Rescripting Shakespeare (and Others) in 2005

Playgoing in summer 2005 yielded a mixed bag of hits and misses. Given the vagaries of repertory scheduling, I was unable to get to The Tempest at the Globe, a controversial production with only three actors, or the RSC Twelfth Night and As You Like It. Nonetheless, I did see the four Gunpowder plays at the Swan (fresh material for the jaded Shakespeare playgoer), two shows at the Globe, and a variety of other items that included four productions in Stratford, Ontario. Such playgoing yielded a combination of the familiar (been there, done that) and the offbeat along with some surprises and one special treat, Jonson's Sejanus at the Swan. A significant hurdle at many venues when staging a Shakespeare play is theatrical exigency, most commonly a shortage of personnel. A 2005 director at the Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario need not economize on actors (especially given the availability of singers and dancers from Hello Dolly), so that in As You Like It, 2.5, Le Beau and Charles could reunite with other banished courtiers and in The Tempest the act four masque could have ten nymphs and reapers--as opposed to other productions where Ferdinand and Miranda had to be enlisted in the dance. Smaller companies, however, must confront significant logistical problems that in turn lead to changes in the script, with such rescripting most common in productions of non-Shakespeare items. For example, the production of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore at London's Southwark Theatre, with a cast of nine, omitted Bergetto, Philotis, Richardetto, and Grimaldi (in 1.2 Vasques fought with Donado, not Grimaldi) with the same actor playing Donado and the Cardinal. The result was a gain in intensity and pace (the show including interval lasted less than two-and-a-half hours) but at a price (gone were the unintended death of Bergetto and the Cardinal's shielding of Grimaldi), and in the final moments the Cardinal was literally the only figure left standing. Many other challenges await today's director. Jupiter's descent sitting upon an eagle (Cymbeline, 5.4.92.s.d) is a perennial problem when staging this script, but that problem was compounded for Rachel Kavanaugh outdoors in Regents Park with no acting area above. Her solution: she eliminated Jupiter completely so that one of the ghosts produced and then delivered to Posthumus the tablet with the prophecy. A problem involving doors and sightlines is posed by The Comedy of Errors, 3.1 where Antipholus of Ephesus is denied entry to his own house by Dromio of Syracuse. Nancy Meckler's solution: drop a sheet in lieu of a real door so that both inside and outside were clearly visible, a choice that allowed Dromio of Ephesus (Forbes Masson) to be used as battering ram head-first against the sheet-door. The climactic image in the script of Marlowe's Edward II is the juxtaposition of Mortimer's severed head with Edward II's coffin, but the appearance of a property head can elicit laughter that in turn subtracts from the effect. To forestall such a response at the Studio Theatre in Stratford, Ontario Richard Monette added stage business to two previous scenes so that first Gaveston and later three of the barons were taken off to their deaths (we heard the offstage chopping sounds) with their heads then brought back in bloody bags to be kicked or thrown off by first Warwick, then Edward. Onstage sexual assault was very visible in 2005. Yes, in their second meeting in Measure for Measure (2.4) the actor playing Angelo often gropes or otherwise manhandles Isabella, but at the climax of a very strong scene in Stratford Festival Canada Jonathan Goad threw Dana Green's Isabella onto a table, tore at her clothes, and nearly raped her. Similarly, in 2.2 of Cavanaugh's Cymbeline Simon Day's Iachimo straddled a sleeping Imogen and barely restrained himself from consummating the act. Oberon's application of the love-juice to Titania's eyes can become an intimate moment, but in Gregory Doran's RSC production the playgoer heard the speech but actually saw a huge shadow in the background first zap a small fairy shadow and then perform the action (so that this Oberon lived up to his title of king of shadows--[3. …

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