RSC All New Seasons

[oxfordsimon]

Branagh Company did Winter's Tale and R&J not so long ago. If you go back in time we had companies like English Shakespeare and Renaissance in operation. More recently Propeller were touring regularly. So there has been Shakespeare done away from the big subsidised houses.

[Jan]

Feb 21, 2022 8:45:40 GMT oxfordsimon said:

Branagh Company did Winter's Tale and R&J not so long ago. If you go back in time we had companies like English Shakespeare and Renaissance in operation. More recently Propeller were touring regularly. So there has been Shakespeare done away from the big subsidised houses.

Yes I had forgotten Branagh. ESC and Propeller didn't make it to the West End, and I think one or both of them might have been subsidised to some extent. I forgot the Peter Hall Company though - Twelfth Night, King Lear and maybe others. 

[princeton]

In addition to the ones mentioned above, off the top of my mind and going back a few decades (even though it doesn't feel like it) Peter Hall Company did The Merchant of Venice with Dustin Hoffman as Shylock at the Phoenix Theatre; then also Twelfth Night at Playhouse and Hamlet (Stephen Dillane) at the Gielgud . Then, as you mention, he took over the Old Vic for a season where he directed King Lear.

I can think of three commercial Macbeths in the West End - 1999 starring Rufus Sewell directed by John Crowley; 2002 Sean Bean directed by Edward Hall and 2013 with James MacAvoy directed by Jamie Lloyd. Lloyd also directed Richard III with Martin Freeman.

More recently the Michael Grandage Company did commercial runs of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry V (Jude Law) at Wyndhams. There was also a production of MND at the Albery in the early 00's with Dawn French as Bottom.

There was also the David Lan directed As You Like It starring Helen McCrory. And during Trevor Nunn's takeover of the Haymarket Theatre he directed Ralph Fiennes in The Tempest.

I think (and it's not strictly speaking the West End anyway) that the Benedict Cumberbatch Hamlet was produced by Sonia Friedman as a commercial hire at the Barbican - rather than a co-production (like the recent Anything Goes) so didn't get any direct public subsidy. On the same lines - as the Old Vic doesn't receive public subsidy then there were the productions done as part of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project - The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, As You Like It and Richard III. Then more recently at the Old Vic the Glenda Jackson King Lear (and the aforementioned and best not remembered Much Ado). On the Old Vic it's a shame that Matthew Warchus hasn't directed any Shakespeare since taking over as AD as I rather enjoyed some of his earlier work at the RSC (and the brilliant Rylance/McTeer west end Much Ado).

There might be some others which I didn't see, or worse still that I saw and have forgotten! Turned out to be a longer post that I anticipated.

[Jan]

Good list. I excluded the Old Vic as being not West End but I’ve seen quite a lot of Shakespeare there over the decades, the Spacey Richard-II being about the best. Yes I like Warchus as a Shakespeare director too, always interesting, that Appalachian Winters Take with the eagle at the Roundhouse …

[David J]

Just to say my favourite Much Ado is the 2011 Charles Edwards and Eve Best Globe production. Those two worked perfectly together

And Jeremy Herrin and the cast worked to bring some dimension to some of the characters, particularly Claudio who was brash and prone to put his foot in it, so you could see why he would easily fall for Don Johns lies.

Only negative was Dogberry. For some reason the actor interjected these “phwoars” in the middle of the lines for laughs. I mean it’s not an easy task to make shakespeares clowns funny, but I had no idea what the point of that was.

Well recommend the recording

Liked the RSC Iqbal Kahn one, particularly the marriage scene which was set in a public space so the humiliation was mortifying to watch (in a good way). The 2014 Edwardian production was good

I think the David Tennant and Catherine Tate is my least favourite. Not bad but clearly geared towards general audiences. The Beatrice hiding scene took me out of the show watching Catherine Tate hoisted up yelling. You’d think Beatrice would have guessed that the girls were trying to ignore her there and then

[David J]

Expanding on the scenes where Benedick and Beatrice hide and get fooled into thinking they love each other, there’s obviously so much potential for business

There’s the premise that their friends are pretending to not know they’re there whilst they themselves do everything to stay hidden, but then you add elements that could expose Benedick and Beatrice and then the illusion is broken. Like the boy coming back with Benedick’s book. Added tension and comedy

And productions walk the fine line of keeping the suspension of disbelief that whatever mishaps happen Benedick and Beatrice won’t twig that they’re been fooled with

So that moment when Catherine Tate got caught up in that hauling and was lowered up and down screaming whilst the girls continued talking like nothings going on shattered the suspension of disbelief for me. Just for cheap laughs

[oxfordsimon]

I felt very much the same with the Country House RSC version but with the Benedick gulling scene. All the business with the exploding Christmas tree should never have left the rehearsal room. Ot was cheap and obvious.

Pork Pie humour as WS Gilbert might describe it.

[David J]

Feb 22, 2022 0:30:28 GMT oxfordsimon said:

I felt very much the same with the Country House RSC version but with the Benedick gulling scene. All the business with the exploding Christmas tree should never have left the rehearsal room. Ot was cheap and obvious.

Pork Pie humour as WS Gilbert might describe it.

And then the ones filling him were pouring themselves whisky and out pops his hand out from the tree with a glass and they pour some for him

[David J]

Feb 22, 2022 1:59:14 GMT David J said:

Feb 22, 2022 0:30:28 GMT oxfordsimon said:

I felt very much the same with the Country House RSC version but with the Benedick gulling scene. All the business with the exploding Christmas tree should never have left the rehearsal room. Ot was cheap and obvious.

Pork Pie humour as WS Gilbert might describe it.

And then the ones gulling him were pouring themselves whisky and out pops his hand out from the tree with a glass and they pour some for him

[samuelwhiskers]

Interesting.

“We are planning an ambitious creative programme from January 2023 in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and in partnership nationally. In the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, we are celebrating five of the many plays which we would not have today if they had not been included in the Folio. These five plays will all deal with questions of power; who has it, who doesn’t, how does it change a human being, when does it corrupt, how does it interact with our faith in democracy, how is it apportioned according to race, gender, class, and how could we share power in new ways.”


The five plays will tour nationally.

[oxfordsimon]

Could they not just focus on doing really good productions with really good directors and really good casts?

I don't want to be preached at by a bunch of self important, privileged individuals.

I want to see Shakespeare done really well.

Trying to push an agenda just puts people off.

[cavocado]

What Shakespeare play doesn't explore power in some way? I hope this involves reopening the two mothballed theatres. Or even one would be nice.

[oxfordsimon]

Also it is rather strange to say that many of the plays would not have survived without their inclusion in the First Folio as most of the texts had already been printed in the various Quarto editions

I know there are many textual variations between the different printings but the plays were still published in some form (and have been providing employment for scholars ever since)

[David J]

So looking at the plays not published before the folio on wiki, the Roman plays are the obvious ones to explore political power. Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus

Macbeth, Measure for Measure and King John are others

Taming of the Shrew is the go to play to address sexual power. Also All’s Well That Ends Well.

There’s Prospero’s power in the tempest. And of course a director could happily delve into the issue of colonialism

Timon of Athens, Cymbeline and Henry VIII are others.

[cirque]

Stark. Raving. Mad.

[Jan]

Apr 14, 2022 20:36:13 GMT David J said:

So looking at the plays not published before the folio on wiki, the Roman plays are the obvious ones to explore political power. Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus

Macbeth, Measure for Measure and King John are others

Taming of the Shrew is the go to play to address sexual power. Also All’s Well That Ends Well.

There’s Prospero’s power in the tempest. And of course a director could happily delve into the issue of colonialism

Timon of Athens, Cymbeline and Henry VIII are others.

There are some there they won’t touch with a barge pole for commercial reasons: King John, Timon of Athens, Cymbeline, Henry VIII, All’s Well. Coriolanus too maybe. I somewhat doubt they are brave enough to do Shrew.

Macbeth
Measure for Measure
Tempest
Antony & Cleopatra
Julius Caesar or Coriolanus

Doran has already directed all of those listed except Cymbeline ? Not sure. So that might be swapped in irrespective of its popularity.

[cavocado]

Apr 15, 2022 9:57:20 GMT Jan said:

Apr 14, 2022 20:36:13 GMT David J said:

There are some there they won’t touch with a barge pole for commercial reasons: King John, Timon of Athens, Cymbeline, Henry VIII, All’s Well. Coriolanus too maybe. I somewhat doubt they are brave enough to do Shrew.

They're doing All's Well in August and seem to have rebranded it as chicklit ("Helena is convinced that she and Bertram are #CoupleGoals"). Perhaps they are aiming at the untapped Shakespeare-themed hen party market? Taming of the Shrew for hen parties could be interesting...

[samuelwhiskers]

They’re looking for one director to direct all five plays, and with the intent to tour I assume they’ll all be fairly well-known plays.

[crabtree]

Much ado, on tv at least, was a bit hard to cope with. I'm sure Cicely berry would have had something to say, and ouch, the design, so flamboyantly unnecessary, adding nothing but colourful distraction

[Jan]

Apr 15, 2022 13:32:04 GMT samuelwhiskers said:

They’re looking for one director to direct all five plays, and with the intent to tour I assume they’ll all be fairly well-known plays.

One director ?! Only Trevor Nunn would be crazy enough to do that.

[cirque]

On reading job ad it looks like they want a director for one piece opening March with huge commitment to community etc etc.,thought the role of AD was to create a policy of experienced directors…here they state no Shakespeare experience required. The RSC have lost all plots .

[oxfordsimon]

The triumph of the mediocre who care more about posturing than making good theatre.

Neither Doran or Whyman are great directors. They have broken the promises made when they took over. They have wasted the past 2 years and have wrecked the reputation of the company.

And ACE just let them get away with it.

[cirque]

ACE place no value on excellence.

RSC place no value on excellence

Needs to close and reopen with all new teams in both Artistic and Admin.

Only two plays all summer……

Where is Doran..,….Whyman has got this by default……AD job should be advertised.

Awful .

[lynette]

‘No value on excellence’? Hmm my view is that the RSC suffers from almost the opposite , the old adage, ‘the best is the enemy of the good’. Instead of getting Willie on the stage ( or on the tv in last two years) they have tended to stress on ideology, getting details right for productions that just don’t then actually deliver. The recent Much Ado is a case in point. They made a big thing about the costumes, a really big thing and got someone to design them so carefully. But they forgot about the play which has a lovely pace of its own. So we got actors battling their costumes and costumes taking all the attention. If I weren’t a bit tired right now I would give you other examples. I often feel that the directors don’t trust the actors. I know that sounds silly but one example was in Whyman’s R&J when she had some ghostly thing floating about behind Juliet when Juliet was doing her big speech. Let the actors do their thing, let the play dictate its pace, be a bit more gung ho, stop worrying about getting it right, get it done.

[samuelwhiskers]

It’s all very tedious.

I’m going up to SuA in a couple of weeks for the Henry VI trilogy (being done as two plays). I love and have studied that period of history and know those plays reasonably well, so fingers crossed they’re decent. Owen Horsley is a unshowy but reliable director who doesn’t tend to go in for those stupid gimmicks.