Shakespeare and Renfest | Performer Perspective

I’ve been on full cast with the Kansas City Renaissance Festival for two years and this past year, as guest cast. The festival’s relationship with Shakespeare has always been an odd one. From the outsider perspective, Shakespeare is perhaps the most mainstream relation to the world we try to create (though common perceptions might be turning more to Game of Thrones now). On the other hand, Shakespeare technically wouldn’t have been so often quoted or recognized with the specific year and cast of characters we’ve been working with.

Yet Shakespeare still had its influences. After all, with patrons more interested in pub crawls than historical accuracy, throwing in a touch of iambic pentameter or Shakespearean insults is a simple matter. Just as slowing your speech and throwing in a couple more archaic words was apparently enough to convince those well into their drinks that you were truly from Europe.

And outside of the cheat-sheet of interaction verbiage, Shakespeare’s works certainly had an influence in scenarios and more staged character interactions. My second year’s scenario was very much reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. Titania made an appearance as Queen of the (seelie) Fae, and other fae had references to other characters of A Midsummer Night’s Dream within their personal stories. Why, the village mummers had their own rendition of Pyramus and Thisbe. 

This weird stage of not acknowledging yet at the same time very much acknowledging Shakespeare is about as strange as the idea of people playing actual historical figures. Before you know it, the grip on what was actually said or done or what just happened in the lanes of Canterbury becomes all the more blurred. You start to think you have a far more personal connection with these characters and figures than you actually do.