There is a bit of the performance artist in Mr. Ramirez as he demonstrates not the distress of Christ on the cross -- though that image springs to mind given his tortured upper-body language -- but the stress of playing shepherd to two far-flung flocks.
Warren Zevon plays Shepherds Bush Empire, London W12 (02000771 2000), on Friday.
Richard Hawley plays Shepherds Bush Empire, London on 29 November and Sheffield City Hall on 12 December.
It was a split-level conception: the owners of Cannons, Lord and Lady Chandos, played Acis and Galatea; Pope, who was shown to have a passion for Lady Chandos, was Polyphemus; Handel and Gay played shepherds (Damon and Coridon ) who offered amorous advice, and Margherita de L'Epine, an Italian teacher who spent time at Cannons, had a nonsinging role as a drama coach.
He has played shepherd to many of their dearest issues during his tenure as lieutenant governor and governor.
There is little here that fits into a traditional theatre mould; instead, mountains spout poetry amid the sound of slate-quarrying pulleys, a brass band plays, shepherds and dogs race across the mountain calling to each other, sheered fleeces pour down the hillside in a fluffy stream, and the sheep themselves watch from rocky outcrops and munch the thin grass.
Playing the shepherd Corin, Anthony O'Donnell deftly illustrates how a nuanced, skillful performance in even the smallest Shakespearean role can add important human coloring to a production.
A flute solo, originally played by shepherds, had the freedom of birdcalls.
Instruments of horn were known in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel (the shofar), Greece, and throughout South and West Africa and continue to be played by shepherds in Scandinavia, the Balkans, parts of Spain, and Sudan.
Spending a night or two here at the Dana Guest House rewards trekkers with regular sightings of buzzards and eagles sweeping across the sky, and the rare luxury of empty trails where the silence is only broken by an occasional Arcadian meeting with a flute-playing shepherd.
One day, in the country, he hears in the distance two shepherds playing a ranz des vaches to one another; their rustic dialogue plunges him into a delightful daydream.
