Sounds like Shakespeare

The Lady Olivia (Maegan Stedman-Ashford, left) and her gentlewoman Maria (Sofie Welvaert) ignore their visitor Cesario (Viola in disguise, at rear), played by Sacha McConnon. Photos: Don Townsend

A soundtrack worthy of Shakespeare was ready and waiting in Dunedin, director Brent Caldwell tells Tom McKinlay.

The lyrics to The Clean’s celebration of possibility, Anything Could Happen, are now etched in the pavement of George St - but also on more than a few hearts.

One of which belongs to actor and director Brent Caldwell. Such songs, from the glory days of the Dunedin Sound, were the soundtrack to his university days, small bright fires spinning on the turntables of dark, cold student flats.

So, when it came time to think about the right music for a production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night - a production he’d already decided to transport to Dunedin - the answer was obvious.

Caldwell is directing the play at The Globe, opening night Thursday, which sets Shakespeare’s musical comedy in the university precinct of the ’80s, his Duke Orsino becoming the vice-chancellor.

The decision to give the play some local flavour involved a moment of unscripted synchroneity, Caldwell says.

He’d been talking with his producer, Sheena Townsend, and they both spontaneously landed on the idea of a hometown setting.

"Each of us said, ‘look, I’ve been thinking, what if we ...’, and almost at the same time, we said ‘set it in Dunedin’.

"It was really, really spooky that we’d both had the same thought."

Then, the more they thought about it, the better the fit seemed to be - an early scene’s shipwreck was perfect for a port town.

"While we’ve stayed true to the language, we’ve adapted the setting and the place and the time. And that’s the beauty of Shakespeare’s plays, they are beautifully transferable."

Further, the mixed-up love triangles of the story involving cross-gendered, cross-dressing misunderstandings, just seemed to fit with Dunedin, he says.

"The more we examined the idea, the more perfectly it seemed to fit."

The natural fit flowed right on into the musical choices.

The original Twelfth Night incorporated a lot of music, Caldwell explains, as it was a festive play, celebrating the madcap antics and topsy-turvy world of the Feast of the Epiphany, the Twelfth Night of Christmas, when lords became servants and servants would run riot.

The Duke Orsino (Thomas Makinson) swoons over his love for the Lady Olivia.

Songs from the Dunedin Sound bands immediately began to recommend themselves.

"The subtitle of the play, Twelfth Night, is ‘Or What You Will’. In other words, there’s the promise of possibilities and there’s a wonderful, wonderful song by The Clean called Anything Could Happen," Caldwell says.

"I’ve always been a big fan of theirs and as soon as I saw ‘Or What You Will’, I thought another way of saying that is to say ‘anything could happen’."

From that jumping off point, it was a matter of thinking what other songs might lend themselves.

One of the chief protagonists, the cross-dressing Viola/Cesario, played by Sacha McConnon, has to go undercover and dress as a man, which posed the question of what precisely she might wear.

"Well, she’d probably wear a leather jacket and then ... ah, of course, The Chills, I Love My Leather Jacket."

Another character in the play is a fool, a Harlequin-type jester, which immediately put Caldwell in mind of the University of Otago Sextet, world famous in Dunedin for their capping show performances.

"So, our fool is played like a member of the Sextet and they sing songs to entertain the vice-chancellor, or the duke of the play, and one of the stories they have to tell is a song of tragedy and loss and so Pink Frost, by the Chills, fitted in there.

"There’s just so much mood and ideas and tones in Dunedin Sound music that fitted with the play.

"Another classic example is the duke in the play is trying to woo a lady and she just shows him the hand and says, I don’t want a bar of it. And there’s a wonderful, wonderful song by Look Blue Go Purple called I Don’t Want You Anyway."

Another song that speaks to the pining of the duke/vice-chancellor, is The Verlaines’ melancholic track Joed Out, Caldwell says.

"The song is just beautifully melancholic. And, you know, that’s where the famous quote of the play comes, ‘if music be the food of love, play on’. So, we’ve got that Verlaines track playing."

It’s not The Verlaines’ only contribution.

"There’s a scene where the two drunken lords, Sir Toby [Belch] and Sir Andrew [Aguecheek] are getting on the booze late at night. And so they start singing a drinking song, which turns out to be The Verlaines song Death and the Maiden, because it’s got that chorus, ‘Verlaine, Verlaine, Verlaine’."

Dunedin musician Sam Meikle, as musical director, has been given the difficult task of rendering all these familiar tunes faithfully, his casting in the role drawing a through line to more recent musical exports, Six60.

He was a recipient of a Six60 scholarship last year, living in the storied Castle St house, while the drummer in the production’s band, Shannon Burnett, has been in the house on a scholarship this year.

Shipwrecked twins Viola (Sacha McConnon, standing) and Sebastian (Sam Kelly) consider the fates that have brought them together in North Dunedin.

Like many in the cast and crew, Meikle was shoulder tapped by Caldwell as a function of a previous collaboration. He played guitar to powerful effect in a production of The Cherry Orchard earlier in the year, in which Caldwell was also involved.

"We’ve charged him with trying to deliver the songs as close to the originals as possible.

"But because, you know, the whole idea of Dunedin bands back in those days was, if you had a guitar, you could have a band. So, we’re not going to die on the hill of getting them exactly right. But I think the band have done a really, really good job of remaining faithful to the spirit of the songs, most definitely."

Getting access to the music has involved the usual process of working through record labels and Apra, but the musicians themselves have been very supportive, Caldwell says.

"What was lovely was the great support I had from the likes of Francisca Griffin, Bob Scott and the late Martin Phillipps, because I was in discussions with them, you know, quite early on. And Shayne Carter from the Straightjacket Fits, they’d all given their blessing. And Dr Graeme Downes was more than happy for us to do it."

The production is dedicated to the memory of Phillipps, who died earlier this year.

The play’s cast and crew mix the seasoned with relative newcomers to the stage.

The Duke Orsino, the vice-chancellor, is played by Thomas Makinson while Maegan Stedman-Ashford plays Olivia, the object of his desire.

"And then we’ve got some young folks who are just finishing high school."

Many of the stage managers and stage hands and some of those working in the tech box are also younger.

"The Globe has a kaupapa at the moment of training and developing and building capacity to ensure the continuation of community theatre. And we found that through the show we’ve been able to tap into experience but also bring on new talent."

It wraps into Caldwell’s desire to use the play, in part, as a vehicle to share the music of the Dunedin Sound with a new generation.

But fittingly, those responsible for spinning all those turntables back in the day will be among the first to see the production, the Dunedin Sound musicians, their families and friends, have been invited to a performance a couple of days before opening night.