Hamlet (BBC2, 26th December 2009).

In the Doctor Who two parter, ‘The End of Time’, the time is clearly ‘out of joint’ for the Doctor.  He has been having fun instead of being there to sort out the Master’s usurpation of the human race.  In trying to set this right, the tenth Doctor hurtles towards his own death.  Does this remind us of  the fate that befalls the Prince of Denmark?  With the scheduling of David Tennant and the RSC/Illuminations/BBC Hamlet over Christmas and New Year, making some connections between the two roles will be inevitable (see Mark Lawson in The Guardian). 

Part 1: Space and place

As Hamlet ‘lugs the guts’ of Polonius ‘into a neighbour room’ through the corridors of Elsinore, I was reminded by Turner’s interior of Durham Cathedral which is exhibited in the Tate’s Turner and the Masters’ exhibition.  Sun streaks through the windows in the gothic scenes.  Greg Doran’s production is a modern dress production, but not specifically set in a particular place or time. Like Turner’s image it deceives us into thinking it is about a specific time, but it is actually timeless.

I wrote at length about the BFI screening of the RSC/Illuminations/BBC Hamlet, where I discussed the occasion and my first responses to the screening.  Here I wanted to spend a little more time in thinking about some of the production decisions.  The move from stage to the film location  made me think about how a sense of place and space are so important in this interpretation of Hamlet.  The mood of the production is set from the start and we realise that this is not a pleasant place when we become aware of the CCTV cameras zooming in and out.  The play opens in the bowels of Elsinore and this is a semi private moment.  The watch are nervous and jumpy.  The viewer is directed by the camera and follows Francisco along the corridor.  As in the stage production, we hear clanging and clashing of the munitions factory at work in the background.  The reminder that the country is at war and the sound of weapons being manufactured continues throughout the scene, could be one possible reason for the nervousness of the apprehension of the men on the watch.  At 1.1.9 Barnardo emphasises the word ‘had’ as if they expect something to have happened, but it is quiet and ironically at that point ‘not a mouse [is] stirring (1.1.10)’.  We view the scene through a mix of the RED camera and the CCTV cameras which creates a feeling of foreboding and preparing the viewer for the entrance of the ghost.  The CCTV cameras don’t pick up the ghost, but the audience is also made to wait for its appearance at Horatio’s line, ‘ but soft, behold, lo where it comes again (1.1.126)’.   

In contrast, in the next scene we move from the cold dark corridor to a very public scene and to the extravagant main throne room (1.2).  This room seems to be about the same size as the Courtyard stage, and much of the blocking in the scene seems to have been transferred from the stage production.  The chandeliers, which were in the stage production, and the mirrors frame Gertrude and Claudius who are supposedly the focus of the first part of the scene.  In the stage production, it was much easier to watch Hamlet’s entrance as he gently brushes Ophelia’s hand as he walks by her and takes his glass of champagne.  Here the main focus for the first part of the scene is on Gertrude and Claudius with shots of Hamlet looking sadly on.  In this very public scene we see Patrick Stewart’s master politician Claudius at work, and Gertrude is clearly at Claudius’ side supporting him.  She prompts him to remember that Hamlet studies at ‘Wittenberg (1.2.113)’,  and she looks nervously as Claudius toys with Hamlet, and pretends to address him but turns to speak to Laertes (1.2.51).  Hamlet stands to the side in his formal suit and slicked back hair.  He will also be in the same place for the ‘Mousetrap’ later with his hair is spiky, he will be barefoot, and actively goading the king.  Where the film differs from the stage production, as I noted in my BFI posting, is that the camera directs to particular points in the scene.  The Polonius family have clearly worked together on the response that Laertes will give to Claudius and as Laertes pauses at ‘and bow’ (1.2.56), he is promoted by Polonius who stands beside him mouthing the words they have agreed to say.

In the third scene, we move again into a different place, and another private moment, as the Polonius family goodbye scene is in the hall at the bottom of the stairs.  The Polonius family have  their own in joke mouthing Polonius’ words as if they have heard them so many times before. Ophelia draws attention to her brother’s dual standards when he requests that she protects her chastity, by revealing two condoms packed in his case.  I always felt that Mariah Gale set up the scenes of Ophelia’s madness very well in this scene on stage.  I felt that could really believe that the woman who falls into madness was this feisty woman, who is so close to her brother and father in 1.3.  There is clearly a difference in the way Polonius responds to his daughter than he does to his son.  Oliver Ford Davies’ Polonius is curious to know what Laertes (Edward Bennett) has said to Ophelia and his tone is sharp as he asks, ‘what is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you (1.3.88)?’  Oliver Ford Davies is a really funny Polonius.  At times forgetting what he is about to say, and having to be prompted by those around him, but also truly loyal to Claudius.

The other space which is very significant in this production is Gertrude’s bedroom, and of course the bed is central to this scene (3.4).  Gertrude is clearly frustrated and annoyed by Hamlet’s behaviours in previous scenes.  Penny Downie plays the part at this moment as if she is at the end of her tether with her naughty child and takes the crown from Hamlet’s head.  Hamlet’s language in this scene is full of sexual punning and innuendo.  The scene is played with passion and anger across the bed in what is supposed to be the queen’s most private space, but again Hamlet is being spied on and when he realises he shoots Polonius through the glass.  I felt that in a way this was much more dramatic on stage because I wondered how it was done at the Courtyard.  I think the scene in the closet comes across well in the film, because the camera is able to give us that extra layer of intimacy.  I think this scene shows Gertrude as an enormously powerful character in the play.  This view of her is later supported  when she attempts to disarm Laertes, as he enters the palace in a fury on hearing his father’s death (4.5).  She is finally rejected by Claudius at Ophelia’s graveside.  Claudius turns his back on her as he delivers the line  ‘good Gertrude set some watch over your son’ (5.1.292) with such distaste because of the havoc Hamlet has caused.

The gravedigger scene and the burial of Ophelia is the only one of two external scenes in the production.  The other is the egg-shell scene (4.4).  The gravedigger scene is a scene has been cut and is slightly different from the stage production as the joke about who builds the stronger has been lost.  One of the questions, that is sometimes asked is why doesn’t Horatio tell Hamlet that Ophelia is dead and so most likely the grave they witness being dug is for her.  In this film, we see Horatio (Peter De Jersey)comforting and restraining Hamlet as he works this out for himself.  Here we realise that Horatio knows he couldn’t tell Hamlet the truth, because he know how deeply hurt Hamlet will be.   

Part 2: Metatheatre and Mirrors

In the stage production there were many references to the stage  and in the film this has taken further with the references to film and filming.  In the production, as the action then moves between the corridors and rooms of Elsinore,  Hamlet realises that the CCTV cameras observe his every move.  He tears down the camera placed in the throne room and ironically makes the statement,  ‘now I am alone (2.2.551)’.  I felt that this was nice touch, but this is a pivotal moment, because from now on Hamlet starts filming everyone else. 

It is a further irony that Hamlet films the play within a play, turning the reference to theatre to a reference to film at the same time.   The player king (John Woodvine) is well-practiced in performing the Priam’s slaughter speech  (2.2.446).  The actors can chant along with him as if they have heard and seen this so many times before.  The players  take their craft very seriously, and the player king and queen dress so extravagantly for the Mousetrap.  Ryan Gage’s player queen gives such a look of distaste at Gertrude’s ‘the lady doth protest too much, methinks’ (3.2.240) remark and this is highlighted in the film version.  Hamlet has clearly written some of the lines and we can see which ones they are as he mouths them in the ‘Mousetrap’ scene.  I felt that there were lovely shots of  the player clowns, played by Ricky Champ and Jim Hooper, as Hamlet tries to persuade the  player king not to let the clowns say too much (3.2.37).  In the dumb show the joke of the murdered king parodies the death old Hamlet in turning into a ghost with a white sheet over him, and leaving the scene making ghost-like noises (in the stage version he was hoisted into the flies which was very funny).  Hamlet, watches Claudius watching the play, through his video camera and we see what Hamlet sees.  Claudius is clearly disturbed, but he acknowledges Hamlet is playing a game by walking past him and shaking his head to signal that he is aware of what Hamlet is doing. 

A key metaphor in both the stage and film productions is the mirror.  In the stage production, Hamlet uses the actors’ mirror and reflects it across the faces of the audience in the theatre.  In the film, he can only reflect the faces of the players in the mirror.  There is some humour when Hamlet proclaims ‘well, god-o-mercy’ (2.2.172)’ when he notices the two-way mirror. In the stage production he is able walk round the mirror, but in the film he looks into it, and we see him from the other side. In shooting Polonius through the mirror, the mirror shatters.  The fragmented mirror then becomes a metaphor for Hamlet’s state of mind, but also for the court breaking up and falling a part from the well rehearsed show in the second scene.  By the time we reach the final scene, it feels like all the mirrors in Elsinore are fragmented and broken.

Patrick Stewart said in the question and answer session at the BFI screening that he made it a condition of playing Claudius that he would also play the ghost.  This seems to make sense as the two characters are brothers.  As Claudius though, Stewart is also acting two parts.  He is the calculated polished performer in the public scenes, but we are also privy to his anguish in a private moment as he attempt to pray.  I love the way he wretches at the moment he recognises that his offence is ‘rank (3.3.36)’.  At the end of the play, Claudius realises the game is up, and just shrugs his shoulders as he drinks from the poisoned cup.  Here Claudius is no longer acting, or is this his best performance of the play?   

Though it makes sense to double up as the ghost and Claudius in both stage and film productions.  However, taking a stage production and making it into a film means that there is the issue of all the other characters who double up.  Kenneth Branagh Hamlet (1996) took the opportunity of the film to bring in large crowds and even extra characters such as Ken Dodd’s Yorick.  Doran’s production stays fairly close to the stage production with using all the Courtyard/Novello cast. In the stage versions other actors doubled up as well, such as Ryan Gage playing both the player queen and Osrick and the film version did well retain some actors playing several parts. 

Part 3: Hamlet

In using film references, there are echoes of  Michael Almereyda’s 2000 Hamlet.  However, Tennant’s Hamlet is not like Hawke’s Hamlet, who is filming the court scene (1.2) from the start, and plays a moody teenager throughout.  There’s an enormous amount in the blogs and on the comment boards (see The Guardian’s What did you think) about the way that David Tennant played Hamlet.  I felt that David Tennant made a good job of playing Hamlet both on stage and in the film.  I enjoyed the comic, energetic, and the thoughtful prince.  I felt that Tennant’s strength was that he was able to bring some clarity to speeches which are sometimes difficult to understand.  A very good example of this is his conversation with Rosencrantz (Sam Alexander) and Guildenstern (Tom Davey) when he compares the playing of the musical instrument to the way the two characters are attempting to manipulate him  saying ‘you would play upon me (3.3.372)’.  I felt Tennant was able to work through the soliloquies and pick out the changes in tone, such as in the first ‘O that this too too solid flesh would melt’ (1.2.128).  Here, Tennant says ‘solid’ instead of ‘sullied’ here, but  there is a real show of grief  in the way he delivers the soliloquy.  I felt that performing the speech this way might be an enormous risk,  because he falls to his knees and instead of speaking the lines clearly to the audience, he speaks them to the floor.  In taking this approach there is a real danger that the words may be lost, particularly in the theatre.  This is very early on in the play as well and he could lose his audience.  However, he works through the shock and grief and at  ‘frailty, thy name is woman (1.2.146)’, he stands up and we see his anger and frustration.  From moving to a position where he does not acknowledge the audience he moves to one where he speaks directly to the camera when he talks about his ‘poor father’s body (1.2.148).

I was particularly interested in Greg Doran’s idea (see Learning Zone comment below) that characters constantly reach crossroads in the play and have to make decisions about which way to go.  It’s really interesting to think of the moments when Hamlet does this.  For example, the moment Hamlet chooses to put on an antic disposition on (1.5.173), when he realises that Ophelia’s father is not at home in the nunnery scene  and is spying on him (3.1.115), and the example given by Greg Doran when he thinks he might kill Claudius at prayer – ‘now might I do it… (3.3.73f)’.

There are different sides to Tennant’s Hamlet.  At times he could be very intense and physical.  This was evident in Gertrude’s closet and as he directs the Mousetrap.  Most Hamlet’s get their notebooks out to write down the ghost’s words, but this Hamlet cuts his hand  at  ‘set it down (1.5.108).  I felt that Tennant’s Hamlet on the whole a very funny Hamlet.  He is able to demonstrate how he will put on the antic disposition by  changing his tone at  ‘well, well, we know’ (1.5.176).  Hamlet is obsessed and disgusted by female sexuality we see this in several place such as Gertrude’s closet, in the Nunnery scene, and we see this in public as Hamlet, watching the mousetrap with Ophelia, Hamlet still emphasises the first syllable of ‘country matters (3.2.125)’ as he does in the stage production.  This is both crudely humorous but shocking that he could publically humiliate Ophelia in this way.   He can be very cruel to Polonius and after Polonius is murdered, he behaves in the same way to Osrick.  However, he is disappointed and shocked to find his two school friends ‘have been sent (2.2.274)’, and starts to mock them as well.  One of the funniest moments is when  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive before the play within the play with champagne and glasses  and are dismissed by Hamlet 3.2.60).

Part 4: Summing up

The three hours do move very quickly and the film production we choose if we have an interval and when it will be.   This means we lose the effect of placing the interval after  ‘now might I do it… (3.3.73f)’.  It does seem to end a little abruptly and this is probably because Fortinbras’ entrance has been cut. 

I realise watching the BBC’s second and third The Learning Zone programmes, which were broadcast before the screening of Hamlet on Boxing Day, may have influenced the way I think about this production. I missed the first one and am hoping that I will be able to catch up with it at a later date. The two programmes were enormously helpful insights into the making of this production.

I do think that there were moments when it was possible to make connections between Hamlet and Doctor Who through the viewing of the Tennant’s two performances over the Christmas and New Year period.  I don’t think that this is a bad thing at all. I am writing about this in other places ao won’t elaborate here.   

For Tennant’s Hamlet and Doctor –  ‘The rest is silence (5.2352) –  that is until John Simm plays Hamlet in September at the Sheffield Crucible and Matt Smith takes over the role of the Doctor in the Spring.

References

All references to the Penguin edition of the text which is edited by T.J.B Spencer (of course the production doesn’t follow this text).

Reviews

BFI question and answer

The Guardian – what did you think ?

The Guardian on the ratings

Other Information

My post on the BFI screening

BBC web site tie in

Hamlet BBC Open Learn with reference to the production.

George Entwistle’s BBC Blog on the BFI screening

Illuminations – reviews blogs tweets etc about the production

Illuminations Blog

Interview with David Tennant in The Observer

Mark Lawson on the TV version in The Guardian

Mark Lawson on Hamlet for The Guardian discussion about the Doctor Who Hamlet?

Mark Lawson again, but liking the comparison to Hamlet this time.

RSC Countdown to Hamlet site

The Times on Hamlet at Christmas

Julie Raby1 Comment

RSC, South Bank Show (ITV 1, 28th December 2009)

Though I enjoyed the South Bank programme about the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)  because of my interest in the Company and its work, I did start to feel that it was more like a promotional DVD, than an in-depth study.  It is sad to see a long running show axed and I hope other shows take its place, and that we see Melvin Bragg in other slots.  I think I need more of the wonderful Culture Show with its weekly mix of short pieces and specials, such as the recent programme focusing on Michael Jackson.  However, though entertaining, this episode of the South Bank show  was not really challenging and it didn’t reveal things about the RSC, that I didn’t know already from reading interviews with Michael Boyd and from the RSC’s own publicity material.  Maybe the overall description of the programme was ‘on message’ as far as the RSC was concerned.

I found the trip to Russia and the background to The Grain Store very interesting.  I also thought that it was great to see actors in rehearsal and to watch the  bit on how the new theatre is progressing.   I thought it was amusing that Mariah Gale and Katy Stephens practice their speeches in funny voices.   However, alongside all this interesting nuggets of information, I felt that the main purpose of the programme was to promote the RSC’s current vision.  The programme highlighted the committment to the ensemble idea and the rationale behind the new theatre space.  Michael Boyd reiterated his distaste of celebrity culture, which he has mentioned in other places.   The programme also gave us the reason why the RSC are committed to  performing new writing and linked all this back to Peter Hall’s vision for the RSC.  What the programme didn’t seem to do was critique the new direction or really place this in the context of other ways that the RSC could evolve and develop.

The idea of the ensemble brings massive benefits, and of course The Histories project is used to as an example to support this approach.  It will be great to see this year’s ensemble at work in new plays next year.  However, it is also very exciting to see new actors and new approaches.  I have written in previous places on the blog that I feel that the ensemble is not making enough of the opportunity to take ideas across more than one play as Greg Doran did in the 2008 season with his utilisation of the mirrored set for three productions.  This ensemble company had been split into two and are in effect, until the Russian plays, two separate companies as far as I could see in the way they approached The Winter’s Tale, As You Like It and Julius Caesar.   Only having the one theatre has meant that there isn’t as much productions.  in 2010, this year’s productions will be repeated and joined by new productions, but with the same actors.   There are benefits of seeing the company play in different spaces and though I love The Courtyard, I  miss smaller spaces like The Other Place and I would love to see a production at The Swan again when it reopens. 

In addition, to the commitment to the ensemble, the new theatre space, the RSC do embrace other approaches.  They do bring in new companies during the ensemble run such as the wonderful Twelfth Night this autumn.  I have also written about how well the RSC productions transfer to the proscenium arch space and maybe it is a positive thing that the RSC can work on the thrust stage as well as in the traditional theatres it also uses.  Finally, I know that some actors had built up a reputation in the theatre before becoming celebrities due to television work, but actors such as David Tennant and Richard Wilson bring enormous benefits to the RSC as does the current RSC ensemble approach.

Reviews

What’s On Stage review

Julie Raby1 Comment

Hamlet (BFI, 14th December 2009)

I felt that I was privileged to be able to attend the premiere of the Illuminations/BBC TV film version of Greg Doran’s RSC Hamlet at the BFI  (British Film Institute).  This blog is about the experience of being there at the screening, and I’ll wait until after the Boxing Day, when it is aired on TV, to blog about the detail of the production.  Here I am interested in discussing the evening, the atmosphere and responding to seeing the film version for the very first time.

My initial thoughts are around how the film and stage versions might differ and whether the memory of the film version might start to erode that of the stage version.  I thought that the stage production of Greg Doran’s RSC Hamlet (2008-09), was particularly engaging  because I felt that the audience was part of the production itself.  As the audience entered the auditorium, they could see themselves in the mirrored set and as the play progressed audience members became  guests at the funeral/wedding, and the audience for the ‘Mousetrap’.  I was lucky to see the stage version five times through the run, and I was fortunate to see it in the different theatre spaces at the Courtyard and Novello theatres.  What made revisiting the production and sitting in different parts of the Courtyard really interesting was to be able to see the production from lots of different perspectives.  Following experiencing the stage version in Stratford, seeing it at the Novello presented another perspective as it was viewed through the frame of the proscenium arch.   So when I watched the film version, I was fascinated in the way that the camera seemed to direct he viewer to watch characters in specific ways rather than let the eye wonder as it does in the theatre.   It felt that watching the film was the antithesis of watching on stage where the eye can wonder to look at character reactions, watch actors waiting to come on stage, watch the action from behind, above or in front.   The film becomes very directive in the way the viewer is positioned closing down possible viewing options available in the theatre, but emphasising others.  The camera directs us to moments that maybe became noticeable after a second or third visit to the theatre.  For example, Polonius mouthing Laertes lines in 1.2  to make it clear that this is a staged Polonius family moment, or replicated later when Hamlet mouths the Player King’s lines making it really clear this is the bit her wrote.  What I found fascinating was that the film version  takes us onto the set and we become part of the court.  In 1.1, I thought the camera was using all those conventions of horror film and we were looking through the ghost’s eyes, but it was us that looked over Horatio’s shoulders.  In the Q&A session after the screening, Greg Doran talked bout how he found editing and had made a conscious decision to direct the viewer in certain ways.

The other thing that was so different from the stage production ws the way space was used.    The stage is so open at the Courtyard, there is just the back wall, and it’s the language and a few chairs etc that creates the sense of place,  but in the film we have a sense of a building and the action moving from room to room.   I felt at the end of the film, I could actually find my way round this building.  In the Q &A session, Mark Lawson commented that the location was clearly important and Greg Doran talked about getting the sense of a place that felt claustrophobic.  It felt strange suddenly going outside for the gravedigger’s scene, but this does reinforce that idea of the building and space smothering Hamlet.  I think it has been a good decision not to just film the stage version, but to move the play onto location and to think about the kind of place that Hamlet has to deal with as well as the psychological torment that he was dealing with.

The stage version was concerned with metatheatre and this is still very present in the film with the entrance of the player, John Woodvine’s wonderful Priam speech with the actors joining in as if they’d done this so many times like this before and the hilariously funny dumb show as part of the play within the play.  In the film, Greg Doran has also introduced lots of references to film and there are echoes of Michael Almereyda’s 2000 Hamlet all the way through including the dramatic moment of Polonius’ death which is retained from the stage version.   In contrast to the film version, there’s an interesting shift in mood at ‘Now I am alone’ and a twist which I’ll discuss after Boxing Day, but this is an aspect the film could take forward that the stage production didn’t.

David Tennant plays Hamlet as a self harming, hot-tempered intellectual, and it is very unnerving that he carries such sharp knife around with him.  As well s being so intense,  David Tennant’s Hamlet is very witty and funny.  However, it was  Oliver Ford Davies’ Polonius got the most laughs of the evening.  I think that this was highlighted by being able to bring the camera right up to him as he presents his view of the events which is often at odds with everyone elses .

Mark Lawson chaired the Q&A session really well and asked some very perspective questions.  The session will be on the BFI website soon, so we can all watch again.  I asked the first question which was about the camera placing he viewer on stage.  There wasn’t a Doctor Who question and maybe this was a relief to Mark Lawson, especially as had he’d written on the problems of seeing Hamlet through the lens of Doctor Who at the end of last year.  For me, part of the interest in this production is making connections between these two  roles, and that is why I am writing on length on this in other places.  However, the film both distanced  David Tennant from the Doctor Who role, while on the other hand reinforced some of those readings of the two texts.

In the Q &A session, Greg  Doran admitted to cutting the entrance of Fortinbras at the end.  This did lead to a rather abrupt ending.  Maybe we did need a little time to ponder on Hamlet’s death even though we had been watching for over three hours by then.  After the screening, there was a discussion about whether Hamlet was mad or not in this production.  I don’t think he is mad, but I think that Greg Doran’s point about Hamlet going over the edge in Getrude’s chamber was an interesting one.  The reason that I don’t think that David Tennant’s Hamlet has gone mad is because he manages to interact so differently with the different characters.  We see him play the clown in scenes with Polonius and then turn to Horatio and have a serious conversation.

When I decided to go to the screening, it felt a bit extravagant booking to see a film that would be on television in a week’s time.  However, the experience of being there was just an exciting as seeing the film.   I found it absolutely fascinating to be sat behind Patrick Stewart watching himself playing Claudius watching Hamlet who is watching Claudius in the ‘Mousetrap’.   Even though this was three hours and three minutes long, it  felt that the time went by really quickly and the audience clapped at the end of the film expressing their delight in what they had just seen.

Greg Doran talked about productions he’d seen years ago still being in his head.  I think that I worry a little that the stage memory will be eventually erased from my memory by the film version as I can still keep watching the DVD.  However, that’s the transience of theatre, the joy of being one of many  who saw and felt that they were part of the stage production, in contrast to the possible millions who will experience the watching this on DVD.  The great thing about the film version is that it is different from the stage production, but it does retain so much of the blocking from the stage versions.  Some to the key elements of the stage production are there in the film such as the ‘real’ skull, the red T shirt, the two-way mirrors, and the player king’s crown. 

As Patrick Stewart said in the Q&A session, the cast had been ‘rehearsing’ this for a year, so the film can only be a very polished performance.   Yes in the film there were jerky moments and bits were cut and it does end a little abruptly, but it is a lovely version of Hamlet, which presents an engaging interpretation of the text and I think will make Shakespeare more accessible to a wider audience.

The BBC spokesperson said the BBC wanted this to have a long life after the production had been screened on Boxing Day and after seeing the film production, I think it will.

Further Information

BFI question and answer

BBC web site tie in

Hamlet BBC Open Learn with reference to the production.

George Entwistle’s BBC Blog on the BFI screening

Illuminations – reviews blogs tweets etc about the production

Illuminations Blog

Interview with David Tennant in Observer

Mark Lawson on the TV version in The Guardian

Mark Lawson on Hamlet for The Guardian discussion about the Doctor Who Hamlet?

RSC Countdown to Hamlet site

The Times on Hamlet at Christmas

Julie Raby4 Comments

Twelfth Night (The Courtyard Theatre, w/c 9th November 2009)

 
Twelfth Night at the Courtyard
The Courtyard before a performance of Twelfth Night. 'For the rain it raineth everyday'.

 

Outside in the town of Stratford it was raining every day.  Inside, the Courtyard Theatre, there is a promise of sunshine as the sun streams through the doors and windows across a dimmed stage and auditorium.  The play will commence in the dusky light of the moment when the day begins to turn to night and will oscillate through dark and light.   The  audience will be taken through moods of light and shade. 

When we enter the auditorium we are faced with  golden colours – reds, oranges and browns which are contrasted with the beautiful pastel yellow, peach and pink roses in  colours.  High above the worn wall, the blue sky has a splattering of clouds.  Two columns rise at the side of the stage, one broken and another an ionic column.  Slightly menacingly, there is a window high up is grilled as if we might be looking up at a prison window.  This is somewhere exotic, somewhere that is strating to crumble.  Possibly Turkey say some of the reviews.

Musicians come onto the stage for the pre-show and play enchanting music, and strangely, a wave breaks at the back of the stage and we know we are in Illyria.  Between the moments when we visit Orsino’s court for the first time and meet the shipwrecked Viola,  a dumb show is performed as Olivia, Maria, Malvolio and the priest, dressed in black, walk silently across the stage making us realise that death is a visitor in this play as well as the humour and the courtship games.

Greg Doran’s latest RSC production is a strong vibrant interpretation of the text.  Miltos Yerolemou is a marvellous Feste able to move between the two houses and making his living as a ‘corrupter of words’, and this is why he is so hurt, and so desperately pained by Malvolio’s ‘barren rascal’ comment and so shocked clearly put down.  Yerolemou is able to perform one of the most engaging pre shows I’ve seen as the audience return from the interval.  In getting the whole house clapping he lifts the mood and we  move straight into the sparring between the Fool and Viola.   There is another wonderful moment when Feste is able to dim the house lights with a click of his fingers.  In this scene outside the church, we are reminded that both Feste and Viola are both not what they seem and are able to interact with the audience in this way, as if we are now implicated in their different disguises.

Richard McCabe was a totally inebriated Sir Toby Belch, and his only real sober moment is the realisation that the trick on Malvolio has gone too far.  I felt that I became more unsympathetic to him as the play developed, especially as the maliciousness of the character, as well as the comedy, came over in McCabe’s performance.  Sir Toby was very clear to show his dislike of Sir Andrew and this was evident from their entrance, as he pulled faces and gestured behind Sir Andrew’s back.  Even, Maria can’t be in his company at the end of the play.   James Fleet was very funny as Sir Andrew. He was both pompous and sad at the same time, and unaware of his own self mockery.  He is pompous because he happily joined in with the disruption and sad because he was being gulled by Sir Toby and we knew he would never marry Olivia.  The drinking scene is set in a laundry so the three men (Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Feste) manage to find many things to make a noise with.  The overhearing scene is also painfully funny and the box tree, like a balloon basket, is just wonderful.

The two leading women were just superb.  Nancy Carroll was an articulate intelligent Cesario.  She doesn’t overdo the masculinity, but the men who wait on Orsino are clearly jealous of her Cesario.  Alexandra Gilbreath played the comedy in Olivia’s role beautifully.  At one point Olivia was able to shriek at Sir Toby while at the same time turning back to woo Cesario, and we are now watching a woman no longer grieving for her brother, but now sexually aware and in love.  Pamela Nomvete as Maria was also really good managing to get such a lovely balance between the light and dark moments she is involved in.

Richard Wilson was just how I thought he would be as Malvolio. He was really dry and he was funny.  I felt that this was a Malvolio who made me feel ill at ease.  When he wore his  yellow stockings, I felt embarrassed and uncomfortable.   Not because Richard Wilson didn’t portray this well, but I felt that this was one of his strength of his performance that the moments of silence and his physical presence were directed in such a way that they had an impact.  In the Sir Topaz scene he comes up through the trap, beautifully and ironically mirroring the moment that he enters Olivia’s laundry to put an end to the drinking scene.  As he was humiliated  by Sir Toby and co,  I felt the taunting of Malvolio made me uncomfortable as it is supposed to do, but I think this was particularly relevent due to Wilson’s performance. 

As soon as Orsino and Olivia meet they are battling with one and another and at one point, Orsino grabs a knife and threatens to kill Olivia.  This is not a funny moment, but one that is intended to make us realise that these two have never met and that all Orsino’s love was really being in the love with the idea of being in love.  His anger in his meeting with Olivia is actually shocking and unnerving

As it started, the play closes asking us consider the light and dark moments at the end of the play.  Why can Orsino can fall in love so easily with Cesario and mistakes Sebastian for her at the end of the play? The fool is locked out of the house, mirroring the moment Autolycus is locked out of this year’s RSC The Winter’s Tale.  He sings about the rain and I am thinking whether it is still raining outside.  The ones who lose in this play walk across the play.  Air Andrew has packed his bags.  Sir Toby and Maria have fallen out and we feel their’s will be a loveless marriage. Malvolio, mirroring the dumb show at the start, walks slowly across the stage, but this time he is alone, and as he leaves he turns to look at Feste.  It’s a poignant moment and ends the play really well.

The lights dim and yes it is pouring with rain outside the theatre.

Reviews and Previews

RSC Twelfth Night – Michael Billington review
Coventry Telegraph Preview of RSC Twelfth Night
The Stage / News / Wilson to star in RSC’s Twel…
Best of Theatre Autumn 2009 in The Times
RSC Twelfth Night in The Evening Standard
RSC Twelfth Night in The Independent
WOS Review of RSC Twelfth Night
Playbill News: Richard Wilson to Play Malvolio …
Telegraph on RSC Twelfth Night
The Stage / News / Wilson to star in RSC’s Twel…
The Stage review of Twelfth Night at Stratford
The Times review of Twelfth Night
Independent on Sunday RSC Twelfth Night
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Wilson poised to mak…
Financial Times on the RSC Twelfth Night
Wilson Leads RSC Twelfth, Cooke Revives Arabian…

Peter Kirwin’s blog on RSC’s Twelfth Night

Julie Raby3 Comments

Thoughts on…Blogs this week

Having just moved Miching Malicho over here to Between the Acts, I have been a little bit more interested in what other Theatre/Culture blogs look like this week.  In reading through some blogs I came across  Cultural Tales of Two Cities.  I really like the way that the blog focuses on the two cities of Manchester and London, though there is a review of the RSC Twelfth Night there so clearly towns and cities between Manchester and London count.  There was a very interesting comment on the casting of Richard Wilson as Malvolio in the RSC’s Twelfth Night  on the blog this week.  The blog notes that this production was

A play of two halves really for the RSC’s latest Stratford offering. This production of ‘Twelfth Night’ was apparently delayed until Richard Wilson was available to play Malvolio. I am just not sure that someone who is so known for one character can credibly play another. At times it felt like the audience was waiting for him to announce ‘I don’t believe it’… (Cultural Tales of Two Cities accessed 8th November 2009)

 I always think that Peter Kirwin’s Bardathon is so informative, and  this week he was writing about the RSC’s Days of Significance and commenting on its relationship to Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.   I was interested to see that Blogging By Numbers was writing about Mother Courage and Their Children last week with a big But:

But – and this is one of those huge, clunking buts – I was never less than engaged. I loved the invention. I loved the humour. I loved the money I could see had been spent. I loved, loved Fiona Shaw as a Mother Courage that you were at once compelled and repulsed by. (Blogging By Number accessed 8th November 2009)

This still makes me feel I should have gone to see the whole thing after all after having the just the first half experience.

I’m writing about blogging at the moment, as well as blogging about blogging, which feels a little indulgent.  I am interested in the idea that Web 2.0 opens up the web for the audience to produce and to inform what is being written and produced.  The myriad of opinion out there is often engaging and interesting and we have the choice to read or not. 

As blogs appear and we all get a say, one blog that seems to have gone is Patricia 1957 Arts Diary.  I really enjoyed reading the posts on Patricia 1957 Arts Diary , but it looks like this has been deleted which is a shame.   My move from Miching Malicho to Between the Acts is about changing virtual personas.  However, the disappearance of  Patricia1957ArtsDiary shows that on the blogosphere we can have a voice and silence our own voices just as quickly. 

 

Julie RabyLeave a comment