What: Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
Where: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon (RST)
When: 22nd April-27 May, 2023
Who: The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
An excellent production!!
But that does need some explanation and clarification.
What do we have here?
What: Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
Where: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK
Who: The Royal Shakespeare Company
When: July 2019
“The poetic atmosphere is one of religion and critical morality. The religious colouring is orthodox, as in Hamlet.”[1]
“There have, however, been others, notably in the last century, such unlikely yoke-fellows as Gervinus in Germany and Walter Pater in England who have seen the play neither as expressive of cynicism and disgust nor as filled with the spirit of the Gospels and yet believe it to be no ‘meaningless’ entertainment but serious and coherent exploration of certain moral issues. It is in support of this view that the following pages are written”.[2]
I have two touchstones, benchmarks if you will, when it comes to Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” and the above quotations are examples of their understanding of the play and the differences between those understandings. Gregory Doran’s production of the play in Stratford-Upon-Avon may have become a third.
Continue readingHoly Gonzalo (Act V Scene 1), Batman! The RSC may have a hit on their hands.
What: The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Where: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon
Who: The Royal Shakespeare Company
When: 24th November 2016
This production of the Tempest attempts to break new boundaries in theatre-making with the very first use of “live motion capture” in a major stage production … and it succeeds… just…
What: King Lear by William Shakespeare
Who: Royal Shakespeare Company
Where: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK
In the recent Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) presentation of Hamlet, a classroom scene is created at the beginning at which the title of the play is spoken to announce young Hamlet’s graduation and then the scene is cleared and the play proper begins. I think it was meant to be clever but really it served no purpose. At the beginning of this performance of Lear a group of maybe 10 actors take the stage shrouded in something like lepers’ attire or flimsy beggar garb as shelter against the cold night. When the actors enter for the first scene proper they leave hastily too – shooed away. But this time the importance of this scene is not lost on the rest of the production. Rather, it adds. And like most everything here, it is solid and meaningful.
Solid.
twilightdawning 