Poor, old Shakespeare! Over the last 400-odd years he's had to put up with a hell of a lot and now comes the final indignity - David Duff (yes, me!) has been chosen to direct Hamlet next year. (Just in those two lines several Shakespearean quotations occurred but I firmly resisted the temptation.) The first job, of course, was to cut the play which I have just completed. Our audience at the RSS is, shall we say, mature and a 4-hour Hamlet might be described as 'incontinent' in all senses! Apart from that, we simply don't have enough actors, so I have to produce a working script from the original using no more than 8 men and 3 women. Cutting Shakespeare is not for the sensitive. It takes an unfeeling brute like me to do it with verve and confidence. It's not that I'm unaware that I'm tampering with a master-piece but I am bouyed by the knowledge that Shakespeare was, as much as anything else, a practical man of the working theatre, in other words, he would have understood that you do what you have to do to put a show on and get an audience. It might be a work of art but it's also 'show business'. I take care to maintain scansion and I have kept in the Fortinbras sub-plot even if the Norwegian, himself, does not appear. I suspect that my working script will suffer more cuts and perhaps even some additions from the cutting-room floor. Anyway, it is the Mount Everest of my own personal theatrical journey and I am thrilled and slightly scared at the prospect. More news later.
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Monday, 10 July 2006
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Bravo, David!
I'm half tempted to come down and audition! Hmmm, yes, I really might....
I'm glad you've decided to keep the Fortinbras element in the play, as most directors cut it and I have always thought it adds a certain sense of foreboding and tension to the play. It also widens the landscape, gives the play a broader context.
In my opinion, I:1 can be dispensed with completely. I'd also be tempted to cut much of IV:5-7 as I personally find these scenes rather boring. (On the other hand, they do provide Hamlet with his only real chance to catch his breath and have a glass of water!)
I'd be interested to hear your overall mental/emotional approach to directing the play. Where do you want to take your audience? Will you allow them to feel any sympathy at all for King Claudius and Polonius, for example?
Do let us know how things take shape over the next 9 months!
Posted by: Tom Tyler | Monday, 10 July 2006 at 20:26
I'm not sure where you're located, Tyler, but all volunteers are welcome - although I suspect they'll be coming out of the woodwork for a chance to play Hamlet. Also, cutting too much of the mad Ophelia scene is likely to produce a young actress hissing and spitting like a scalded cat!
It is a huge endeavour and, of course, I am just at the beginning of Ibsen's "Ghosts" so I must concentrate on that for the moment.
Fear not, further and better particulars, as they say, will be forthcoming in due course.
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 10 July 2006 at 21:00
Congrats!
I'm sure WS is honored (or is it honoured?)!
Posted by: Hank | Tuesday, 11 July 2006 at 00:23
Cutting? "I'll lug the guts to the neighbour room."
Posted by: dearieme | Tuesday, 11 July 2006 at 11:39
I once saw a production of Hamlet performed by three people - two men and a woman. It ran at about 90 minutes, with lines assigned more or less randomly to one or other actor. As I recall, the 'To be or not to be' soliloquy was performed as a kind of round, with each actor taking a word at a time. As so often with such work, the question 'why?' hung over the proceedings like a lazily-spinning ceiling fan. I have rarely been so bored in a theatre.
I wonder if the good burghers of Richmond are ready for such an approach? Go on, David - stick it to 'em good. At least it would give them something to talk about.
Posted by: Andy M | Thursday, 13 July 2006 at 11:15
Don't tempt me!
Actually, I've 'finished' the cutting and whilst I'm happy that I have been respectful of the scansion (being an 'iambic fundamentalist' as some-one once called me), I am now pausing before I re-read it all to ensure that the story is told coherenetly. It would be a bit embarrassing to miss out a piece of crucial plot line!
As for you, Andy, I only have one thing to say, 'Hie thee to Questors'! Or even the RSS if it's not too far.
PS: Are you intending to see the Japanese "Titus"? Two friends have raved!
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 13 July 2006 at 11:44