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Open-Air Shakespeare
Sep. 22nd, 2008 01:37 pmWe had a great time at the play on Saturday. The Swan Theater is located in what was the carriage house when the cemetery was a park, which means that the stage is located in a rustic small courtyard. The audience perches on folding chairs around the stage. There were about a hundred people there the night we went, and it was considered a full house - extra folding chairs had to be procured.
The staging was very minimal - a few risers to make a "throne platform," two boxes to place a coffin on or to sit or stand on, and a "castle facade" that had doors and windows and a parapet. They chose to do the play in dress from the early 1900s, which was most effective for Richard. He looked very suave in a dark suit and carried a sword cane. Instead of playing him as a hunchback, he was bent over because his hand and foot were crippled by polio. He made the audience feel like cheerful co-conspirators throughout the first half, but at the second, when the pile of bodies has grown so high, and he was growing more erratic, we turned against him like Buckingham.
The female actors were unfortunately struggling a bit more than most of the men. The woman who played Anne and the woman who played Queen Elizabeth were particularly weak, and Richard's manipulation of Anne over her husband's coffin came across a bit like shooting ducks in a barrel, because he was so sly and twisty and the audience was totally with him, and she was shouty and totally outclassed. On the other hand, the two dowager queens (Margaret and Richard's mother) were excellent. Margaret was fierce and angry, and Richard's mother (whose name I'm blanking on) was dryly witty but so tired underneath it all.
On the whole, we had an excellent time. They're doing Merry Wives of Windsor and Julius Caesar next year, and I am looking forward to both - Merry Wives because I haven't seen it before, and Julius Caesar because I haven't seen it but I've read it a bunch of times and it's one of my favorite plays.
The staging was very minimal - a few risers to make a "throne platform," two boxes to place a coffin on or to sit or stand on, and a "castle facade" that had doors and windows and a parapet. They chose to do the play in dress from the early 1900s, which was most effective for Richard. He looked very suave in a dark suit and carried a sword cane. Instead of playing him as a hunchback, he was bent over because his hand and foot were crippled by polio. He made the audience feel like cheerful co-conspirators throughout the first half, but at the second, when the pile of bodies has grown so high, and he was growing more erratic, we turned against him like Buckingham.
The female actors were unfortunately struggling a bit more than most of the men. The woman who played Anne and the woman who played Queen Elizabeth were particularly weak, and Richard's manipulation of Anne over her husband's coffin came across a bit like shooting ducks in a barrel, because he was so sly and twisty and the audience was totally with him, and she was shouty and totally outclassed. On the other hand, the two dowager queens (Margaret and Richard's mother) were excellent. Margaret was fierce and angry, and Richard's mother (whose name I'm blanking on) was dryly witty but so tired underneath it all.
On the whole, we had an excellent time. They're doing Merry Wives of Windsor and Julius Caesar next year, and I am looking forward to both - Merry Wives because I haven't seen it before, and Julius Caesar because I haven't seen it but I've read it a bunch of times and it's one of my favorite plays.
