The Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry (VHI) recently welcomed writers Richard Ayoade and Lydia Fox, newly admitted Distinguished Members of the VHI, to facilitate a student workshop at the College.
The workshop took place on Tuesday, 6 June and focussed on dynamic close readings of Shakespeare’s King Lear, the first pilot workshop of a series that will actively connect the themes of the play to student formation.
Giving St Edmund’s students the opportunity to learn from and connect with industry leaders, and to engage in performance-based conversations, the workshop was a lesson in voice, in perspective, and in leadership. Students read the famous Scene I, Act I of Lear, raising analyses that explored how gender and institutional power shape relationship—in both public and private contexts. Ayoade and Fox then pushed this analysis further in performance, inviting the students to explore how staging and choice further enhanced or changed their understanding of the play’s thematics and their broader implications.
'Under [the] excellent direction from Lydia Fox and Richard Ayoade, we were able to reinterpret and replay the same scene from King Lear as if it were entirely different,' said Dion Everett, BA English, 2021. 'The project was engaging and enlightening, both on a textual and performance level, and I only wish we'd had four hours rather than three to explore!'
The workshop provided a significant interdisciplinary opportunity, convening students in disciplines ranging from Medicine to Film Studies, who also possessed a variety of experience with Shakespeare’s plays.
'Spending time to work with Lydia, Richard, and the VHI was a great experience, and perhaps one of the best workshops/seminars I have attended during my time here,' said Jackson Owen, MST History of Art and Visual Culture, 2022. 'It was an opportunity to flex some creative muscles [in] an interdisciplinary discussion concerning visual art, writing, and theatre that is difficult to find elsewhere in Cambridge.'
The workshop is part of the VHI’s ‘Shakespeare and the Common Good?’ initiative, a larger research effort dedicated to examining how Shakespeare can be a transformative resource for social justice and how, at the same time, claims of his universal significance can be the cause of profound harm for human beings who are marginalised by prevailing cultural norms. The workshop series will culminate in the creation of a work of art that will become a lasting part of the fabric of the College.
To learn more, email Brigid Graff, VHI Executive Officer, at vhi@st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk.
Photography Credit: Levente Koroes.
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