The regularly recurrent & ratty recap/debate on the critics (theatre critics
mostly) has recently been rekindled yet again up here, prompted by a new and
seemingly daring translation by Hallgrimur Helgason of Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet for a joint production by the young Vesturport and The Reykjavik
City Theatre. I've not yet seen it, nor read the tranlation, altho' I
should. I won't recap, as it's all too involved, but thought I'd give you an
interesting little quote from my friend Vidar Eggertsson, actor, director
and producer of The Egg Theatre:
"A play on stage is like the body of Christ; it's gone from the grave after
the crucifiction and the artist has muttered something like, "It is
finished", when the Maria Magdalenas of every season are about to perform
the last rites and anoint it so as to preserve it intact for a time. The
work of art rises out of its grave, it is somewhere about, sans body, around
us who created it and the others who enjoyed it with us. Nothing but the
epitaph is left behind, composed for the most part by the critics of that
particular time, shaped by various degrees of insight. It is they, mostly,
who have the last word - and that word can be costly."
Best
Árni
--
Árni Ibsen
Stekkjarkinn 19,
220 Hafnarfjördur,
Iceland
tel.: +354-555-3991
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.centrum.is/~aibsen/
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