Expert Source British Director Adds Experience To Production

Rule No. 1 in staging a Shakespeare play: Find a director who has actually heard of Shakespeare.

Boy, has this director heard of Shakespeare.

Ken Pickering, who directs “As You Like It” at the Spokane Civic Theatre, has impeccable credentials from across the pond:

He has written two books about Shakespeare and is pondering a comprehensive Shakespeare encyclopedia.

He is an associate director for the Shakespeare Workshop in London; he helped stage the first performance ever at the Globe Theatre replica this summer.

He saw Laurence Olivier play Macbeth and John Gielgud play Prospero, all before he reached his teens.

So, how did this man end up directing a play at the Civic?

Blind fate threw him to these shores; the Civic merely snatched him up.

Pickering, from Canterbury, England, is a visiting professor of theater at Gonzaga University. He came in 1994 at the invitation of a Gonzaga acquaintance to fill a sudden opening in the theater department. He had been working in England as a director, playwright and scholar, but when the Gonzaga call came, he was “quite happy at the thought of returning to academe,” at least briefly (this will be his final semester).

His reputation accompanied him, and the Civic approached with the offer of “As You Like It.” He was glad to accept, especially since Shakespeare holds an important place in his heart, as well as in his head.

“My interest in Shakespeare came through my mother, who was a remarkably literate lady,” said Pickering, who was born in London during the Nazi blitz. “When I was a boy, she lost her eyesight, and she used to ask me to read Shakespeare to her. She was just passionate about poetry in general.”

And then, when he was about 12, he went to the Old Vic theater in London and saw two of the great Shakespeareans of the 20th century, Olivier and Gielgud.

“That was my breeding ground,” said Pickering. “Once I’d seen that, I was hooked. I just thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.”

He went on to study theater and became part of the explosive London theater scene of the ‘50s, famous for bringing working-class concerns back into the theater.

Yet Pickering’s interests eventually led him in a different direction. He became interested in medieval drama, and he now works for a theater company that stages massive mystery plays in British cathedrals. In addition, he has written two musicals (rock versions of “Ulysses” and “Beowulf”) and a number of plays, including one based on the life of Cardinal Newman.

And now his path has led him somewhere he probably could never have predicted: to a stage in Spokane, directing American actors. Pickering said they have been an “absolute joy” to work with, although he says they may be finding his directing style somewhat unusual.

“I have to admit I have adopted a very English approach to the directing,” he said. “Some of the scenes are sort of pure Emma Thompson, I think. I came from that kind of stable. We tend to understate and go for the delicate little things and hope that it works.”

He said he has found American actors to be more concerned with emotional and character issues as opposed to issues of language.

“They’re asking me to tell them about their character before they have examined what the character says,” he said. “And I’m saying, ‘Have a look at what your character says and then start talking about what’s motivating them.”’

Pickering said that he finds the United States in general to be a “linguistically impoverished society.” One of his goals with “As You Like It” is to show that “a play can actually work through the elegance of the language.”

He is particularly pleased with the work of Elizabeth English, a Gonzaga student whom he cast in the role of Rosalind.

“I think I worked out that Rosalind speaks more lines in this play than Othello does in ‘Othello,”’ he said. “The role is that dominant. Liz is actually, I think, quite a brilliant theater student. I mean, by any standards on either side of the Atlantic, I would rate her very highly.”

He wants to emphasize the considerable comedy of the play. At the same time, he wants to show the deeper themes that make “As You Like It” far more than a “frothy little comedy.” This is, after all, the play that contains the profound Seven Ages of Man speech, which begins, “All the world’s a stage …”

The play is about a group of courtiers banished to an enchanted wood where they enjoy a forced vacation from court life. Mistaken identities and festive weddings ensue.

Pickering has set the play in contemporary times with contemporary costumes. He wanted to avoid the notion that it is a museum piece, for one thing. For another, he sees subtle parallels between the play and the present-day tribulations in the British Royal Court: banished princesses and all that.

“I don’t belabor the parallels, I hope,” said Pickering. “I just wanted to give it a fresh intimacy, without making it a cliche or a gimmick.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “As You Like It” will be performed at the Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 29, March 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16. All performances at 8 p.m. except Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets: $12 on Fridays and Saturdays, $10 on Thursdays and Sundays, $9 seniors, $7 students. Call 325-2507.