Shakespeare’s Globe ‘22

has the rest been announced? 

Normally announced middle of Jan and onsale Mid Feb isnt it?

A couple of the Willie’s and a new ‘play’ about colonialism set in two or three time periods with a cast of actors who speak in different languages. Betcha. ( yep that kinda day..)

Still no news on the Wanamaker Merchant casting and that's not that far off. :/

Such a squashed and uncomfortable seating I wonder if people will be put off. The irony of replicating a theatre that emerged in age of plague ..

ADO/CAESAR/LEAR/TEMPEST/HENRY V111/JOAN/
READ NOT DEAD
etc

Merged

They are making it Shylock's play. Which is hardly radical or innovative.

There was a long tradition particularly in the 19th century IIRC of ending the play after the trial and ignoring Act 5 completely.

Shylock appears in a very small number of scenes and exits the play in Act 4. He isn't the dominant character in terms of lines or stage time. Yes he is a key player but the play as written is not the Shylock play. He certainly isn't the title character as some have always believed.

So I fear that this will be an attempt to force a contemporary agenda on the text.

I find it frustrating that so many contemporary directors don't trust the text to show you how to approach the play. If you don't trust it, don't direct it.

Michelle Terry as Cordelia and the Fool.

Bit harsh. It is accepted that in Shakespeare's day those two parts were probably doubled isn't it ? 

However, a gender-swapped production with a Queen instead of Henry VIII & a female Wolsey with a modern playwright credited alongside Shakespeare and Fletcher is more controversial, in my view mainly because we hardly ever get this play done at all so why alter it - we’re not familiar enough with it to appreciate a radically different perspective on it 

Given how tough recent years have been for young actors who might normally be looked at for roles like Cordelia, it does feel just a tad selfish for MT to snaffle those roles for herself at a time when she has been (and continues to be) a salaried Artistic Director.

She is also, I would contend, too old for Cordelia.

And yes, the messing with H8 feels absolutely unnecessary. I don't see what we will gain from having Queen Henry

I am not keen on ADs who direct either.

Your job is to run the organisation, to show artistic leadership

Running an individual production or starring in one takes you away from that.

Just because everyone does it doesn't make it right.

Norris at the NT would not be facing the storm he is right now if he had just run the company rather than writing and directing an ill conceived musical

The same can be said of the RSC leadership. I acknowledge that recent months have been personally very difficult for Doran. But before that his leadership was lacking but he still kept directing.

When you take over a company you should set aside acting or directing and focus on leading. You are only there for a short part of your career.

The ‘Merchant’ of Venice is almost a concept isn’t it? The play is all about commodifying human experience. Bassanio needs dosh to go get Portia who has been made an object of her father’s will and is to be ‘sold/awarded tho’ nice touch that the man she gets isn’t swayed by the dosh on offer, or is he? Portia has to give him a mighty big hint which casket to choose.  And so it goes on. Shylock bemoans the loss of a daughter and sets that against the loss of the ring which was given to him by his beloved wife, so circles of money and affection and which wins out? Antonio is I suppose, the actual physical merchant who gives money to keep friendship ( love?) but who ends up with nobody and the idea of the money being turned into flesh says it all… I’m not a huge fan of this play. We did it in school - I was 14- and I can remember the teacher telling us very firmly that Shakespeare was not antisemitic. I agree with that but it does take some energy to maintain that view unless the production is sensitive and unless you’ve see Marlowe’s Jew of Malta which is full on, go kill the Jews kind of stuff. The play does need a revamp, fresh eyes, so let’s hope this is it. 

King Lear with Kathryn Hunter, directed by Helena Kaut-Howson. Mmmm. Saw King Lear with same actress, same director at The Young Vic in the mid 1990's . It was truly terrible. Woefully under-cast in places, inept staging, odd ideas ( Lear pushed around the stage in a bath-tub...), poorly spoken. Any yet - the reviews were, for the most part, glowing. The production was often referred to as 'Mid-European' ( whatever that means) in the reviews, which seemed a way of excusing ineptitude. Be interesting to see if the same actor/director team can make a success of it this time - and how lucky they are to have found a theatre willing to give them a second chance.