David Tennant's Obscure Performances: His Involvement with Read Not Dead (pt 2) - The Fleer
This second part of my series on David Tennant and his involvement with the Shakespeare's Globe Read Not Dead project is about to begin. If you'd prefer to read my first post about David and his portrayal of Edward the Black Prince in the one-off staged reading of Edward III (as well as some history about the Read Not Dead project itself) before beginning this one, it's here: go read it, and then come on back! Okay, if you're back, let's jump forward in time - pun intended! - to 2004 and talk a little about David's last performance with Read Not Dead (heretofore referred to as RND). By June of 2004, RND had performed more than 100 of the lost plays of the 16th and 17th centuries. Next up for them? Edward Sharpham’s 1606 farce, The Fleer.
The Fleer is the other of the two staged readings many of David's longtime fans might know he did with RND. It was listed on the now-defunct (but brilliant and well-researched) David Tennant theatre fan site, 'The Play's The Thing'. I miss that site daily - I used and appreciated it countless times over the years.
Sharpham wrote The Fleer specifically for the Blackfriars Children, a theatre company wholly made up of boy actors. Blackfriars was so popular, Queen Anne of Denmark patronized them for a time! Oh, and every now and again they got arrested when they insulted King James I.
According to a LibraryThing review, The Fleire was "written in response to Measure for Measure, and with not one but two heroines disguising themselves as boys, [it was] a tale of sex and politics in Jacobean London seen through the eyes of a malcontented Italian duke." This usurped duke, named Antifront, escapes Florence to seek sanctuary in London. He assumes the disguise of The Fleer, which was a term used to represent a foolish and simpering facial expression. If you're interested, there's a full text of the play right here which was the one used for the staged read-through!
But back to the present. Well, 2004.
As part of RND, The Fleer was performed on Sunday, 20 June 2004 at the Bear Gardens (roughly a mock up of an indoor hall playhouse of Shakespeare's time) and was directed by actor Tony Bell. David played the role of Lord Piso, the son of the Florentine Duke Piso, Antifront’s usurping rival.
Reviews of the performance were good. WhatsOnStage had this to say: "While Edward Sharpham’s 1606 farce The Fleer may not warrant a full production, it received a zesty run-through at last Sunday’s reading, directed by actor Tony Bell. And the quality cast alone – which included David Tennant, Alan Cox, Barnaby Kay, Geoffrey Freshwater and Claire Price, all donating their time – was certainly worth the cost of the £10 ticket."
And that is the story of The Fleer. I would be remiss if I didn't include the cast list from the play's programme, though. With (again) thanks to the Globe's digitized archives, I give you:
One other thing......and here's where it gets interesting.
Even the brilliant "The Play's The Thing" site had Edward III and The Fleer listed as the only two staged readings David ever did with the Read Not Dead project. But he did two others! I'll explore those, too. I promise.
But in what will become common in my slowly developing upcoming podcast, as we delve deeper into David's early career we'll see this happen over and over and over....and bloody over! If you think he did two plays, he did four. If you think he didn't do any, he did.
I've found a whole lot of new stuff. But there's always more. It's David, after all!