‘I just knew it would sound amazing!’: why the Globe is giving Shakespeare flamenco fire | Section

Ohon a hot London day, Shakespeare’s Globe has turned into a fiesta. High heels hit the wood with a rat-a-tat rhythm, skirts swaying, guitars strumming, voices rising with the heat. In front of the stage is the director Indiana Lown-Collinswho is creating one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays with flamenco.

Lown-Collins is half-Spanish and grew up in Spain where flamenco was his path in the arts. Working as an associate director at the Globe a few years ago, he fell in love with the building and its music and never stopped thinking about how flamenco could work well on its oak stage, ringing in circles. He said: “I just knew it would sound incredible.”

When he was invited to direct a play in a theater, he wanted to find a suitable play. Lown-Collins landed on Love’s Labor’s Lost, an original comedy. The king of Spain and his lords forbid women from entering the court, so when the daughter of a foreign king arrives, she and her wives are forced to camp outside the city. Yes, all masters fall to women. “So much of the dance is about passion, love, sex, and death – and flamenco does sex and death very well,” says Lown-Collins.

He loved strong female characters. “Matriarchy is the heart and soul of flamenco,” he says. “We wanted to show the strength of these women who are coming to a court that is not theirs, to be insulted.” On stage during rehearsals, the women descend the stairs and begin to circle and join the men in the middle, like a group of sirens.

There are only two professional flamenco dancers in the group (Pablo Egea and Anita La Maltesa), each one being drilled in a three-hour bootcamp every day by composer Carmen Igarza. Some of them are out of their comfort zone. It’s like doing Strictly, one of the crew told the actors. “From here to Sadler’s Wells, you never know!” laughs Spanish actress Bea Segura.

Their progress so far is impressive, even if you see people desperately counting beats while trying to hit the lyrics. Just donning the right shoes has turned dancers into flamenco dancers – heels make everyone walk with swagger (although some men in training have paired them with cargo shorts). At first, Lown-Collins tells me, one of the actors asked for flat shoes. She said: “Now they’re like, don’t take my heels off! Considering my British background, I don’t think we celebrate our physicality in the same way. We’re very apologetic,” she says, while in Spain it’s different: “‘Look at me in my new skirt, how tight it is, showing my gluteus maximus!'” touch it again, that’s when flamenco’s life force explodes.

As well as tying the feet and brains of the actors in knots, the intricate flamenco music also reflects the language of the dance. “This play has the most Shakespearean ensemble I’ve ever done, it’s all about the music and the interaction,” says Lown-Collins. “One day someone said, ‘Oh, I can try that on a flamenco rhythm, not Shakespeare. I’m following a composer,'” says Lown-Collins, and it worked. The song is made by flamenco guitarists Michael McMahon and Adrián Solá, who are part of the company on stage, and singers including singer Carlos Lobo Cordón.

Love’s Labor’s Lost is a clever play full of understated words. “It’s a play called a feast of languages,” says Lown-Collins. And I think it’s a sweet language, but yes, it’s a simple word. This is why he wanted to try a flamenco resurgence. “What if you put something tangible and physical next to it?” In other words, bring everyone in their heads, and in their bodies, the audience included – the crowd will get a chance to move at the end of the show. “I’m just hoping that the jig will make people want to dance,” Lown-Collins enthuses as the song takes off.