46 replies to this topic

[Honoured Guest]

Epicoene, on 03 December 2012 - 07:20 AM, said:

When you say "risk" you imply it was a commercial decision not to transfer it to London. I don't think it was.

In Stratford it played in rep with Hamlet on the same stage with the same acting company so two shows a week might have been scheduled in London alongside six a week for Hamlet. I assume the London run was onsale before the Stratford opening so there was no quality issue at the scheduling stage. If a cast member refused to play London, their role could have recast. If you are able to expand on the reason for the decision, please do!

[Epicoene]

Honoured Guest, on 03 December 2012 - 10:27 AM, said:

In Stratford it played in rep with Hamlet on the same stage with the same acting company so two shows a week might have been scheduled in London alongside six a week for Hamlet. I assume the London run was onsale before the Stratford opening so there was no quality issue at the scheduling stage. If a cast member refused to play London, their role could have recast. If you are able to expand on the reason for the decision, please do!

Well, I phrased that wrongly. Saying the RSC (or their commercial producers)  didn't "risk" it in London implies they thought it would not sell out there and that was the reason they didn't transfer it. My impression (based on interviews that were in the newspapers) of it was that it was scheduled for a very few Stratford performances almost as a vanity project for David Tennant who had said he wanted to play the part, with a staging that was never envisaged to be transferrable to a conventional prosceneum arch stage. The Hamlet run in London wasn't that long, they could easily have sold out a dozen or so performances of LLL.

[Lynette]

In the newspaper today that the new indoor theatre at The Globe venue will stop the RSC coming into London as The Globe will then be able to cover the whole year. A bit snippy I think. There is room for both RSC and Globe productions. An attempt to stir up rivalry I suppose. I don't think the indoor theatre will be putting on Shakespeare only. Lots of luverley Jacobean stuff to show us.

[Epicoene]

Lynette, on 03 December 2012 - 02:28 PM, said:

In the newspaper today that the new indoor theatre at The Globe venue will stop the RSC coming into London as The Globe will then be able to cover the whole year. A bit snippy I think. There is room for both RSC and Globe productions. An attempt to stir up rivalry I suppose. I don't think the indoor theatre will be putting on Shakespeare only. Lots of luverley Jacobean stuff to show us.

I don't think the RSC need any encouragement to stop coming into London. In fact Michael Boyd cited the need to avoid "competition" with the Globe as one reason for their limited presence a few years ago, that was before his sudden conversion to the "necessity" of having a London base when he reached the end of his tenure.

[Honoured Guest]

Lynette, on 03 December 2012 - 02:28 PM, said:

In the newspaper today that the new indoor theatre at The Globe venue will stop the RSC coming into London as The Globe will then be able to cover the whole year. A bit snippy I think. There is room for both RSC and Globe productions. An attempt to stir up rivalry I suppose. I don't think the indoor theatre will be putting on Shakespeare only. Lots of luverley Jacobean stuff to show us.

You're referring to Rupert Christiansen's piece in the Daily Telegraph in his fortnightly arts "diary" series which always takes great pains not to convey News and to be as wilfully bonkers as possible. I quite enjoy reading him because he comes at everything from such a peculiar direction that he makes me reconsider what I think and why. He's an opera critic but he never allows partial understanding to deter him from making definitive pronouncements on any arts subject. He'd fit in well on this Board.

http://www.telegraph...tal-dreams.html

[Lynette]

Yes I've found it odd that he makes comments on theatre ( well we all do it) when they have Charles Spencer on the pay roll. I think they wanted a different outlook but I sometimes think I know more than he does! How can that be I hear you declaim.... But today in particular I felt he was being nasty.

[Honoured Guest]

Snow falls and settles across the land and day and night temperatures hover around freezing point for days, but those expert RSC meteorologists start their Summer Season performances in six days' time.