When I was an undergraduate the RSC was doing the complete Shakespeare. I went to a university quite close to Stratford. We had the chance to buy tickets for various plays and the English department ran coaches so we could get there. I saw some very good productions thanks to this. These include Sir Ian McKellen playing Lear. We also got the chance to go and see Coriolanus and because we were studying it, it was heavily encouraged that we go.
So we did. Timothy West who is usually great was playing Menenius, Janet Suzman was Volumnia. This should have been amazing. Unfortunately Timothy West barely remembered any of his lines and had to be heavily prompted, Janet Suzman looked alternately bored and peeved by Timothy West, entirely understandably. My Shakespeare and Selected Dramatists seminar tutor was sat in front of me, and he looked very embarrassed through the first half. Probably because he had hectored us all into attending and we'd paid (a very heavily subsidised price) to attend. Then in the second half - I think, I've somewhat blanked the production from my memory - there was a scene where Coriolanus and Aufidius were in a tent. Fine, we all think, they have an important scene coming up. And then we have to listen to ten minutes or so of an audio soundtrack which sounds like it's come from porn. My tutor has fallen asleep, a little bit after we get back from the interval. He jerks awake as the heavy breathing is surrounding us, buries his head in his hands and just leaves the theatre. Never came back. Now, this is a relatively homoerotic/homosocial element of the play and that is very interesting and could be staged very interestingly. But a tent, with weird blue dimmed light, and a bad porn soundtrack is not how to do that.
Really we should have known it would be a car crash because we'd been to the pre-show talk where Greg Doran stood on a stage and told us all that he only agreed to direct because they needed someone to direct Coriolanus or they wouldn't manage the full Complete Shakespeare, and that he'd never actually a) enjoyed Coriolanus as a play or b) wanted to direct Coriolanus.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2019-08-04 08:17 pm (UTC)So we did. Timothy West who is usually great was playing Menenius, Janet Suzman was Volumnia. This should have been amazing. Unfortunately Timothy West barely remembered any of his lines and had to be heavily prompted, Janet Suzman looked alternately bored and peeved by Timothy West, entirely understandably. My Shakespeare and Selected Dramatists seminar tutor was sat in front of me, and he looked very embarrassed through the first half. Probably because he had hectored us all into attending and we'd paid (a very heavily subsidised price) to attend. Then in the second half - I think, I've somewhat blanked the production from my memory - there was a scene where Coriolanus and Aufidius were in a tent. Fine, we all think, they have an important scene coming up. And then we have to listen to ten minutes or so of an audio soundtrack which sounds like it's come from porn. My tutor has fallen asleep, a little bit after we get back from the interval. He jerks awake as the heavy breathing is surrounding us, buries his head in his hands and just leaves the theatre. Never came back. Now, this is a relatively homoerotic/homosocial element of the play and that is very interesting and could be staged very interestingly. But a tent, with weird blue dimmed light, and a bad porn soundtrack is not how to do that.
Really we should have known it would be a car crash because we'd been to the pre-show talk where Greg Doran stood on a stage and told us all that he only agreed to direct because they needed someone to direct Coriolanus or they wouldn't manage the full Complete Shakespeare, and that he'd never actually a) enjoyed Coriolanus as a play or b) wanted to direct Coriolanus.