TW Gibbings is an executive producer of LAKESPEARE, sometime actor and now debut director for the company. A lot has happened since Taimus had an idea to see if he could make the production of free summer Shakespeare plays work in Canberra, adapting the brilliantly democratic and accessible concept that began in New York’s Central Park. While playing to the largest Shakespeare audiences in Australia have put any doubts about Shakespeare by the Lakes’ popularity and feasibility (apart from, as always, cost) to bed, this is Taimus’ first theatre directing gig for some time. Many years ago he directed A Clockwork Orange and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the University of Sydney, while more recently he directed his own political campaigns (nothing if not performing…) as a candidate for Brindabella (Tuggeranong) in the 2016 and 2020 ACT elections. Taimus has been dabbling on stage since the late 80’s, his highlights including roles as ‘Jack’ (Jack and the Beanstalk, Weston Primary School, ‘89), ‘Gavroche’ (Les Miserables, Canberra Philharmonic Society ‘94 & ’96), ‘The Artful Dodger’ (Oliver!, Phoenix Players (Belconnen) ’96) ‘Surly Soldier 1’ (Breaker Morant, Everyman Theatre 2012), ‘Surly Drug Dealer’ in (Rent, Everyman Theatre 2012), and Friar Francis (Shakespeare by the Lakes I: Much Ado About Nothing, Lakespeare & Co ‘18).

Shakespeare by the Lakes V: Henry V is the culmination of more than two decades of thinking about staging the play as a rugby tour, since it first occurred to him that Henry’s rousing speeches on St. Crispin’s Day (“Band of Brothers”) and at Harfleur (“Once more unto the breach”) were very similar, in theme and urgency (if not in pentameter), to the half-time fire-ups he copped in footy games played for the University of Sydney. Getting it done was a stretch reason motivating him to pitch founding Shakespeare by the Lakes to his friend and colleague Paul Leverenz. Watching his ideas being taken up by the cast and extended far beyond his meagre imagination has been a joy for which he was not prepared.