EDFRINGE 2025: C ARTS
COLIN COX
NOT WITHOUT RIGHT
C ARTS
C venues | C alto
NOT WITHOUT RIGHT
Will & Company (USA)
30 Jul-24 Aug 2025 - 16:00 (1hr15)
June, 17, 2025
Shakespeare sits in his script, costume and prop-strewn attic amending his Will, when his muse magically materialises. ‘Why are you here?’ She points to the audience. ‘I’ve come to prove to them you wrote the plays’. ‘How?’ ‘By getting you to reveal where you “signed them”’. ‘Screw you’. What follows is a heart-warming, at times tragic, often heated debate between them – the Muse hurling Will’s own lines in his face – that ultimately reveals the truth and the urban legends that make up Will’s life and works, allowing him to adopt the motto: Not Without Right.
Hi Colin thank you for being part of our interview series for Edfringe 2025. Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets has just completed a run at Hollywood Fringe. What was that experience like?
The reaction to Not Without Right; Shakespeare’s Secrets at the Hollywood Fringe has been extraordinary. It’s a hit! What I am particularly delighted about is it’s a hit with young people.
From the outset, this has been our design, to tell the ‘true’ story of Will’s life to a new audience and have them care. And it’s happening. It’s very exciting.
With Edinburgh Fringe being the world’s biggest and oldest fringe festival what does it mean to you and your team to be bringing Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets to Edinburgh this summer?
Edinburgh Fringe, around the globe - and I have travelled most of it - is synonymous with what the true spirit of theatre represents. Over and over, when people hear about our production, they ask, “Are you taking it to Edinburgh?” and are delighted when we say, “Yes.” Edinburgh gives a piece a huge stamp of approval. And, it is with this ‘stamp’ that we intend to tour Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets from Globe to Globe as ‘twere.
Are there any nerves or apprehensions about your upcoming international tour?
As always the nerves kick in. Will the audiences like us? Will they understand what we’re trying to do with the piece? In the case of the festivals, Will they come, when they have so many choices? We’re actors, we’re born nervous!
Can you tell me a little bit about Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets, what was the inspiration behind your new show?
Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets is the ‘true’ story of Will’s life, as haggled over by him and his Muse. The, ‘armed with knowledge of the future,’ Muse knows if Will lies to the audience about the true nature of his life and work, he will open himself up to a direct attack on the ‘authorship question.’
I have a long association with Will, and have performed a role from every one of the plays in the canon. He is my hero. What has disturbed me along the way, is the persistent, and I would say pernicious, attempt to deprive ‘the lad from Stratford’ with his right to claim they’re his. Various, to me uninformed, parties are in need of some aristocrat to have penned the Works. They put forth that there is no evidence that the ‘tanner’s boy from Warwickshire’ could possibly have created these masterpieces. Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets lays down just how much evidence there is that this ‘son of a glover’ absolutely wrote the plays.
During the creation of Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets did you discover anything interesting about Shakespeare you didn’t know previously?
I have, over the years, had various discussions, with established, and not so established, actors of Shakespeare – from RSC members to a group of kids in Watts, Los Angeles - that the playwright who penned these plays must have been an actor. We all concur that buried deep within each text is a comprehensive ‘how to’ manual on how to act the words on the page. Out of all the ‘candidates’ put forth as ‘authors’ to these words, there is only one bonafide, professional actor amongst them. The major discovery for me, in the creation and performance of this piece, is the absolute truth of this premise. An actor created the works of William Shakespeare, a brilliant actor named William Shakespeare.
Due to the nature of how fine festivals run how flexible are you with your material?
That is the question of the day! Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets is a full-blown, two act play of two hours, twenty, including an intermission. Thanks to the wonderful advice of the team at C-Arts, we have created a ‘festival version.’ It runs for 70 minutes and there is no intermission. It’s fascinating how this parallels Shakespeare’s own experience. The F1 version of Hamlet runs 4,200 lines. The Q1, believed to be the acted version of the Chamberlain’s Men, runs 2,500 lines. Like Will shaped his piece to the performance requirements of his day, so go we.
What was the biggest challenges you faced bringing Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets?
Just that. Adapting a full-length play to a ‘festival version’ and retaining the integrity and heart of the story that is Will’s life.
Do you have a favourite Shakespearian line or quote?
On a philosophical note, I would say, “Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more.” Pretty much sums it up; in a positive way for me.
My absolute favourite line of the entire canon, also comes from the Scottish Play – yes, I suffer from that superstition, having suffered a ten-feet fall from the castle turret, during a performance of the play – and it’s uttered by Macbeth. When he emerges, from having done the murder, into the courtyard to discover Macduff and the Porter standing before him, he informs them, “’Twas a rough night.” Right there is the supreme genius of Will.
Your journey to the arts comes via a background as a biochemist, had you always had desires to become an actor?
Yes, I’m an odd duck. For a while, my acting enterprises and my biochemical adventure ran side by side. From the age of fourteen, I was a member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, whilst, on an academic level, I undertook various degrees in biochemistry. Then, whilst teaching biochemistry in Japan, I made the decision, “It’s ‘an actor’s life’ for me.” This being the case, I headed for the place everyone told me not to go, Los Angeles.
How did Will & Company come about and how much has your approach to your creative projects changed since you started out?
Will and Company was created in Los Angeles, many moons ago. I had been asked to give a talk about the Scottish play to a group of high schoolers [15-17 years old]. During the chat, I asked them if they had seen the play. None of them had. Their reason was – remember this is amongst the sprawl of Los Angeles County – they had no access to a theatre. In that moment, I made a ‘bring the mountain’ decision to take these plays to them, young people all over California. And so, with five fellow, like-minded actors, two swords, and a trunk of costumes, we set off around the schools, and community centers, urban and rural, performing adaptations of Will’s work.
This ultimately grew into a nineteen-member touring troupe, with an established repertoire of classical adaptations [Dickens, Homer, Cervantes, Duma, Shakespeare, etc.] That then led to the creation of our own, original works, addressing issues of social justice in America – plays that are now banned in several states – which brought the company a national presence, as we toured to more than five hundred colleges and conferences throughout all fifty of the United States.
"Much like Will’s Muse, Alessandra, on every level, from the creation of the words to their presentation, adamantly and passionately insists that we ‘get it right.’"
Because of the nature of your show how essential is the creative collaboration been you both?
As mentioned, Not Without Right; Shakespeare’s Secrets is the ‘true’ story of Will’s life, as haggled over by him and his Muse. The piece is performed by me, as Will, and the amazing actor, Mexico City-born, Alessandra Mañón as the Muse. Much like Will’s Muse, Alessandra, on every level, from the creation of the words to their presentation, adamantly and passionately insists that we ‘get it right.’ There is no Not Without Right without Alessandra Mañón.
Since 2021 what would you say have been the most valuable lessons you’ve discovered about yourself and the type of work you’re creating with Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets?
I have had a long and rewarding career as an Artistic Director of a thriving, national [we have done all 50 states] touring ensemble bringing classical, and socially vital productions to a mind-blowing myriad of communities in America. Now, with the creation of Not Without Right, I have been afforded the opportunity to go back to the reason I wanted to do any of it in the first place, my love of acting, and especially my love of acting Shakespeare. I have gone full circle, and I am now thrilled at the chance to spin in that hamster wheel all over again.
Is there any advice you would offer anyone wanting to take their own first steps into the world of the creative arts?
I would hear in my younger days, “You need to have a fall back, in case it doesn’t work out; a plan ‘B.’” My advice to any young person, or old ‘un, for that matter, who is now considering an artist’s life and career, “Screw plan B!” I want you to charge full throttle, with every ounce of your being, at whatever it is your heart, soul and passion is telling you, you gotta do.
And finally, what message would you like your audiences to take with them from Not Without Right: Shakespeare’s Secrets?
Like us, Will was a person who cared deeply about human empathy, motives and passions. Unlike us, Will had an extraordinary ability to put all this down in words, and have eager ‘thespians,’ like myself and Alessandra, jump around on a stage to perform these human emotions and frailties. His hope clearly was that, through his plays, folks like me and you better understand who we are as fellow humans, and what behaviours are common to us all, from globe to globe.