RSC 2017

[martin1965]

Simon you are obviously entitled to your opinion, but thats two full posts and you still havent put forward your choice for rsc chief😉

[Jan]

Aug 14, 2016 14:30:56 GMT DuchessConstance said:

What a load of nonsense. Typical Daily Mail reader crying because they're so oppressed at having to occasionally acknowledge that black people or women exist.

A production stands or falls on its own merit. An actor's performance rests on their talent, not their genitals or their skin colour. If "white middle class people" are unable to watch any theatre not exclusively white and middle class then they have much bigger problems and obviously don't have any genuine appreciation for or understanding of Shakespeare.

Here's a question I have been meaning to ask for a while. Trevor Nunn pioneered colour-blind casting for Shakespeare in the 1970s. That's just a fact. Yet he was slated by certain people here and in the press for his Kingston Wars of Roses which had an all-White cast. His argument was it was an artistic decision because bloodline and legitimacy/illegitimacy were essential to the subject play and mixed casting would confuse that, and that the historical characters portrayed actually were white. So, line up all your Guardian reader objections to him. OK ?

Doran directed Julius Caesar set in present-day Africa. Every single leading actor was black. No-one complained at all, in fact he was praised for it. Now try to explain away all the objections to race-based casting you lined up after the paragraph above.

[oxfordsimon]

Aug 15, 2016 5:32:24 GMT martin1965 said:

Simon you are obviously entitled to your opinion, but thats two full posts and you still havent put forward your choice for rsc chief😉

I didn't know that I was expected to!

Given a free choice, I would have looked to Laurie Sansom - who may not have the RSC insider credentials but does have the knowledge of running things as well as directing in an interesting fashion.

Roxanna Silbert would also be on my list.  

Both have strong track records and offer something fresh compared to the current RSC team.

(I would have also added Maria Aberg - but I know she is a marmite director.  Rupert Goold likewise)
        

[Jan]

Aug 15, 2016 11:30:05 GMT oxfordsimon said:

Aug 15, 2016 5:32:24 GMT martin1965 said:

Simon you are obviously entitled to your opinion, but thats two full posts and you still havent put forward your choice for rsc chief😉

I didn't know that I was expected to!

Given a free choice, I would have looked to Laurie Sansom - who may not have the RSC insider credentials but does have the knowledge of running things as well as directing in an interesting fashion.

Roxanna Silbert would also be on my list.  

Both have strong track records and offer something fresh compared to the current RSC team.

(I would have also added Maria Aberg - but I know she is a marmite director.  Rupert Goold likewise)
        

Tough to answer the question without knowing who applied. Details are opaque but it seems in the end Goold didn't but I bet loads of other people did. Just in general it seems quite a long time since a European-based director has come to UK to take one of these AD jobs, that would be good.

[DuchessConstance]

My heart bleeds for all the poor white men searching in vain for representation (white men being practically an endangered species and all).

Maybe -- just maybe -- Erica Whyman genuinely believes that women and non-white actors and playwrights deserve at least a fraction of the opportunities open to white men, rather than having some insidious brainwashed-by-reading-the-Guardian 'PC Agenda'?

One of the current leading lights of the RSC is Simon Godwin, who is a) one of the leading classical directors around at the moment and b) tends to direct pretty traditional productions. Oh and c) a middle-class, near middle-aged white man. No sure how he fits in with the whole 'PC agenda to cut out white men' theory.

[martin1965]

Bloody hell Simon if thats the best you can come up with!! As far as i know Goold didnt apply. I doubt that many applied, Farr may have done so. I just dont think the usual names always bandied about: Branagh, Grandage and Mendes actually want the job.

[Deleted]

Personally I'd've found greater clarity in the Wars of the Roses if the majority of the cast hadn't been bearded white men, but what do I know?

[Jan]

Aug 15, 2016 12:07:43 GMT DuchessConstance said:

My heart bleeds for all the poor white men searching in vain for representation (white men being practically an endangered species and all).

Maybe -- just maybe -- Erica Whyman genuinely believes that women and non-white actors and playwrights deserve at least a fraction of the opportunities open to white men, rather than having some insidious brainwashed-by-reading-the-Guardian 'PC Agenda'?

One of the current leading lights of the RSC is Simon Godwin, who is a) one of the leading classical directors around at the moment and b) tends to direct pretty traditional productions. Oh and c) a middle-class, near middle-aged white man. No sure how he fits in with the whole 'PC agenda to cut out white men' theory.

Have a go at answering my post above about justifying the Julius Caesar production compared to the Wars of the Roses. I'm genuinely interested in the answer.

On Godwin it seems Doran is happy to have him direct Shakespeare at the NT, if he really is a future RSC AD he should be made an official Associate.

[oxfordsimon]

Aug 15, 2016 12:22:37 GMT martin1965 said:

Bloody hell Simon if thats the best you can come up with!! As far as i know Goold didnt apply. I doubt that many applied, Farr may have done so. I just dont think the usual names always bandied about: Branagh, Grandage and Mendes actually want the job.

Sansom is doing a grand job at National Theatre of Scotland - he would be a very credible leader for the RSC

I must admit to not having liked much of Farr's work.  I have found him too indulgent with his lead actor and ends up with unbalanced productions as a result.    

Branagh, Grandage and Mendes are all big names - but the RSC needs more than a name.

[DuchessConstance]

Out of curiosity, were any women up for the job? There are a couple of women I think would do a good job, but it's a difficult position to fill. It's tricky because most directors with the potential and experience to run a major theatre company are either too broad in scope, or unwilling to relocate in Warwickshire.

Simon Godwin will be the next NT AD, good money on it. Lyndsey Turner will end up running a theatre too, but a smaller one.

I don't think Greg is doing anywhere anytime soon.

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2016 15:20:26 GMT oxfordsimon said:

Sansom is doing a grand job at National Theatre of Scotland - he would be a very credible leader for the RSC

That's a rather Pollyanna opinion. He shocked the theatre world by resigning from NTS after barely three years there!

[martin1965]

I thought Marianne Elliott had a good chance of taking over at the national, dont know if she applied. Greg Doran is there for the decade so we have him for a few years yet. Shich is fine with me.

[Deleted]

Marianne Elliott has said she wouldn't want to be in charge of a building because it would be too much pressure on her personal life. Though she may yet change her mind in the future; her daughter'll have to move out *eventually*.

[Deleted]

Is Greg Doran in charge of a building? He looks like the sort of bloke who'd lose the keys and then accidentally come across them a few days later down the side of the sofa when looking for his beard-clippers.

[martin1965]

We are still none the wiser about next year's season, esp the Swan.

[Deleted]

Have patience and all will be revealed in due course.

[DuchessConstance]

Aug 15, 2016 16:22:45 GMT @honouredguest said:

Is Greg Doran in charge of a building? He looks like the sort of bloke who'd lose the keys and then accidentally come across them a few days later down the side of the sofa when looking for his beard-clippers.

Yeah right, like Greg Doran ever uses beard-clippers.

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2016 16:33:26 GMT DuchessConstance said:

Aug 15, 2016 16:22:45 GMT @honouredguest said:

Is Greg Doran in charge of a building? He looks like the sort of bloke who'd lose the keys and then accidentally come across them a few days later down the side of the sofa when looking for his beard-clippers.

Yeah right, like Greg Doran ever uses beard-clippers.

Well, maybe he spotted the keys but never found the beard-clippers? 

[lynette]

Someone mentioned Maria Aberg. My worst nightmare.

[Deleted]

Where are the RSC 'constantly' telling everyone how great it is? Every theatre has to promote its work in order to sell tickets, surely? I don't get a sense of the RSC promoting itself more than any other theatre.

As for the RSC despising it's white, middle aged, middle classed audiences, I see no sign of that either. I'm a white, middle aged, middle class person (although admittedly not a male one) and I've always felt extremely welcome in the theatres in Stratford. From the box office to the shop to the restaurant and cafes and the ushers, everyone has been extremely welcoming and friendly. In fact, I feel like exactly their target audience when I'm there.

I'm not so sure that it's the RSC's place to be truly radical and groundbreaking either to be honest. I think they can (and do) do that to a certain extent, but surely there are other theatre companies that are more suited for that sort of thing. For a place where a large portion of their audience is tourists and school groups, they need to stay relatively accessible and traditional.

[martin1965]

Hear and furthermore hear!!😀

[David J]

I wouldn't go as far as to call the RSC radical (even when they tried, they produced productions like Troilus and Cressida)

But it did have more visionary directors a few years back. Some of their work I loved, others not so much. Michael Boyd's and David Farr's had hints of Brechtian and expressionism about them that I quite liked. Lots of symbolic imagery to mull over. As for Rupert Goold, his style of theatre has moved into the Almeida nowadays (though he has been more creative with his latest Richard III)

The RSC main theatre productions nowadays (apart from Merchant of Venice and Cymbeline) are the opposite. Detailed and hyper-realistic. Lots of big detailed sets, from the architecture in last year's Othello to the recreation of Charlecote in Love's Labour's Lost/Won. It's rather reflective of Gregory Doran's style of directing, working with actors to bring every detail of the texts to the forefront.

Don't think that I dislike the productions the RSC is putting on these days. Many of them have been great, and I still love Gregory Doran as a director but I have seen him do better. As an artistic director he could bring more variety to his seasons. The Swan Theatre productions are the only ones I look forward to the most

My thoughts on the theatre has been influenced by the RSC's work under Michael Boyd's regime and nothing can change that. I'm gaining more interest in what Emma Rice's artistic directorship is bringing to the Globe. Despite my reservations her Midsummer reminded me that anything is possible when producing Shakespeare. And at least, as stated elsewhere she could be allowing a little bit of variety by including a traditional production next year.

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2016 20:46:50 GMT David J said:

And at least, as stated elsewhere she could be allowing a little bit of variety by including a traditional production next year.

But whose tradition? Many of the people bleating for a "traditional" production have different things in their minds.

[westwaywanderer]

Aug 11, 2016 7:26:38 GMT martin1965 said:

Anyone heard any goss about whats on at Stratford next year? The announcement must be inminent

Towards the end of this year and the beginning of 2017 the revival of the Tempest is on! But book fast as tickets are already selling out!

[martin1965]

Er yes thanks for that, its been announced for some months now! I am actually talking about the 2017 "summer" season😉