Yes, yes, I know, that title was so much of a stretch you can hear it groaning but what do you expect at 9.00 am on a Monday morning after I have just done 100 50 8 lengths of the swimming pool - but I also do exercises in the corner, honestly, I do! Now, where was I, oh yes, Monday morning and my alliterative heading. Normally, when I kick-start my computer in the morning I have a set routine of sites I go through in order. I do this not because I am neat and tidy and anally retentive but because until I have had my mid-morning shot of caffeine I am not truly awake and the routine keeps me roughly on course. Anyway, today in a fit of Spring enthusiasm I kicked over the traces and went straight to Kevin Myers's site which, for some reason, I have missed recently. It doesn't matter with Myers because he is such a good writer you can read his pieces long after their sell-by date. His last post was absolutely spot on, more accurate than those multi-zillion pound missiles 'Field Marshal' Cameron keeps firing off into the desert.
Laser-like, Myers targets a production of Hamlet currently running at the Globe in which there is yet another example of a theatrical meme in action which has grown and grown like Topsy. In it, the role of Ophelia is played by a black actress and no-one, not one single critic or journalist, remarks on the fact - except the redoubtable Kevin Myers:
This is interesting for two reasons. It indicates that it is now the theatrical convention that A) traditionally white roles can be played by black actors, and B) this may not be publicly discussed.
Yet a black Ophelia in medieval Denmark makes a primary demand of us -- that we do not notice her colour or her race. But the fact is, we do, and there's no point in saying we shouldn't.
Those of you steeped in latter-day political correctness will simply shrug and say why not? To refuse white roles to black actors would be racist. But, as Myers reminds us with brutal honesty, when it comes to roles like Othello:
It's irrelevant that white actors used to black up to play black roles. That was then. No one today would countenance a white actor blacking up.
He goes on to hoist PC Luvvie-land in its own petard:
So is the purpose of modern theatre to present productions faithful to the playwright's intentions, or is it to be an equal-opportunities employer, which accordingly must give jobs, regardless of racial appropriateness? Yes?
Okay, so how would an audience feel about a black actor playing Brendan Behan in 'The Borstal Boy', or Stephen in 'Ulysses'? Or a black actress playing Lady Bracknell or Miss Marple?
Moreover, why should we be expected to reject the evidence of our eyes solely with regard to race? Why not disability or age or sex? Why not have a blind Falstaff, or a teenage Lear, or a male Cleopatra? Why not a Hamlette, a Henrietta V, or a Macbess?
Driving back from the pool today I wondered what I would write about and I began to work up a suitable polemic against risking the life of our queen - God bless 'er! - on this forthcoming state visit to Dublin. The Paddies don't deserve her, I was going to rant, but reading Myers reminds me that Paddie-land contains some rare wits and characters whose intelligence is worth cultivating. So, you Paddies, I will lend you our queen for a few days but make sure you look after her and send her back in one piece!
Really, I do think you might have fitted in a word about Domineering Strauss-Can't and his antics in Noo Yawk. You could, for example, have referred to his delusion that he'd be treated like a Kennedy or a Clinton by Noo Yawk's finest.
Posted by: dearieme | Monday, 16 May 2011 at 12:59
"Domineering Strauss-Can't"? Are you sure you have the last part of his name spelt correctly, DM, I know these foreign names can be damned tricky to get right!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 16 May 2011 at 13:33
Interesting. I recently saw a production of Lear (and brilliant it was) in which ONE - and only one - of the daughters was played by a black actress.
She was excellent, as was almost everyone else involved, but we're well into suspension of disbelief territory here, are we not?
Posted by: Andrew Duffin | Monday, 16 May 2011 at 16:45
"suspension of disbelief" I like that!
The best 'coloured' Shakespeare I have seen was years ago at the Bristol Old Vic Studio when a totally mixed race company put on Julius Caesar. In addition, it was a small company and so everyone had to double or treble up on roles. Because they were all the colours of all the races it actually worked quite well and I simply forgot about it. However, having one, inappropriate black or brown face in a cast of whites playing Shakespeare is not so much a pebble in the shoe but a bloody big rock!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 16 May 2011 at 21:13
I saw a "Black Mikado" once; only Pooh-Bah (Michael Dennison) was white. It worked remarkably well.
Posted by: dearieme | Monday, 16 May 2011 at 21:37
http://eclecticmeanderings.blogspot.com/2011/05/teletubby-uprising.html
Posted by: Hank | Tuesday, 17 May 2011 at 02:32
I'm still trying to work out what a meme is.
Any hints?
Posted by: Sassyandra | Tuesday, 17 May 2011 at 03:20
I would hesitate to suggest to anyone that they read Richard Dawkins, especially the absolute tosh contained in his book The Selfish Gene but there-in, Andra, you will find the first mention of a 'meme' which in itself was simply a commonplace but which Dawkins, as usual, imbued with great significance. Or you can go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
Thank you, Hank, for giving me such a stirring tale to start teh day - it makes yer proud to be British!
DM, I once saw Michael Dennison on stage and had I died before him he would have been the world's worst actor!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 17 May 2011 at 09:07