18 Thursday Aug 2016
Some – or perhaps most – books one reads for the sake of what it say on the tin – algebra text-books for the sake of algebra, romance novels to enjoy a love story… Then there are those books one reads for… something else.
Take for instance Ngaio Marsh’s mysteries. Continue reading
09 Tuesday Aug 2016
Tags
Caesar and Cleopatra, George Bernard Shaw, imagination, Plays Pleasant, Saint Joan, The Man of Destiny, You Never Can Tell
When it comes to George Bernard Shaw… well, it’s complicated.
His Plays Pleasant, Caesar and Cleopatra, Saint Joan and a few more are a good part of why I became a playwright. And back in secondary school I talked my classmates into staging You Never Can Tell (not that we went far), and later directed a student production of the Man of Destiny while in College, in which I also played the Strange Lady, and bought a huge, sturdy, very heavy second-hand volume of the complete plays in Edinburgh, and lugged it around Scotland for weeks, and translated three of his short plays into Italian, and was recently startled to find out just how much Saint Joan still colours my perception of Joan of Arc – and yet… Continue reading
06 Saturday Aug 2016
Posted in Theatre
A lovely garden in a lovely summer night, things going (nearly) smooth, not messing up one’s lines, finding again the golden thread with the (large) audience, applause, applause, applause…
Colour me very happy.
Antony and the Chorus
04 Thursday Aug 2016
Tonight.
Tonight is first night for Shakespeare in Words.
We’ll still squeeze in a scrap of tech rehearsal late this afternoon (or so I devoutly hope) and then… Continue reading
30 Saturday Jul 2016
Tags
Albert Decaris, christopher marlowe, Heritage Press, illustration, Limited Edition Club, Saint Lucia, Tamburlaine the Great
Dear Saint Lucia,
I’m not sure I’ve been good enough so far for this – but, were you by any chance wondering about what I might wish for December, here is an idea: I’ve discovered the existence of this lovely edition of four plays of Christopher Marlowe, published in the mid Sixties by Limited Edition Club and then Heritage Press, and illustrated by French artist Albert Decaris.
As you can see from the Tamburlaine here left, the illustrations are a wonder, and the whole book seems to have been conceived with much flair, design-wise… Continue reading
28 Thursday Jul 2016
Tags
Austin Phillips, Bryher, Elizabethan theatre, Jacobean Era, James Sands, The Player's Boy, Walter Raleigh
My acquaintance with Bryher‘s work is, I must say, limited to one book – but what a book!
The Player’s Boy tells the story of an apprentice who doesn’t become an actor in the early reign of James VI and I. Bryher had both a researcher’s interest and a passionate fondness for the golden era of Elizabethan theatre, and this novel tells it decline with a kind of haunting intenseness. Continue reading
19 Tuesday Jul 2016
Tags
Brutus, communication, Erdogan, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, military coup, theatre, Turkey, William Shakespeare
Saturday morning we were at rehearsals, Gemma and the Squirrels and I – with Turkey very much on everybody’s mind. We were going through Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 2: Brutus and then Antony addressing the crowds. And as we worked our way through it, I had goosebumps and one of those small epiphanies: Shakespeare’s Rome and our Istanbul… Continue reading
14 Thursday Jul 2016
Posted in Theatre
Remember the Squirrels, and Shakespeare in Words and everything? The last time I wrote about it all, I was soaring on the wings of enthusiasm….
Well, as I rather expected, we are now in the deepest gloom. Continue reading
02 Saturday Jul 2016
Posted in Theatre
Tags
Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, Italy, Jeremy S. Bloom, obsessions, Shakespeare Theatre Company, sound design, The Taming of the Shrew, theatre, William Shakespeare
So it seems that, when you have to do with theatre, you develop this tendency to see, find or seek theatre – or theatrical potential at least – in everything you come across.
I know I function like this, at least in part*. Friends and family have learned to tell the relevant mad glimmer in my eyes. I zone out during dinner, or I enter a lovely courtyard, or I hear drums, or I see drapery falling just so, and… Continue reading
30 Thursday Jun 2016
Posted in Theatre
Tags
Last night we had our first rehearsal with the musicians.
In the end we’re going to have a contrabass and two timpani, and last night we had the two musicians in with their instruments, mostly to get a feel of what’s to be done.
One of the two had read the play, and we had exchanged a few ideas already, while the other just plunged in. Gemma and I made a few requests, but we all agreed to keep things as fluid as possible yet.
“Go on,” they said. “Rehearse. We’ll try things on for size.” Continue reading
Scribblings 