Interview: Matt Pinches Co-Founder of Guildford Shakespeare Company

What was the initial spark that led to creating Guildford Shakespeare Company, and how has your partnership shaped the compan

As actors, both Sarah and I had grown up with a fascination for Shakespeare. Sarah had an inspirational out-of-school drama teacher, whilst I had grown up in the shadow of Stratford-upon-Avon in Worcester. These plays and their characters are legendary, timeless. As actors, the privilege of bringing them to life is something we were also passionate about.

In 2005, Sarah had been auditioning for a number of open-air shows, and it got her thinking, ‘Why hasn’t Guildford got an open-air theatre company?’. At the same time, we wanted to offer audiences a new way of engaging with these stories, and with theatre in general. In the early 2000s, the rise of surround sound home cinema and a desire to ‘feel like you’re there’ propelled us towards giving theatre audiences that same level of immersion, but for it to be live. Over the last 20 years, this single objective to challenge and positively change people’s perception of theatre and Shakespeare has remained unchanged. Theatre is part of everyone’s life, every day; all of us engage with it because at its heart it’s about storytelling and that’s exactly how we relate to each other.

I feel very blessed to work together at Guildford Shakespeare Company in the way we do. We both bring different skills and experiences to the company, which complement each other whilst at the same time sharing an ethos of inclusivity and compassion. Undoubtedly, we have different strengths and interests, but that’s a vital factor in a successful business relationship. Sarah established the Creative Learning Department very early on, whilst I focused on the marketing and profile of the company; she deals more with creatives and contracts, whilst I manage individual giving, IT (not part of the original plan 20 years ago!) and local partnerships.

We both drive each other forward in seeking the best for the company and the people we work with. We also laugh a lot, which is an invaluable asset!!
 

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Why did you choose to reimagine two Shakespeare comedies as one unified story?

Much Ado About Nothing was the first show GSC produced in 2006, so it seemed like the obvious choice for our 20th Anniversary. When the director, Tom Littler, directed them for us in 2016 (Much Ado About Nothing) and 2018 (Love’s Labour’s Lost), we set them either side of World War II.  Years later, it became a natural conversation to have, to see how we might be able to pair them in one season, but also go a step further and make one sequel to the other.

To our knowledge, this has never been done before in such a complete way, which makes this really special. In Love’s Labour’s Lost, the characters carry an innocence and naivete about the world and about what it feels like to be ‘in love’ – both the male and female groups learn from each other. Then at the end of LLL, there is a hammer blow to their journeys – it really is the most extraordinary ending to a comedy. With Much Ado About Nothing, we learn that the boys are returning from a recent war, and this play has some much darker turns, which, when flavoured with 6 years of wartime experiences, begin to make lots of sense of why some of the characters make the choices they do.

To help make this love-saga work in this way, we’ve conflated some characters or tweaked names ever so slightly. So you have Benedick Berowne, Constable ‘Dull’ Dogberry, Hero is the daughter of Princess Leonata, and Beatrice is Beatrice throughout (as opposed to Rosalind in LLL). It’s been a fascinating journey, and it’s been wonderful to hear from audiences seeing both how much they got from this unique pairing.

How do you make 400-year-old texts feel fresh for today's audiences? Where does the best potential sit?

Firstly, by giving the original text respect, time and space. There’s a reason it’s lasted this long. Obeying meter, line endings, breath control, word play between characters, really leaning into the rhyming makes it sing. It’s a lot like music actually.

Secondly, and perhaps conversely to the above, it’s also about not keeping Shakespeare on a shelf, behind glass with the sign ‘do not touch’. These words, lines and speeches are organic – they were born out of actors and a writer working together to tell a story. With that in mind, you can be playful with his words, and the odd replacement of a word here and there only adds to the richness – for example, we say ‘truncheons’ in MAAN, as opposed to ‘bills’ (billhooks).

Thirdly, it’s about setting. These two shows are set either side of WWII. So hierarchies and social status of characters become more easily defined; period music and props enhance context. Above all, it is honouring the original words – working with them, truly understanding them. 
 

What excites you most about collaborating with Orange Tree Theatre on this production?

We have been working with the OT’s Artistic Director Tom Littler for 13 years now; firstly as a freelancer, then in his capacity as Artistic Director at Jermyn Street Theatre, so there’s already a great creative harmony and friendship. This year also marks the 4th year of our secondary schools tour of Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth that we have been co-producing.

It’s also wonderful that these two plays will have a longer life when they transfer to Richmond in August. So much care and phenomenally hard work goes into our site-responsive productions, from all departments, so to see their talents and work live on longer is really important.

What is exciting you in the UK culture scene right now? What's caught your attention? (could be anything!)

Personally, I’m really looking forward to seeing Love’s Labour’s Lost at Shakespeare’s Globe later this summer. It’s directed by Indiana Lown-Collins, who is a former Assistant Producer and Director with GSC and a great friend of ours. I’m really excited to see the native Spanish influence she will bring to the play. 

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Learn more about Guildford Shakespeare Company here.

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