Shakespeare in Central Park, 1975
| Autor: | Edwin Wilson |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1976 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Shakespeare Quarterly. 27:52-55 |
| ISSN: | 1538-3555 0037-3222 |
| DOI: | 10.2307/2869064 |
| Popis: | MAOST TWENTIETH-CENTURY DIRECTORS OF SHAKESPEARE have seen themselves as heirs to the tradition of William Poel and Harley Granville-Barker. They claim a profound respect for the text of the play and hesitate to rearrange or omit scenes as was done so often in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Despite their claims of authenticity, however, modern Shakespearean directors have not let the plays alone. They have attempted various devices to make them more appealing or accessible. One popular approach is to shift the locale and period of the play. Troilus and Cressida, Tyrone Guthrie reasoned, is a difficult play, but if we place it in post-Edwardian England, on the eve of World War I, it will be easier to grasp. The play was presented, therefore, in a world of grand pianos, men wearing tuxedos and drinking cocktails, and women in long skirts carrying cigarette holders. Another favorite device in recent years has consisted of taking a "fresh look" at the play and developing a new interpretation. Such a new interpretation is not seen as rewriting the play but rather as finding a modern metaphor for the original meaning. The avowed aim is to get closer to Shakespeare than ever before. Taking a cue from the essays of Jan Kott, British director Peter Brook, the best known proponent of this approach, fashioned his abstract, somewhat antiseptic versions of King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the latter half of the twentieth century, these two approachesthe shift in time and place and the fresh interpretation-have become widely accepted as inventive ways of presenting Shakespeare while still remaining true to both the letter and the spirit of the original. The method is best described by the single word "concept." When a director presents a play in the manner of Guthrie or Brook, he is said to have a "directorial concept." Among the more important devotees of this method is Joseph Papp, producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival. Through the twentyone years of the Festival's existence there have been a number of |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|