Inspired by the greatest playwright of all time, North East writers rose to the Shakespeare challenge, as DAVID WHETSTONE reports.

SHAKESPEARE found inspiration in the work of other writers and in turn he continues to inspire, as the Theatre Royal’s creative writing competition demonstrates.

The competition to produce a prize-winning poem or piece of prose inspired by Shakespeare’s characters drew a healthy entry from writers across the region.

A panel of judges, including Christine Chapman who has been writing about Shakespeare’s characters on these pages for the past few months, finally decided on a winner and a pair of runners-up in a hard-fought contest.

First prize goes to Sophie Keats-Gazey, from Hexham, for her poem inspired by Ariel, from The Tempest.

She wins a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and four tickets to attend a play at the recently reopened and refurbished Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Runner-up Philip Stubley, who is working as a waiter in Newcastle after graduating from Northumbria University last year in drama and scriptwriting, wrote an imagined dialogue between Hamlet and a chap called Gary.

The other runner-up prize went to Kathleen Bainbridge, from Northumberland, who writes about Edmund in King Lear.

So who is the North East’s favourite character? And which is the North East’s favourite Shakespeare play?

The winners will be announced in The Journal on Saturday, Shakespeare’s birthday.

WINNER

Ariel

"My Ariel, chick,
That is thy charge. Then to the elements
Be free, and fare thou well."
The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1

***

You are roused by the sunrise, airy spirit,

curled up snug within a cowslip’s bell,

yawning and stretching, and breathing in

a freedom you have only ever dreamed of.

Blinking awake, you eagerly refresh yourself

from pure, new dewdrops, sweet and

sparkling in the rosy light of dawn,

reflecting back at you your blissful liberation.

Brushing away the pollen grains that

hang about your lustrous skin,

you take to the air on opalescent wings

alive as springtime, dazzling and unseen.

Creature of fire and magic and

mystical music, you flit invisible

through Prospero’s beloved library,

brushing his happy cheek as you pass by.

You swoop and soar with swallows on their journey

north, watching fields and trees surge back to life

beneath your flashing wings, leaving Milan,

Naples, far behind and heading for the sea,

And England, and the Thames, until

you find the special shape you’re searching for.

On whirring wings you spiral round that

legendary Wooden O, your destiny close by.

Backstage, a bearded man sleeps soundly

when he should be working. Quill in hand,

he’s slouched across a ripe, blank page,

waiting for inspiration. Words. A Play.

You have your servant now, quaint Ariel:

Will Shakespeare, here, to do your bidding.

So settle on that noble shoulder,

dainty sprite, and whisper to his dreams.

Tell him of incarceration, slavery, and honest,

faithful servitude, of raising a tempest,

setting aflame the topmast of a ship, and

leaving everyone unharmed, as you were tasked.

Tell him how wrongs were righted,

treacheries revealed and yearned-for freedoms

finally delivered. And watch him stirring in his slumber,

a gentle smile tickling that fine face.

And then, brave Ariel, ask him: ‘Was’t well done?’

Sophie Keates-Gazey