I know the old boy invented dozens of 'murderers' to fill his stories but I wonder if he ever realised how many artistic 'murderers' would arise over the ages intent on 'killing' his plays? According to Quentin Letts in The Mail, the latest recruit to 'wield the dagger' is the director of a production of "Measure for Measure" at the Donmar Warehouse in London, a lady - why am I not surprised? - called Josie Rourke, and no, me neither!
She had the …….. (I leave you to fill in the blank) idea of trimming the text down so that the entire play in traditional costume could be completed in 90 minutes. After the interval, apparently, they ran the whole thing again but this time in modern dress and with most of the roles reversed sexually. Thus, the innocent novice nun is played by a man as a recovering drug addict and the arch-villain, a high-powered lawyer, is played by the lady who was previously the young nun! Yeeeeees, quite!
Well, so far, so daft and, of course, utterly pointless. However, there is a point to be made that perhaps some 'real life' lawyers should be involved given that the poster on the Donmar Warehouse site advertises "Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare" not 'Measure for Measure by Ms. Josie Rourke'. Were I daft enough to book a ticket for what is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays and discovered too late that the whole thing is a pathetic joke, I would not be amused! I should add that in my (relative!) youth I once directed this play and for reasons I cannot explain or justify I set it in modern dress. BIG MISTAKE! Mea culpa and all that sort of thing.
Doesn't Measure for Measure have someone disguising himself as a Friar in order to spy on people? That must present challenges for a modern-dress production!
Posted by: Whyaxye | Friday, 12 October 2018 at 14:50
Indeed it does, 'W', and as I found out the hard way with my modern dress production you really do need the full, old-fashioned friar's cloak and hood in order to disguise the fact that it is the silly old Duke who rules the City!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 12 October 2018 at 15:30
As you can probably guess from my moniker, I am more a science fan than arty farty type; however, when working in town I have frequently taken the opportunity to get me some culture and have seen and enjoyed several of the Bard’s offerings. I will say that one adaptation I enjoyed was “The Complete Works os Shakespeare (Abridged). One needed some knowledge of the works to appreciate the show which was so funny that the following night I saw “The History of the West (Abridged)” and the night after “The Complete Bible (Abridged)”. What really amazed me was that these 3 different plays were on on consecutive nights and withe the same cast of 4.
Posted by: Wigner’s Friend | Saturday, 13 October 2018 at 11:26
Well, 'Wiggers', I trust your, er, 'distribution function' was working well on those nights!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 13 October 2018 at 15:04
Definitely, probabilitily.
Posted by: Wigner’s Friend | Saturday, 13 October 2018 at 15:13
Oho, very witty, Wilde, er, I mean Wiggers!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 13 October 2018 at 16:39