Theatre

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SHAKESPEARE ON PAGE AND STAGE – Stanley Wells

Posted by Daniel on October 12, 2017
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There is no end to the number of books one can find on the works or study of William Shakespeare.  The name ‘Stanley Wells’ is certainly familiar to anyone who’s read critical essays on Shakespeare.  This book, Shakespeare On Page and Stage, is a collection of some of Wells’ essays on the Bard, his work, and performances of his work.

And mostly we’re left with: meh.

Some of these essays were interesting and from some I learned a thing or two, but the bulk of them really didn’t add anything to my knowledge or appreciation of Shakespeare’s plays.  The book collects essays in four basic themes: 1) Shakespearian Influences, 2) Essays on Particular Works, 3) Shakespeare in the Theatre, and 4) Shakespeare’s Text.

While most of this is not new information, I confess I did enjoy the ‘Influences’ section.  For some reason I am extremely interested in reading some of the source material for Shakespeare.  Was it inspiring, or convenient?  We’ll never know.

I also happened to be reading the essay “Staging Shakespeare’s Ghosts” at about the same time that I saw a production of Richard III in which the ghost were featured quite prominently, and so this particular essay really stood out for me.  I hadn’t really thought about it before, but the supernatural definitely plays a big role in many of Shakespeare’s plays.

There were a few essays that dealt with particular performances which held no fascination or interest for me.  A live performance is a fleeting thing, meant to be observed in the moment.  All the reports, the talk, the writings after the fact won’t make me appreciate what someone once did on the stage.

The entire last section, dealing heavily with Wells and his work as an editor, more-so than with Shakespeare’s work, held no appeal at all.

There’s a lot of material here in this book, and there’s bound to be something that will appeal to someone who has an interest in Shakespeare, but over-all this just doesn’t stand up to some of the other Shakespeare criticism I’ve read over the years.

This volume contains the following:

Introduction by Peter Holland
I. SHAKESPEARIAN INFLUENCES
1. Shakespeare: Man of the European Renaissance
2. Tales from Shakespeare
II. ESSAYS ON PARTICULAR WORKS
3. The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
4.The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear: A Structural Comparison
5. The Integration of Violent Action in Titus Andronicus
6. The Challenges of Romeo and Juliet
7. Juliet’s Nurse: The Uses of Inconsequentiality
8. The Lamentable Tale of Richard II
9.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream Revisited
10. Translations in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
11. The Once and Future King Lear
12. Problems of Stagecraft in The Tempest
13.‘My Name is Will’: Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Autobiography
4. Shakespeare Without Sources
15. Shakespeare and Romance
III. SHAKESPEARE IN THE THEATRE
16. Boys Should be Girls: Shakespeare’s Female Roles and the Boy Players
17. Staging Shakespeare’s Ghosts
18. Staging Shakespeare’s Apparitions and Dream Visions
19. Shakespeare in Planché’s Extravaganzas
20. Shakespeare in Max Beerbohm’s Theatre Criticism
21. Shakespeare in Leigh Hunt’s Theatre Criticism
22. Shakespeare in Hazlitt’s Theatre Criticism
23. Peter Hall’s Coriolanus
IV. SHAKESPEARE’S TEXT
24. On Being a General Editor
25. Editorial Treatment of Foul-Paper Texts: Much Ado About Nothing as Test Case
26. Money in Shakespeare’s Comedies
27. To Read a Play: The Problem of Editorial Intervention
28. The First Folio: Where Should We be Without it?
29. The Limitations of the First Folio
Afterword by Margreta de Grazia
Notes
A Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index

Looking for a good book? Stanley Wells is a noted Shakespeare scholar and his collection of essays, Shakespeare On Page and Stage, provides some insight into the playwright and his work, but nothing here is too earth-shattering or revelatory but instead is a rehash of knowledge but with Wells’ take on it.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Shakespeare on Page and Stage: Selected Essays

author: Stanley Wells

publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

ISBN: 0198786549

hardcover, 300 pages

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THEATER OF FEAR AND HORROR – Mel Gordon

Posted by Daniel on September 28, 2017
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

THROWBACK THURSDAY: REVIEWING A REISSUE

I’ve heard of the Grand Guignol of Paris and that it was horror or even depraved theatre, but I didn’t really know too much about it.  It’s not the sort of theatre taught in the local colleges.  The sub-title, I think, really gets it right when calling it a “grisly spectacle.”

Author Mel Gordon has thoroughly researched this popular French form of drama and given us a look at the performers, the stories, and the audience that is second only to having been to the Grand Guignol in person.

But what Gordon doesn’t do is analyze this theatrical form and explain why it was so popular.  There was a movement of Naturalism going on at the time, but France was also reeling from the violence of war.  Was this a means to take out some aggression toward aggressors? Was it a means to dull the senses toward horrendous violence?  Was it simply that some people respond in a positive way toward sadism?

Given the Grand Guignol’s penchant for grisly spectacle, I would have really liked to have gotten more information on their tricks and techniques for their mutilation of a body and the blood they managed to spill.  How long did it take to prepare and practice the physical aspects of these plays, compared with a more routine theatre rehearsal?

While we get a brief biography of the key players in the company, each of them is likely worthy of having their own biography.  I definitely wanted to know more about these people.  What drew them to this form of ‘entertainment’?

It does feel like there’s a fair amount that is NOT here in the book, that’s party due to the fact that there aren’t many books on this subject so when questions or interest arise while reading this, there aren’t many other sources to turn to for more information.  But what IS here tantalizes and informs nicely.  I enjoyed reading through the synopses of the many plays in the theatre’s repertoire.  Some made me chuckle at what seems silly now.  For instance:

NIGHT ATTACK
by ANDRÉ DE LORDE and M. MASSON-FORESTIER
A farce in two acts with the additional theme of Cuckoldry.
A woman comes to a police station late at night, distraught that her lover has just had a heart attack in bed. She asks the police chief to help move the body before her husband returns from a business trip. Since she is pretty, he agrees and they return to her home.
At the house, they attempt to move the lifeless body but the man awakens. As soon as the policeman starts to care for the sick man, the telephone rings. It is the woman’s husband calling to tell her that he will be arriving on a later train. With the approval of the woman, the officer attacks the ailing lover and drives him out of the house. The policeman takes the woman to bed.

It is a farce, so you can’t expect too much plot, and it’s probably not that different from many farces today.  This play is from 1903!

The book is packed with photographs – not for those with a weak constitution! – often what looks like publicity photos from the time…posed pictures of someone getting an eye gouged out or a naked woman being mutilated.  The book also contains two complete scripts – a two act drama, A Crime in the Madhouse or The Diabolical Ones by André de Lorde and Alfred Binet (from 1925) and a one-act drama from 1956, Orgy in the Lighthouse by Alfred Machard.  Having access to these two scripts is worth the price of the book alone!

I love theatre history and this book explores a theatrical form that isn’t often mentioned, yet thrived for nearly sixty years.  It is well worth reading.

Looking for a good book? Theater of Fear and Horror by Mel Gordon takes a look at the Grand Guignol in France – a theatrical art form that explores the darker side of humanity. It was a highly successful venture in its time and yet most history books and theatre historians don’t mention it.  You should read it.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Theatre of Fear & Horror: Expanded Edition: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris, 1897-1962

author: Mel Gordon

publisher: Feral House

ISBN: 1627310312

paperback, 220 pages

CLEOPATRA: I AM FIRE AND AIR – Harold Bloom

Posted by Daniel on September 27, 2017
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Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom explores one of Shakespeare’s most intriguing personalities with his book Cleopatra: I am Fire and Air.

Bloom clearly appreciates the literary character and writes not only about the character as written, but also as performed by some of the bigger named or more famous actresses.

Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is not one of his more popular plays and not performed nearly as often as some of his other tragedies and yet the enigmatic character of Cleopatra is instantly recognizable to most people and brings to mind a strong, sexual, sensual ruler of exotic persuasion.

I have sometimes found Bloom’s writing to be annoying and even difficult to read, but that was not an issue here.  Instead, Bloom pulled me in right away as he made the book immediately personal (“I fell in love in 1974 with the Cleopatra of Janet Suzman…”*) instead of didactic. And when he writes of “the ferocity of the most seductive woman in all of Shakespeare”* he is instantly identifying the appeal of the character and we know that Bloom’s examination comes not from a dispassionate professorial point of view, but something deeply felt.

Other than Elizabeth Taylor’s portrayal of the role on film, which I saw far too long ago, I don’t know much about the play or the character.  This examination brings to light a good many arguments for seeing this produced on stage (by a company that knows how to perform Shakespeare well).  I was surprised in Chapter 15 by the look at the role of the Clown in the play.

It was not surprising that the Clown provides insight – this is common in Shakespeare – but the sexual attitudes and the provision of the means of death coming through the Clown strike me as unique among the Shakespeare plays I have seen.

More than ever I would like to see this play on stage and I tremendously appreciated this insightful look at the character.  I look forward to more individual Shakespeare character examinations by Harold Bloom.

Looking for a good book? Cleopatra: I am Fire and Air is a wonderful examination by Harold Bloom of an exotic and strong character in Shakespeare’s canon.

* All quotes are from an Advance Reader Copy of the book and may not represent the published edition.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Cleopatra: I am Fire and Air

author: Harold Bloom

publisher: Scribner

ISBN: 1501164163

hardcover, 160 pages

 

 

5-MINUTE PLAYS – Lawrence Harbison, editor

Posted by Daniel on September 6, 2017
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I love reading plays and collections of short plays are right up my alley.  Not too long ago I read and reviewed a similar book (5-Minute Plays for Teens) by the same editor.  This collection takes on the occasional more mature theme or just features older characters than the previous collection.

Oddly enough, however, unlike the teen edition, not a single short play really stood head and shoulders above the rest for me.  Some stood out as being slightly more interesting to me than others (A Very Short Play About the Very Short Presidency of William Henry Harrison by Jonathan Yukich and Modern Art Modeling by Rod McFadden) and only one struck me as particularly dreadful (The Psychic’ Convention by John McKinney). Most, however, were tremendously average. But what do you expect from only five minutes worth of theatre?

I was never a fan of the ten minute play, which maintains a strong fascination in the small theatre world, and I like the five-minute play even less.  We don’t get to know characters, but rely on stock characters and/or a setting to define who the characters are.  We’re thrust into the last moments of a conflict and really only get the ‘punch line’ of a story.  This is a collection of play after play of ‘surprise revelation’ and it does get tedious.

Short plays are great for theatres … more plays means more cast members which means more families coming to see them which means more cash at the box office.  But I wouldn’t pay money to see a series of five or ten minute plays.

I would, however, spend money to READ five and ten minute plays.

I’m glad to have read this, and if I hadn’t I would have been wanting to read it.  However, having now read both this edition and the teen edition, I’m more likely to encourage readers to check out the teen edition for more interesting stories.  I’m likely to use both editions when I (very rarely but occasionally) teach play-writing.

Looking for a good book? 5-Minute Plays, edited by Lawrence Harbison doesn’t contain many outstanding plays.  An author or two shows promise, but nothing here will likely make the reader wish they were seeing the play live.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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5-Minute Plays

editor: Lawrence Harbison

publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema Book Publishers

ISBN: 1495069249

paperback, 256 pages

NEW BOY – Tracy Chevalier

Posted by Daniel on August 24, 2017
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I’ve read a couple of these Hogarth Shakespeare books (re-tellings of Shakespeare’s plays) and my reactions have been mixed. But Tracy Chevalier’s New Boy is a powerful, poignant re-telling of Othello.

Osei Kokote is the son of a diplomat.  He has moved around a lot and all too often been the new boy at school.  Here he is more than just the new boy … he is the black new boy at a school without any other black students.  It is the 1970’s and Osei is a sixth grade student.  Dee is a pretty girl in the new school assigned to look after Osei and show him how things are done in this school.  Dee takes an immediate liking to Osei and the two become quite friendly in the course of the afternoon with the sharing of pencil boxes and secrets.  Ian is the conniving boy, looking to create trouble wherever he goes.

The story is almost embarrassingly close to Shakespeare’s Othello with character names and plot points so similar it would be hard to miss them.  But the fact that these are children – Sixth graders! – makes this even more emotionally ripping.  To see this behavior, which Chevalier makes seem so natural, is possibly even stronger than Shakespeare’s work.  What hope can we have for adults when we see children this way?

Chevalier keeps the action contained within a matter of hours, which makes the book feel just a little rushed and some of the relationships a little less believable – though anyone who works with students this age will recognize the truth in this behavior.

If you know your Shakespeare (and you probably do, if you are interested in this book) then you know the likely outcome of the story as it fits within the setting of school grounds and students. There aren’t any surprises here, but Chevalier does precisely what I think the Hogarth Shakespeare project sets out to do … to retell a Shakespeare work and to make it relevant to a modern readership.

It’s a short book – most people could easily read this in a day – and one worth reading.  This is a powerful story, made accessible and understandable to the average, modern reader, and even more devastating because of the age of the characters involved.  This could easily become required reading in middle schools across the country.

Looking for a good book? Tracy Chevalier’s New Boy is a powerful retelling of Shakespeare’s play, Othello, and definitely a worthwhile read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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New Boy

author: Tracy Chevalier

series: Hogarth Shakespeare

publisher: Hogarth

ISBN: 1781090319

hardcover, 204 pages

VINEGAR GIRL – Anne Tyler

Posted by Daniel on August 18, 2017
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The Hogarth Shakespeare series is on an incredibly challenging task to get today’s writers retelling Shakespeare’s stories.  In some cases, such as here with Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler, we see how challenging this task is.

I’ve been a fan of Tyler’s since Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant first came out in the 1980’s, and I’ve read most of her work since then.  And as someone who works at a professional Shakespeare festival, I was doubly pleased to see Tyler involved with the Hogarth series.

But Tyler gets the task of retelling a terribly misogynistic story.  Can you do that — tell a story about a man who gives his daughter to another man who hopes to ‘tame’ her, and be relevant to modern audiences?  Perhaps, but Tyler struggles with it, it seems.  This doesn’t feel relevant and the characters come across flat, undeveloped.  I didn’t particularly care about Kate here, and if she’s going to be ‘vinegar’ or ‘shrewish’ or however we choose to title her, then there ought to be something about her that we are attracted to in order to root for her.  Is it enough to root for her because of her peevish father?

What I found interesting is that in modern productions I’ve seen (two or three), Kate in the play is a strong character, likeable, and though she’s ‘tamed’ at the end, we (the audience) gets the sense that Petruchio is as much tamed as she. That was not the case here for me.

While I wasn’t a fan of this book, it hasn’t shaken my appreciation for either Tyler or Shakespeare, but rather reminds me that not all of Shakespeare’s stories are easily relate-able to modern audiences.

Looking for a good book? Anne Tyler’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Vinegar Girl, struggles to remain relevant to a modern audience.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Vinegar Girl

author: Anne Tyler

series: Hogarth Shakespeare

publisher: Hogarth

ISBN: 1781090181

hardcover, 240 pages

IVY GET YOUR GUN – Cindy Brown

Posted by Daniel on August 8, 2017
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

We’re back in an Ivy Meadows Mystery with Cindy Brown’s Ivy Get Your Gun.  This time Ivy takes to the road for some out-of-town acting work, but she can’t escape the need to solve a mystery.

The character of Ivy Meadows (aka Olive Ziegwart) is really growing now that we’re in this, her fourth mystery tale.  She’s out of town, working at the Gold Bug Gulch in Arizona where she’s hoping for the role of “Annie” in Annie Get Your Gun.  But of course Ivy wants people to know the real Annie, and not the phony character from the play.  Which could be a problem since the director just wants some flashy entertainment.

But when Ivy gets to Gold Bug Gulch she immediately gets caught up in a missing persons … er… animal case.  A local pug named “Lassie” has run off with a pack of wild Chihuahuas and the owner fears that the wild coyotes will grab her.  If only that were the worst of things to happen at the gulch…. An actor by the name of Mongo is killed during a ‘fake’ shootout when someone swaps the blanks for real bullets.  Ivy goes undercover and channels as much of Annie Oakley as she can to get to heart of the mystery.

This was a great step for Ivy … to get away from her uncle (even though she gets in touch with him a few times) and really be on her own as an investigator.  We needed to see her step up and we did.  But we also see her grow a little in personality.  She’s still eager, enthusiastic, and reactive, but she appears to be stopping and thinking a little more.  Her research into the real Annie Oakley, to prepare for her audition, also shows a maturity in theatre that we haven’t seen before this as well.

But the maturity does not come at the expense of the fun.  Author Cindy Brown keeps the entertainment level high while also making a stronger mystery.  My only ‘complaint’ here is that I didn’t feel that the unraveling of the mystery was smooth enough.  Too much came all at once, though we were being distracted along the way to notice it.  It was only after, while thinking about what happened, that I wished I’d had a few more hints along the way.

I work in professional theatre and have for much of my career and it is so nice to read a story that incorporates theatre so well.  Cindy Brown clearly has experience in the theatre world beyond a small-town community theatre.  I greatly look forward to the next Ivy Meadows mystery.

Looking for a good book? Ivy Get Your Gun is the fourth installment in the Ivy Meadows Mystery series by Cindy Brown and it’s a fun-filled, humorous mystery worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Ivy Get Your Gun

author: Cindy Brown

series: An Ivy Meadows Mystery #4

publisher: Henery Press

ISBN13: 9781635112092

paperback, 234 pages