RSC 2018

[martin1965]

The booklet for next year must be going to the printers soon with the announcement at the start of September. Anyone know anything?
Im hoping for a long overdue jacobethan discoveries season in the Swan.

[Jan]

Aug 2, 2017 12:12:17 GMT martin1965 said:

The booklet for next year must be going to the printers soon with the announcement at the start of September. Anyone know anything?
Im hoping for a long overdue jacobethan discoveries season in the Swan.

The Doran Henry VI plays lying like an inert indigestible lump at the heart of the season ?

[theatremad]

Aug 2, 2017 13:25:25 GMT Jan said:

Aug 2, 2017 12:12:17 GMT martin1965 said:

The booklet for next year must be going to the printers soon with the announcement at the start of September. Anyone know anything?
Im hoping for a long overdue jacobethan discoveries season in the Swan.

The Doran Henry VI plays lying like an inert indigestible lump at the heart of the season ?

Or for others lying as the exciting prospect at the heart of the season (like me).

We could finally get the long mooted Romeo and Juliet/Troilus and Cressida combination. Would love a good Jacobeathean season too.

Should know earlyish september

[martin1965]

Aug 2, 2017 13:25:25 GMT Jan said:

Aug 2, 2017 12:12:17 GMT martin1965 said:

The booklet for next year must be going to the printers soon with the announcement at the start of September. Anyone know anything?
Im hoping for a long overdue jacobethan discoveries season in the Swan.

The Doran Henry VI plays lying like an inert indigestible lump at the heart of the season ?

Always thought he would do the H6/R3 tetralogy in a winter season much like Boyd did in i think 2000-01. Unless there is some amazing casting it would be a brave ask for a summer season.😉

[lucky700]

Those have been  mooted since he took over. I wonder whatever has kept putting it off and off. It was originally to go with Henry V. Otherwise quite a few of problems plays left to do. Macbeth is still to be done and I would quite like to see that crossed with measure for measure.

Taming of the Shrew...perhaps.
As You Like It...recent one was so well received that he may leave it a bit.
Merry Wives of Windsor . I would pair this with Winters Tale and As You Like it. Maybe as his parting gesture. Does he need to direct any of those?

Does he have 2 years to go. Because by my count that is about 13 left to go plus Timon and Henry VIII and those. So we are looking at at least 3 more years. Maybe 4.

[Deleted]

Aug 2, 2017 14:18:56 GMT martin1965 said:

Always thought he would do the H6/R3 tetralogy in a winter season much like Boyd did in i think 2000-01. Unless there is some amazing casting it would be a brave ask for a summer season.😉

The problem with that Winter cycle approach is that it would waste Richard III, bunging it on in deepest winter for a short limited run. It would make much better box office sense for Richard III to be one of the main plays in a Summer season with many performances. Gregory Doran's productions in this longrunning Compleat Workes boreathon are deliberately striaghtforward and there wouldn't be much dramatic benefit to presenting Richard III as the fag end of a series of Henry VI plays.

[lucky700]

Aug 2, 2017 14:26:45 GMT @honouredguest said:

Aug 2, 2017 14:18:56 GMT martin1965 said:

Always thought he would do the H6/R3 tetralogy in a winter season much like Boyd did in i think 2000-01. Unless there is some amazing casting it would be a brave ask for a summer season.😉

The problem with that Winter cycle approach is that it would waste Richard III, bunging it on in deepest winter for a short limited run. It would make much better box office sense for Richard III to be one of the main plays in a Summer season with many performances. Gregory Doran's productions in this longrunning Compleat Workes boreathon are deliberately striaghtforward and there wouldn't be much dramatic benefit to presenting Richard III as the fag end of a series of Henry VI plays.

I could see Richard III doing similar to Richard III.  If Tennant is coming g back for it. This being based on seemingly nothing  more than  hearsay...well he won't do a summer season. Also he has in past broken up summer/winter into more than simply September to March. March to September.

[Jan]

Aug 2, 2017 14:25:08 GMT lucky700 said:

Those have been  mooted since he took over. I wonder whatever has kept putting it off and off. It was originally to go with Henry Va. therwise quite a few of problems plays left to do. Mcbeth is still to be done and I would quite like to see that crossed with measure for measure.

Taming of the Shrew...perhaps.
As You Like It...recent one was so well received that he may leave it a bit.
Merry Wives of Windsor . I would pair this with Winters Tale and As You Like it. Maybe as his parting gesture. Does he need to direct any of those?

Does he have 2 years to go. Because by my count that is about 13 left to go plus Timon and Henry VIII and those. So we are looking at at least 3 more years. Maybe 4.

Significant we are discussing what Doran himself will want to direct, he's turned it into a one-man company. I think he hasn't directed Troilus or R&J, Henry VI, RIII, AYLI, Pericles, Measure for Measure, some others too. He hadn't directed Cymbeline or Merchant or 2 Gents either but let others direct those.

[lucky700]

Aug 2, 2017 14:37:13 GMT Jan said:

Aug 2, 2017 14:25:08 GMT lucky700 said:

Those have been  mooted since he took over. I wonder whatever has kept putting it off and off. It was originally to go with Henry Va. therwise quite a few of problems plays left to do. Mcbeth is still to be done and I would quite like to see that crossed with measure for measure.

Taming of the Shrew...perhaps.
As You Like It...recent one was so well received that he may leave it a bit.
Merry Wives of Windsor . I would pair this with Winters Tale and As You Like it. Maybe as his parting gesture. Does he need to direct any of those?

Does he have 2 years to go. Because by my count that is about 13 left to go plus Timon and Henry VIII and those. So we are looking at at least 3 more years. Maybe 4.

Significant we are discussing what Doran himself will want to direct, he's turned it into a one-man company. I think he hasn't directed Troilus or R&J, Henry VI, RIII, AYLI, Pericles, Measure for Measure, some others too. He hadn't directed Cymbeline or Merchant or 2 Gents either but let others direct those.

Maybe Henry 6 and Richard III will be his leaving then. As RII was his beginning. That would poignant and cyclical and nostalgic. All things he appears to like.

[Deleted]

Personally, my RSC-going is now much more limited because the programme is now so compartmentalised with completely separate acting companies for the RST, the Swan and TOP. And with Gregory Doran leading the RST and Erica Whyman the Swan and TOP, and without a team of permanent Associate Directors, there's virtually no director crossover between theatres (with the occasional exception such as Blanche McIntyre this year in the Swan and the RST). In the good old days, actors would act in all three theatres and directors would direct in all five (the three Stratford and two London) and so many audience members would be much more readily drawn to see a wider range of the RSC's work.

The RSC tried to address this separation with their Roman season this summer in both the RSC and the Swan, but the only connexion between the two theatres' programmes was this broad theme, and it didn't encourage me to see plays across both theatres, whereas an acting and creative company working across both theatres in one season might have led me to see a wider range of productions. (I say a "wider range" - I haven't actually seen or planned to see a single one of them).

[Jan]

Aug 2, 2017 14:42:29 GMT lucky700 said:

Aug 2, 2017 14:37:13 GMT Jan said:

Significant we are discussing what Doran himself will want to direct, he's turned it into a one-man company. I think he hasn't directed Troilus or R&J, Henry VI, RIII, AYLI, Pericles, Measure for Measure, some others too. He hadn't directed Cymbeline or Merchant or 2 Gents either but let others direct those.

Maybe Henry 6 and Richard III will be his leaving then. As RII was his beginning. That would poignant and cyclical and nostalgic. All things he appears to like.

He won't leave.

[lucky700]

Aug 2, 2017 16:33:28 GMT Jan said:

Aug 2, 2017 14:42:29 GMT lucky700 said:

Maybe Henry 6 and Richard III will be his leaving then. As RII was his beginning. That would poignant and cyclical and nostalgic. All things he appears to like.

He won't leave.

Everyone leaves. Someway. I am sure he will want to leave before he gets pushed - as everyone will/would be anyway.

[martin1965]

Aug 2, 2017 14:25:08 GMT lucky700 said:

Those have been  mooted since he took over. I wonder whatever has kept putting it off and off. It was originally to go with Henry V. Otherwise quite a few of problems plays left to do. Macbeth is still to be done and I would quite like to see that crossed with measure for measure.

Taming of the Shrew...perhaps.
As You Like It...recent one was so well received that he may leave it a bit.
Merry Wives of Windsor . I would pair this with Winters Tale and As You Like it. Maybe as his parting gesture. Does he need to direct any of those?

Does he have 2 years to go. Because by my count that is about 13 left to go plus Timon and Henry VIII and those. So we are looking at at least 3 more years. Maybe 4.

By my reckoning the CW will finish 2020/21! It seemed like an interesting project but has taken too long and been disjointed. I imagine Doran will go in 2023, his ten year stint will coincide with the Folio anniversary.
Back on topic, some of the problem plays would be nice.

[Deleted]

Aug 2, 2017 17:10:38 GMT martin1965 said:

Back on topic, some of the problem plays would be nice.

Yes, few now remember that Shakespeare invented Sudoku.

[Deleted]

Adrian Noble did 13 years as RSC Artistic Director, Michael Boyd did 9 years having been an associate for 7 years before that. Greg had been an Associate Director from 1996 until 2012 so has already had over 20 years at the RSC. Does anyone know how long he has left on his contract?

2019 would probably seem a logical time for Greg to step down as he'd be 60 then and Antony Sher would be 70 then. Greg always seems to be more a "director" than an Artistic administrator so him directing a number of the season isn't really an issue but he does need to delegate on occasion.

Angus Jackson has been in charge of this summer's season so Greg does take a back seat on occasion.

David Tennant doing Richard III would make bog commercial sense too.

[Deleted]

Aug 2, 2017 17:47:35 GMT @hitster said:

2019 would probably seem a logical time for Greg to step down as he'd be 60 then

I don't think it would make much sense to leave before the end of the Compleat Workes, at the very earliest.

It would be good to have a second period after that, with a fresh programming policy - either a Festival year of some form or some other operational change.

Leaving straight after the last of the Compleat Workes would make the whole project seem to have been a long, plodding hiatus in the history of an interesting theatre company.

[martin1965]

Aug 2, 2017 17:47:35 GMT @hitster said:

Adrian Noble did 13 years as RSC Artistic Director, Michael Boyd did 9 years having been an associate for 7 years before that. Greg had been an Associate Director from 1996 until 2012 so has already had over 20 years at the RSC. Does anyone know how long he has left on his contract?

2019 would probably seem a logical time for Greg to step down as he'd be 60 then and Antony Sher would be 70 then. Greg always seems to be more a "director" than an Artistic administrator so him directing a number of the season isn't really an issue but he does need to delegate on occasion.

Angus Jackson has been in charge of this summer's season so Greg does take a back seat on occasion.

David Tennant doing Richard III would make bog commercial sense too.

Doran is actually 60 next year. He quite obviously wont leave until the CW is done which is still 3-4 years awy. Like i said 2023 will be ten years for him and the Folio anniversary so that fits.

[Deleted]

Greg does turn 60 in November 2018 and Sir Antony will be 70 in June 2019 so I had thought that end of 2018-19 Winter or Summer Season might be when he decides to go. But with him wanting to complete the CW then that will likely take longer and they may want a hand over period so 2021/22/23 could be more realistic.

Also I wonder with Greg and Antony's long association with the RSC whether Greg could eventually move into the Advisory Director's role which John Barton and Cicely Berry hold. Both these two are elderly now so I don't know how much they actively contribute to these roles although I have seen Cicely at a lot of opening nights. Having Greg in a more full on "Advisory" role could mean that the RSC could go for a younger more adventurous choice as Greg's replacement.

[crabtree]

Do you think Antony Sher as Falstaff in Merry wives would work? It does seem ages since we have had Merry Wives. Surely the musical was not the last outing?

[Deleted]

Antony has played Falstaff before in other RSC plays so it would be logical for him to take the role again. It has been a fair while since they last did it given it is a fun play.

[oxfordsimon]

Really don't think that Sher is right for the Merry Wives Falstaff. He has never really shone in Shakespearean comedies.

[Jan]

Aug 2, 2017 17:02:21 GMT lucky700 said:

Aug 2, 2017 16:33:28 GMT Jan said:

He won't leave.

Everyone leaves. Someway. I am sure he will want to leave before he gets pushed - as everyone will/would be anyway.

His mentor John Barton never left, he's still there (I saw him in the audience at the Nunn War of the Roses production in Kingston actually, very frail).

[Deleted]

Sher's Falstaff would have been much better suited to Merry Wives than it was to the Henry IVs. Either that or I'm projecting because it was so bad I'd like to have seen him tipped in the river...

[Jan]

Aug 2, 2017 20:25:09 GMT @hitster said:

Greg does turn 60 in November 2018 and Sir Antony will be 70 in June 2019 so I had thought that end of 2018-19 Winter or Summer Season might be when he decides to go. But with him wanting to complete the CW then that will likely take longer and they may want a hand over period so 2021/22/23 could be more realistic.

Also I wonder with Greg and Antony's long association with the RSC whether Greg could eventually move into the Advisory Director's role which John Barton and Cicely Berry hold. Both these two are elderly now so I don't know how much they actively contribute to these roles although I have seen Cicely at a lot of opening nights. Having Greg in a more full on "Advisory" role could mean that the RSC could go for a younger more adventurous choice as Greg's replacement.

If I was a younger more adventurous choice I wouldn't want Doran hanging around advising me. At present I really have no
clue who could take over from him, or more importantly who would want to - certainly no one young and adventurous springs to mind.

We have commented on it before but it is quite surprising how the ultimate company man like Doran has proceeded to completely abandon the idea of the RSC being a company (a group of actors and directors who commit to the RSC on a long-term basis).

[tributary]

Agree. Only to do that needs great directors of today to grow the talent. They don't have that either.