Theatre For Thought, August 6, 2011

THE MODERN PLAGUE

Shakespeare vs. the Modern World

joel fishbane

I often feel sorry for Shakespeare. Not only is he dead, which presumably sucks, but he has to deal with the pain of being widely produced and unable to sue for royalties. 

Theatre for Thought, July 16, 2011

Repercussion's upcoming Macbeth

NOT By Shakespeare

Or How to Succeed in Disrespecting Writers Without Really Trying

joel fishbane

Last week I made a passing reference to the relative lawless nature of the non-professional world – how many community or school groups will alter the text of a show to suit logistical or artistic whims, both without consulting the author and without informing audiences of the changes. Sadly, this lack of artistic respect is not confined to the non-professional world: it can be prevalent in the professional theatre too. 

To witness the most recent case of this, head on down to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival where at least two shows, to my knowledge, have been quietly changed. One is their gender-bending production of Richard III (actress Seana McKenna plays Richard); the other is Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe’s musical Camelot. In the case of Richard III, dialogue from Henry VI, Part III has been interpolated into the script. In Camelot, one song was cut while another was moved to the beginning of Act II.

Ideas: Joel Fishbane

Let's Applaud The Huck Finn Censors for Their Honesty

“jam” is different from “fruit spread”, “ice cream” from “frozen dessert”

by Joel Fishbane

With the media whirlwind surrounding New South Books and their bowdlerized edition of Huckleberry Finn, censorship has been a hot topic for bloggers and tweeters. It’s an important debate, of course, but in this case, the debaters have entirely missed the point. The true surprise about the controversy is not that the publishers altered Mark Twain’s work  - it’s that they told us they had done it.

The work of public domain authors has been quietly altered for years. From their earliest beginnings, Disney has been removing the sex and violence from fairy tales while abridged editions of “classic” works still adorn many bookstore shelves. Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables can often be found in a truncated form while J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy is often published with a new title that removes Wendy from the equation.

Video: Keir Cutler on the Shakespeare Question

Keir Cutler, who offered CharPo a terrific First Person piece, has allowed us to post this video here. It is his take on the question of authorship.

First Person: Keir Cutler on The Solo

Why Solo?

by Keir Cutler

Rant Demon, which will be remounted at the 2011 Wildside Festival at Centaur Theatre in January, is my eighth original solo show.

I have performed my monologues so often, in so many places, it seems that one-man shows is all I ever intended to do.  But in reality, I started out wanting to be a playwright of traditional plays, to be performed by multiple actors.  I even got a diploma in playwriting from the National Theatre School.  For years I sent out my writings throughout the English-speaking world.  Occasionally, I would receive back a nice letter of encouragement, or someone would arrange a reading. Nothing ever got fully staged, but I do have a nice collection of letters from artistic directors asking me to be sure to send them my next play. 

Five (Immediately) Memorable Shows

By Gaëtan L. Charlebois 
As the end of the year approaches it's a wise idea to look back without anger; it helps brace one for what may come in the new year. In that spirit I'm offering a list I invite you to extend with your own "immediately" memorable productions in Montreal English-language theatre.

Woyzeck, Centaur, 1974 
Felix Mirbt and Jean Herbiet's production of the Büchner play was the first performance for which I got in people's faces. I was a first year acting student at John Abbott College and actually did something about getting people to see it: I called Pam Turpin (with whom I later worked in the PR department at Centaur) and asked her if I could get a group discount for other students. She went one better and got us a handful of free tickets. I went for a second time and was hypnotized all over again by this heart-breaking story of a weak man. Decades later, when I saw the exceptional TNM production of the Berg opera based on the play, my mind was still flooded by images of that wondrous Centaur production. (Mirbt/Herbiet followed up with a Dream Play which was nearly as haunting.)

Mosquito Man, 1992
I had gone through an endless drought writing for The Mirror—one hideous production after another—when along came Bruce Smith's moving little play about losers in a bar, one of whom was played—with extreme maturity—by a young Donovan Reiter. They saved my life as a scribe.