148 replies to this topic

[Lynette]

O dear. Radical is very depressing word

[Honoured Guest]

It's a "radical edit" - an adaptation, not a version - set in the successful Haitian slave revolution. The information about this production is admirably clear and everyone will be satisified if it puts off people who won't be interested and attracts the interest of the rest of us. Tarell was commissioned by Michael Boyd, so we're still not yet seeing the first fruits of Doran.

[Lynette]

Ok, ok, was just saying....hope 'everyone' will be happy if I reserve my judgement, HG

[igb]

Honoured Guest, on 15 November 2012 - 12:36 PM, said:

It's a "radical edit" - an adaptation, not a version - set in the successful Haitian slave revolution. The information about this production is admirably clear and everyone will be satisified if it puts off people who won't be interested and attracts the interest of the rest of us.

Quite.  Stratford don't appear to be able to win.  If they plaster in big letters "dramaturge-led re-interpretation" people whine that it's "radical", if they keep quiet about the intentions until opening night people whine that they wouldn't have booked had they known.  If they do nothing but dutiful productions for GCSE students they're accused of being an upmarket D'Oyly Carte, if they shake things up a bit their audience start spotting communists under the bed (*).  Perhaps they ought to give each production a risk rating (the units of measure could be, oh, there has to be a joke in there somewhere) to indicate how likely it is that you're going to get upset.


(*) I still haven't quite got over the elderly old buffer, probably now long dead, who was so outraged by the production in the Swan of Bond's "Restoration" that he started ranting in the interval about how the director, writer cast and probably the girls selling the ice cream should be arrested for treason.  Restoration made the not entirely unreasonable point that Argentinian mothers love their children too, five years after the Falklands War.  Simon Russell Beale and Joe Melia --- whom I see died recently --- if I recall correctly.  Excellent.

[Honoured Guest]

Pip Hinton sang that song in Restoration. Nationality, doncha just love it? Patagonia, a region of Argentina, is a Welsh colony.

[xanderl]

I agree the publicity on this one is admirably clear - as was the publicity for Troilus and Cressida for that matter!  I won't be going due to being scarred by American Trade rather than because of any bias against radical edits.

They do have a problem in that a section of the audience seems to want "traditional" productions which seems to mean doublet and hose all round. Not sure if this is RSC regulars (who probably are pretty aware of what to expect and read the pre-publicity) or tourists who just book for whatever is on when they are visiting Stratford.

[igb]

xanderl, on 16 November 2012 - 01:40 PM, said:

They do have a problem in that a section of the audience seems to want "traditional" productions which seems to mean doublet and hose all round. Not sure if this is RSC regulars (who probably are pretty aware of what to expect and read the pre-publicity) or tourists who just book for whatever is on when they are visiting Stratford.

As I think I've said before, I once heard a guide apologising to a group of American tourists about the poor production they'd seen, which wasn't as good as they get at home and wasn't how it "should" be done.

This was the Mendes/Beale Richard III in TOP.  Hmm.

[xanderl]

Not the 2013 season, but may be of interest to anyone local-ish to the RSC: £5 tickets to Boris Godunov this week and next -

http://midpoint.org....is-godunov-rsc/

[xanderl]

(edited)  - Posted in wrong thread!

[David J]

Further casting for Hamlet

http://www.rsc.org.u...et-casting.aspx

Charlotte Cornwall: Gertrude
Greg Hicks: Claudius
Pippa Nixon: Ophelia

I am already looking forward to seeing Pippa Nixon in As You Like It after seeing King John and Richard III, so this is good news for me