45 replies to this topic

[xanderl]

Hmmm ... I hope Doran varies the repertoire a bit more!

Hamlet - last done 2008/9
As You Like It - 2009/10
Winters Tale - 2009/10

Plus All's Well ... and Titus Andronicus which they have done less frequently.

[Honoured Guest]

About 38 Shakespeare plays. About six new RSC Shakespeare productions each year. So the popular ones are bound to recur every five years or sooner.

[xanderl]

I guess so, I just feel Boyd owes it to me to do the ones I've not seen yet

Anyway at least Jonathan Slinger is 3 years younger than Michael Sheen.

[David J]

First time I will see Alls Well That Ends Well and Titus Andronicus.

I would go and see Jonathan Slinger, but either David Farr has something interesting in mind or Jonathan needs to regrow his hair. I can imagine a shaved Richard III but is a shaved Hamlet possible?

Otherwise the other Shakespeare productions do not excite me untill further details are announced.

The non-Shakespeare productions sound interesting though, combined with the ones from the winter season.

[Epicoene]

Honoured Guest, on 10 July 2012 - 07:59 PM, said:

About 38 Shakespeare plays. About six new RSC Shakespeare productions each year. So the popular ones are bound to recur every five years or sooner.

"Bound to" only if you accept that the RSC should stage the "popular" ones more frequently than the "unpopular" ones - I would have thought, however, their subsidy should enable them to programme in a way that is less constrained by commercial considerations. (During his tenure Nicholas Hytner has notably staged several Shakespeare plays that the NT have never staged before rather than concentrating on the "popular" ones).  

At least I suppose we should be happy we're not getting the 5th Twelfth Night of Boyd's reign.

Is Rupert Goold associated with the RSC any more ? Nothing from him this year and nothing next year either. On the other hand glad to see Lucy Bailey still in the fold, my choice as Doran's successor.

[Mr Todd]

I must admit to being deeply underwhelmed by the season announcement. I suppose the lack of imagination should come as no surprise - it's the equivalent of someone working out their notice before they leave a job and someone else sits at their desk. I know Jonathan Slinger is flavour of the month at present but does he have to be male lead in all the key main house productions? I guess Boyd and Doran are too preoccupied with admin stuff to direct any RST productions themselves in this time period. It saddens me to say that I am tending to look more and more away from the RSC for my Shakespeare productions these days (Timon at the NT, Grandage when at the Donmar and now the MGC) and this is from someone who has always supported them even when I fundamentally disagreed with some of the things they did (leaving the Barbican Centre).

[simon from oxford]

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this announcement.

Slinger has Hamlet - I have my doubts.  I like him as an actor but would never have thought of him as Hamlet.  Perhaps it will be a brilliant production and prove me wrong.  Or it could just be one big role too many for him at the RSC.

I am really hoping he doesn't get paired with Emily Taaffe as his Ophelia.  She is too weak for Miranda and Viola (though better in CoE) - and I would hate to see another poor Ophelia (after Ms Gale ruined that production for me)

Meckler directing All's Well - again I have mixed feelings about her.  I really disliked her recent Dream.  I do love All's Well - having enjoyed the most recent RSC and RNT versions.  Tricky.

AYLI - I have somewhat fallen out of love with that play but Aberg might reconvert me (if she can bring the same creative flair that lit up the stage in King John)

The Swan season -

I think I will await more details - but the Middleton does sound fun.  Ravenhill - I do love some of his work but will reserve judgement for a while.

It does look like the RSC is in a bit of a holding pattern until the new regime is fully settled.  So I can understand a certain amount of lack of ambition.  I hope Doran can reignite some of the passion in the company.

[Honoured Guest]

No comment on the 2013 summer season. I wonder what the detractors would have liked instead.

[xanderl]

Doran's production of Pericles, more than one non-shakespeare Jacobethan, and more than two Shakeapeares which haven't already been done by the rsc this decade

[Epicoene]

Honoured Guest, on 11 July 2012 - 01:13 PM, said:

No comment on the 2013 summer season. I wonder what the detractors would have liked instead.

I would have preferred Slinger as Coriolanus (as well as Hamlet if you want). And Pericles instead of Winters Tale. And Two Gentlemen of Verona instead of All's Well.  And Much Ado instead of As You Like It - they really should have made some attempt to cycle through even the "popular" plays in a consistent way.

A big future task for Doran is what he's going to do about the History plays (especially as he hasn't directed any of the main ones himself yet).