn’t perfectly match my original fantasy, it came close, leaving audiences with full bellies and full hearts.
Like many of my projects, it drew on lessons from my years at Paddington Printshop: the importance of feeding people physically, socially and emotionally; the power of shared experiences; the value of atmosphere, humour and conversation. Most importantly, it reaffirmed the magic of helping to realise the pictures in people’s heads.
Life is often urns and powdered coffee — but as artists, we have the chance to be the baristas of dreams.
