New at Theatre Notes
Hamlet, plus a guest essay on community theatre by Daniel Keene
Hamlet
Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Directed by Oscar Redding, DDT Studio, 515
High Street, Northcote. La Tragedie d'Hamlet, directed by Peter Brook. DVD,
Agat Films 2001.
On the face of it, it may seem very unfair to compare these two versions of
Hamlet . One is a filmed production by one of the greatest theatre
directors of the past century, created in Brook's gorgeous Paris base, the
Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord; the other an exemplary example of poor theatre,
put on by a young Melbourne director in a shop front in High Street,
Northcote.
As it happens, it is not unfair; theatre is a great leveller. Perhaps for
similar reasons - a certain straightforwardness in approaching Shakespeare -
both are notable for their clarity, and they share a great text and
remarkable actors. Where Redding's production lacks Brook's exquisite
aesthetic polish, it gains in robust irreverence and visceral power. But
what strikes me most is how both these productions spin the focus on this
most protean of texts, to reveal a Hamlet in whose body itself turns the
sword of politics.
The great Shakespearean critic Jan Kott says of Hamlet that it is a play
that absorbs its times. So there are, among many others, the Romantic
Hamlet of the 19th century, wanly melancholic; the mid-Century Hamlet, which
Kott particularly documented, in which interpretation leans on the pitiless
wheel of power; and now this 21st century Hamlet, at once sensuous and full
of loathing, raging against the mortal trappings of his flesh.
Read more at http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/
Small Companies and Community Theatre
"But of course money isn't everything; great theatre can be made with very
little, as it is in Australia, over and over again. It's simply a pity that
it can't be made a little easier . . . but for that to happen, you¹d have to
have a government that actually cared about culture and not the gang of
moral and cultural bankrupts that are in power at the moment, who seem
determined to silence creative voices and reduce us all to frightened, well
behaved children. You'd also have to have an audience that felt empowered,
that felt the theatre was something important, and that it belonged to them
and meant something to them."
Last night, playwright Daniel Keene delivered the keynote address for
graduation students at Swinburne University of Technology's Small Companies
and Community Theatre Course. His experiences working as a writer in French
theatre give a different slant to the possibilities of theatre's place in
the community. For the full speech, click on...
http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/
All the best
Alison
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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