Shakespeare Was a Punk

The guys in tights with feathers in their hats and "oh, woe" hands on their foreheads doesn't mesh with Angus Vail's idea of Shakespeare and his theatre crew. They were punk, reckons the New Zealander—who has spent his professional life in New York managing rock acts like Kiss. And Shakespeare's audience was just as hard out as the actors.

The first Globe in London was made from timber Shakespeare's gang stole from their landlord's theatre and used it to rebuild their own. According to Vail, the landlord's guards didn't want to mess with the actors because of the superior sword skills they learned stage training. "They were fuck off guys," says Vail. "Young, strong, boofy guys."

Audiences at the Globe weren't the polite audiences sitting silently in the dark today. Shows in the 1600s were in daytime with audiences crammed in, drinking beer and pissing into rolled up papers. The stage was built high enough to stop fans rushing the actors.

Vail is building is own version 400 years later designed with a Mad Max punk mentality to bring that original rawness back, particularly to areas that don't have access to Shakespeare.

The key to Vail's version is a durable, plentiful, mobile building material, which he doesn't have to steal off a landlord because it's found all over the world. Shipping containers. Vail got the idea after once adapting containers to stages for a music festival. Stacked on top of each other it turns out a theatre made from containers matches the dimensions of Shakespeare's Globe.
Vail's first version is planned for Detroit but longterm he wants to see Container Globes on the waterfront back home in Wellington, or assembled at refugee camps. He's been inspired by discussions with London's Globe company which put on Hamlet in a Syrian refugee camp. That may seem crazy, or even insensitive, when food and safety are urgent needs, but the visiting company found camp residents were also hungry for entertainment and stimulation. "I'd love to do it in places where there is no chance of doing Shakespeare in any other way," says Vail.

Based in New York, you'd think Vail would start of his Container Globe in a city already supportive of all things theatrical. But more theatre, means more competition. While the art scene in Detroit is exploding, due to the influx of artists taking advantage of cheap property in a city ravaged post-GFC, it's the lack of formal support for the arts that makes the crumbling heart of the Rust Belt so appealing. "One thing they have lots of in Detroit is space," says Vail. "And lots of people who know what to do with big steel things."

He's got a site for the project at Galapagos Artspace and is running a crowd funding campaign to raise money for the first theatre. Vail sees it as a venue not just for theatre. With his rock background he's making sure it'll have all the technical requirements to make it a gig venue, as well as fit for dance.

Despite a career in the rock world, speaking to Vail by phone as he drives down a New Jersey freeway it's his excitement, and extensive knowledge of Shakespeare that grabs you. Vail's dream is to pass on that love to people, especially young people, who haven't yet been exposed to it.

Vail's own life-changing Shakespeare moment came when he saw Anthony Hopkins play King Lear in London. "I saw it on Tuesday and walked straight back in to buy a ticket to see it on Thursday," says Vail. It was the ending that got him. "All the good people die," he says. "Shakespeare didn't fuck around." He's never got bored with it. One year he saw King Lear eight times in New York.

At its root, the Container Globe will be living, moving tribute to the work of a playwright who redefined storytelling, was punk enough to make up words that we're still using today and gave a big middle finger to the establishment.

You can donate to the Container Globe crowd funding campaign here at Patronicity.