353 posts
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Post by cirque on Jan 9, 2021 11:36:54 GMT
Strange ..no RSC listing at all in The Stage 100. Does this mean they have failed to respond to pandemic or is it an error. Thoughts ?
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Post by Jan on Jan 9, 2021 11:48:42 GMT
Strange ..no RSC listing at all in The Stage 100. Does this mean they have failed to respond to pandemic or is it an error. Thoughts ? They're not in it because they don't deserve to be in it. Given their size and the amount of money they got from the recovery fund their efforts have been feeble. |
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Post by lynette on Jan 9, 2021 15:57:14 GMT
I’d like to read this but subscription is a bit too much. So I’m wondering how to read the 100 article online without subscribing or if anyone has a hard copy they are finished with and wouldn’t mind posting to me. I know, I’m a cheapskate.
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jan 10, 2021 0:05:17 GMT
The RSC have been irrelevant for years now.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 10, 2021 0:50:19 GMT
The RSC have been irrelevant for years now. The decision to appoint Doran stifled any serious innovation/real creativity by the company. When you are run by someone so pedestrian, you are never going to truly innovate or move forward |
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jan 10, 2021 0:51:51 GMT
The RSC have been irrelevant for years now. The decision to appoint Doran stifled any serious innovation/real creativity by the company. When you are run by someone so pedestrian, you are never going to truly innovate or move forward Exactly. They need someone much more exciting to take over and fast. Top tier creatives just do not want to work there anymore. |
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Post by Jan on Jan 10, 2021 11:41:01 GMT
Since Doran took over in 2013 I have seen about 60 Shakespeare productions in total. Only 2 in my top 10 of those were RSC. 6 of my bottom 10 were. If the quality were higher I wouldn't even concern myself with the way Doran was doing the AD job.
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Post by David J on Jan 10, 2021 15:25:32 GMT
The only RSC production that appears in my top 10 Shakespeare productions since Doran took over is Simon Godwin's Hamlet. Along with his Twelfth Night
Take a hint Gregory! A shame Simon has gone to be Artistic Director for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington.
I'd have to go further down the list to find Christopher Luscombe's Love's Labour's Lost/Much Ado About Nothing and Iqbal Khan's Othello. Two other directors who were able to bring something good to the main theatre. Melly Still's Cymbeline wasn't great but still stands out to me compared to the rest.
The best Doran has done were Richard II, The Tempest (despite the dated special effects) and Troilus and Cressida. And of all the Shakespeare plays it was Troilus and Cressida in which he put some real effort and imagination into after so many years.
And I still say that pre-2013 Doran is one of my favourite Shakespeare directors. His Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, and Midsummer Night's Dream is some of the best Shakespeare I've seen.
Then at the bottom you have Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus in that disappointing Roman Season. That was when I gave up on Gregory Doran. Even if he wasn't officially in charge of the season it was clear he was calling the shots asking for some of the most bland and literal productions I've seen at the RSC. You had some very imaginative directors in that season. Heck I knew Iqbal Khan was the perfect director for Antony and Cleopatra and yet that is the worst I've seen under Doran's tenure
And I may be complaining as someone who misses the Michael Boyd years (from 2006). But I don't need Michael Boyd back, I need someone who has a vision for the RSC who can attract directors with great ideas.
And you could only find those in the Swan Theatre. I loved Wolf Hall, The Jew of Malta, The Rover, Don Quixote, and Snow in Midsummer and still remember the Arden of Faversham, The Witch of Edmonton, Dido Queen of Carthage, The Provoked Wife, Tamburlaine, Timon of Athens, Vice Versa, The Alchemist, and Volpone. Even the bad ones showed vision that weren't executed well.
The fact that during the lockdown the RSC did nothing but the odd event and some online interviews with Doran and the company's best actors of old shows a lack of imagination on Doran's part.
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Post by Jan on Jan 10, 2021 16:51:37 GMT
What is odd is that Simon Godwin and Christopher Luscombe did a couple of good productions but barely got used again, Godwin was effectively poached by NT for Shakespeare and I don’t know what happened to Luscombe. Fits with Doran’s stated vision that he wasn’t bothered about creating a company of regular creatives. Same for the actors, there hasn’t been one that’s made their name at the RSC under Doran.
You missed out Julius Caesar from that appalling swords ‘n’ sandals Roman season. Titus Andronicus was the only one that was OK.
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353 posts
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Post by cirque on Jan 21, 2021 12:20:04 GMT
reading these comments-very sad but very true. RSC has ceased to be a force in our theatre with their menu of awful productions,poor directors and acting companies that are not really fit for purpose in a great classical company. Its not just Gregory-you cant let Erica Whyman off the hook who has taken Swan/TOP and programmed work that really hasn't encouraged audiences..much lecturing in fact and total alienation of RSC audiences. The view on Interactive/VR seems to suggest they are a cool lot but -let's be honest-most young people see at home much better VR and probably would like theatre to be a special and different experience not trying to badly clone their world. RSC need a complete rethink and redefining...text edits that neutralise the work,desperate attempts to woo the young and the company role repositioned as Education Company rather than leading theatre.It pains me to look at what they were and what they have become.
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Post by Jan on Jan 22, 2021 9:34:14 GMT
reading these comments-very sad but very true. RSC has ceased to be a force in our theatre with their menu of awful productions,poor directors and acting companies that are not really fit for purpose in a great classical company. Its not just Gregory-you cant let Erica Whyman off the hook who has taken Swan/TOP and programmed work that really hasn't encouraged audiences..much lecturing in fact and total alienation of RSC audiences. The view on Interactive/VR seems to suggest they are a cool lot but -let's be honest-most young people see at home much better VR and probably would like theatre to be a special and different experience not trying to badly clone their world. RSC need a complete rethink and redefining...text edits that neutralise the work,desperate attempts to woo the young and the company role repositioned as Education Company rather than leading theatre.It pains me to look at what they were and what they have become. My view is that the main reason Doran and Whyman fail in their (maybe lauable) aim of appealing to the young is that they are too old. What they consider to be "youth-oriented" productions hark back to their own youth but have little connection to modern youth. The aim is better achieved by younger directors who are more in touch with the interests and views young people - I'd guess that the Robert Icke "Hamlet" was far more appealing to a younger audience than that Doran "Tempest" with its superficial special (sic) effects but otherwise very old fashioned acting, staging and interpretation. |
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Post by cirque on Jan 22, 2021 11:36:00 GMT
That's really about it....Icke has his finger on the pulse for bringing classical work to young and-dare I suggest-older audiences.Even shows like Almeida Richard 11,which was not great,brought a very immediate and compelling perspective on the play.The RSC has finished as a force and,quite frankly,to quote Priti Patel I dont see who could take over.Its simply not very appealing or respected.Goold wouldn't now,Icke is off to Europe making huge strides....there will be a safe and exemplary political appointment but no one with a track record of reimagining classical and thrilling contemporary unless you can spot someone rare out there.
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Post by Jan on Jan 22, 2021 15:23:04 GMT
Simon Godwin I suppose. It’s a separate issue, and not Doran’s fault, but that thrust stage in the RST is extremely constraining and creates staging problems.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 22, 2021 17:09:29 GMT
They should have kept the Courtyard and left the RST as it was (with a few improvements) and then built a new studio space.
All thrust is just too limiting
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Post by lynette on Jan 24, 2021 16:12:12 GMT
It is a kind of gets- you -nowhere discussion because we are where we are but in rebuilding the main theatre the RSC did what all the theatres thought was the thing to do, that is have a large main auditorium with a studio or smaller space besides for experimental work. The NT did the same. Meanwhile theatre moved on as we all know and it has been the smaller spaces that have thrived, the Almeida for a while, the Donmar and the even smaller. The Old Vic still has a way of occupying that massive space, don't know how they do it except look how they were almost first to get live stuff streamed and a Christmas Carol imaginatively streamed. Interesting. If The Swan were the main RSC auditorium then TOP could be its studio. Plus now even more needed, some outside space for summer shows with the massive passing by audience who would love to sit and sup with a bit of Willie on the side a la London’s Globe. But we are where we are. So for 2021 only the big Main Stage RSC will be in operation with the stress of making it covid proof.
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Post by David J on Jan 24, 2021 22:30:10 GMT
I got out the transformation book and the idea of changing the RST was circling when Adrian Noble was leaving.
The idea was to have a versatile space that can change between proscenium and thrust stage.
But Michael Boyd was dead set on a thrust stage only theatre and seeing the shows under his tenure from 2006, mainly in the courtyard theatre, I can see why.
A thrust stage suited directors like him, David Farr, and Rupert Gould at the time. Watching the Histories the courtyard theatre was like a toy box of ways to stage Shakespeare for them. When they didn’t have to rely on presenting Shakespeare literally. Their shows were stylistic, symbolic and at times physical, using the whole space for actors to perform from all levels and even in the air. Even Gregory Doran, though not the most radical of Shakespeare directors was more imaginative before 2013
And the RST could have been the ultimate space for directors like them to thrive. But Gregory Doran had to take the lazy and literal approach and stage shows like they might as well be on the proscenium stage
And counting in the fact that the RSC was dead set on returning to the Barbican that the stagings have to cater for that space as well.
What annoyed me the most about the Roman season was that Blanch McIntyre’s modern setting Titus Andronicus looked so awkward on that literal classical Roman set.
I sometimes wander whether the rsc also caters to its live broadcasts, thinking that any -non-literal staging would not come across on the screen
And nearly two decades later and the bridge theatre is that versatile theatre the RST could have been and more. That theatre reminds me of the possibilities that courtyard theatre had for directors that go beyond the literal
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jan 25, 2021 0:09:32 GMT
They should have kept the Courtyard and left the RST as it was (with a few improvements) and then built a new studio space. All thrust is just too limiting Ooh Matron! |
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jan 25, 2021 0:11:40 GMT
I think things started to slide when they lost the Barbican as their London home. That’s how they managed to attract better actors/directors/designers etc...
Very few top actors want to be stuck in Stratford for months and months in rep.
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Post by Jan on Jan 25, 2021 16:01:28 GMT
But Michael Boyd was dead set on a thrust stage only theatre and seeing the shows under his tenure from 2006, mainly in the courtyard theatre, I can see why. A thrust stage suited directors like him, David Farr, and Rupert Gould at the time. My suspicion is that Rupert Goold didn't like it much - he has stated a few times his favourite stage is the Lyttelton because it is "a box of tricks" for a director. Also younger directors like Robert Icke are from a screen-based generation so that in a large space that proscenium framing gives them total visual control and it suits them (Icke's "Red Barn" in the Lyttelton for example). The thrust stage works well in the Swan as it generates a type of "community" feel between actors and audience, but blowing that up to full scale in the RST hasn't worked at all in my view - you lose that intimate feeling, the stage sets have been fixed and deadly dull (and arrayed at the back of the stage like in opera), and it has focussed attention entirely on the actors who have too often been exposed as second-rate and have adopted tedious tricks to cope with the stage (tiresome banter with the front row, continuously walking in circles while speaking so as not to have their back to half the audience) . Also the purely commercial issue that you can't transfer either Swan or RST productions properly as there are no suitable venues. The more adaptable Bridge auditorium looks a far better decision. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 25, 2021 16:02:29 GMT
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Post by Jan on Jan 25, 2021 16:17:50 GMT
Just in passing, I’d forgotten that Doran “Measure for Measure”, I thought that was good and well-staged. His best since becoming AD that I have seen. |
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Post by lynette on Jan 25, 2021 16:24:53 GMT
Interesting. So what happened to the link up with Marquee? Is Broadway free to view or pay on demand? I haven't used it before. Reading the posts on the theatres at Stratford above, I heartily agree that The Bridge is in fact what should have been attained. That Dream there was great stuff and not possible at the RST or Swan. And Maggie Smith’s tour de force with the moving stage...not really an option in Stratford as the movement was so subtle. So we really must think of what the theatre is going to be in the future and take a chance. I say ‘we’ I mean impresarios and classical producers. |
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Post by TallPaul on Jan 27, 2021 12:53:50 GMT
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Post by Jan on Jan 27, 2021 15:16:43 GMT
There used to be that studio space next door to the Old Vic that I think they owned but they let it to the NT and the NT let Peter Gill run it and they mounted full-scale productions there with no audience allowed in at all. A monumental vanity project for Gill. Maybe once every few years a production would make it from there to the NT. Are Ballet Rambert using it as their HQ now ?
Any or all of the above may be incorrect, except the part about Peter Gill.
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Post by c4ndyc4ne on Jan 27, 2021 16:09:49 GMT
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