Robin,
It's immensely cheering to read this. Two reviews have called the verse
"jarring". I'm not sure this is true, but given the subject matter I
wouldn't have wanted it to be mellifluous or whatever the opposite would be.
I'd trust your ear on the question of form! I'd call it free not blank
verse - I wouldn't trust The Stage's critic to know the difference. The
original is free verse tightened with sporadic hendecasyllables - I tried
something similar so that there's a scattering of pentametres.
The actors, I also felt, spoke the lines naturally and as you say
"appropriately", and without the need of any coaching or coaxing in this
respect, so if anything comes across as stilted it's certainly not their
fault. I can't believe how fortunate we've been with the whole cast.
Your question about the time is especially relevant. The playtext comes
in as another 15 or so minutes longer, and the director, knowing that an
interval-less 90 minutes would already be pushing it, made some necessary
and intelligent cuts. The problem is that there was no place for an
interval - it would have wrecked the momentum and focus.
I'm really sorry the copies of the book weren't there, and hope they'll be
there today. With delays in acquiring the rights, Oberon have managed to
publish it faster than I thought possible.
Many thanks for this.
Jamie
----- Original Message -----
From: "ROBIN HAMILTON" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 7:43 AM
Subject: McKendrick translates Pasolini
I went to the performance of Jamie's translation of Pasolini's Fabrication
at the Print Room last night, and I have to say it was an excellent piece of
work. I can't think of anything I'd want changed in Jamie's translation,
which seemed perfectly judged for stage speaking.
Small theatre, maybe 75 seats, in-the-round (actually round-a-box, which
worked well), at least three-quarters full when I was there, and extremely
well acted, especially Jasper Britton as the lead character -- the Father --
who's the centre of the action. Clear speaking, which I'd guess is pretty
much an essential for this play, and all of the actors with an (unusual)
ability to speak verse appropriately. So as a performance, a smashing piece
of work.
One of my responses (and this is more of an observation than a criticism)
was that at 90 minutes, it was a long time to concentrate. I'd have been
happier with 60 minutes, given the complexity of the play and the attention
demanded. But the rest of the audience seemed to have no problem with this
and were pretty much sharply attentive throughout, so it might be my rather
limited attention span.
Some of the humour at the beginning didn't quite get the laughs it deserved,
but this might be because the audience weren't quite sure whether or not
what was happening was supposed to be funny.
Deeply sixties piece, and for some reason Nigel Dennis's _Cards of Identity_
sprang to mind when I was watching -- some of the same concerns with
identity, and that.
I really liked, as I said, Jamie's translation, which was clear and lucid,
and (essential for an acted play) spoke well on stage. There were no copied
of the text available last night, though they were supposed to have been,
but I was assured that they would be available at the same venue when Jamie
gives a poetry reading there today (Saturday) at 5 pm.
Listening, I couldn't decide whether it was blank verse or free verse -- the
Stage critic mentioned blank verse, and one of the Print Room people I asked
confirmed this, but to my ear, it was free verse. This isn't a criticism --
Jamie's rhythms seemed to me exactly right for the play and the staging --
but I was just a little curious over this terminological ambiguity. But
again, it might be that my ear wasn't as good as the guy from the Stage who
saw it and compared it to Shakespeare. Anyway, I'm looking forward to
reading a copy of Jamie's text to see how it's laid out on the page.
Another thing about the way it played out on the boards was that, while it
worked perfectly well seeing and hearing it with no previous, it *also made
(me at least) keen to read it as well.
Robin
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