“I love it’
Russell Brand
“I loved this…It’s a glorious piece of film…speaks across centuries. It’s
Shakespeare meets Shameless.”
Lawrence Till, Director/Producer, Shameless, Channel 4
“Powerful and full of ugly beauty.”
Joseph Mydell, Actor, RSC
“Powerful and important stuff in a fairly alarming week for refugees’ rights.”
Suba Das, Theatre director, Curve Leicester
“Marvellous, timely and moving.”
Professor David Morley, FRSL, National Teaching Fellow, Warwick Writing Programme
“This is great… Isn’t it sad that we have seemingly changed so little and how brilliant of Shakespeare to put the argument better than anyone else.”
Dame Harriet Walter
‘The Strangers’ Case’, is adapted from a speech that Shakespeare contributed to the play ‘Sir Thomas More’. In it, Sir Thomas More quells an anti-immigrant riot by appealing to the shared humanity of the rioters and the refugees. I first heard the ‘Strangers’ Case’ speech performed by Professor Tony Howard on Russell Brand’s podcast, where he highlighted how relevant the message was in today’s political climate. He also spoke about his work creating the British Black and Asian Shakespeare database, which chronicles the contributions made by British Black and Asian actors to Shakespeare performance.
I had previously worked with a British Asian actor, Ibrahim Knight, on a comedy pilot episode called ‘Treading’. I enjoyed working with Ibrahim and was eager to collaborate with him again on another project. I contacted Professor Tony Howard and told him that I intended to make a contemporary Shakespeare adaptation based on ‘The Strangers’ Case’ speeches, with a British Asian Actor in the lead role, and asked him if he could lend his support to the film. He joined the film as a producer and was instrumental in getting the
film made.
I rehearsed the speech for weeks with Ibrahim and together we created the look of his character. The supporting roles were cast from the website StarNow, and from local drama groups Leeds Actors in Training and Heydays. I explained my vision for the film to my director of photography, Ben Saffer, and he created a detailed previsualisation animation that we could use when explaining the shots to cast and crewmembers.
The film was shot at Harehills Labour Club in Leeds, in one day.
When I first heard ‘The Strangers’ Case’ Speeches I was struck by how recognisable the themes of racism and xenophobia were, and by how instructive Sir Thomas More’s speech could be for modern audiences. I wanted to make this link explicitly clear by transporting the speech to modern day Britain, to show that the message of peace, compassion and empathy is just as vital now as it was hundreds of years ago. The speech carried a political message at the time it was written; I was inspired to create a film that was similarly political in nature. I drew upon Shakespeare’s language, imagery and rhetorical devices for inspiration when adapting the speech to the screen, imagining vignettes that mirrored the message of the language used. It is my hope that film will be seen by younger audiences who have potentially never seen Shakespeare before, or who assume Shakespeare isn’t for them, and that the message of empathy is delivered.