The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0375 Tuesday, 21 April 1998.
[1] From: David Levine <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Apr 1998 17:02:34 EDT
Subj: Re: SHK 9.0366 Re: RNT Othello
[2] From: Jacquie Hanham <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Apr 1998 23:02:52 +0100 (BST)
Subj: RNT 'Othello'
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Levine <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Apr 1998 17:02:34 EDT
Subject: 9.0366 Re: RNT Othello
Comment: Re: SHK 9.0366 Re: RNT Othello
Well, Charles Weinstein sure does disagree with me in just about every
way. I saw the Nunn production and didn't think there were anything
like that many similarities, especially as between McKellan and Beale,
who are two very different sort so actors to begin with... but Charles
has his notion of the play, after all, and it seems an unchanging one.
Yes, Iago might be playable as an "intellectual," but that approach has
just never come close to blowing me away, and Beale did.
Oh yes, we do agree that Harewood was overparted, in literally the way
the term is used when applied to opera singers. It's the old "so-and-so
is a tenor and Othello is a baritone" thing, a completely accurate point
first enunciated by Orson Welles.
Another difference between our two opinions is, of course, that Charles
is wrong and I am right, but that should go without saying, right?
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jacquie Hanham <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 20 Apr 1998 23:02:52 +0100 (BST)
Subject: RNT 'Othello'
I was really saddened to read Patricia Cooke's open letter regarding the
RNT's 'Othello'. I wonder what happened in flight because it was a
stunning production, and a highly audible one at that, when I saw it in
London. I find it difficult to imagine the RNT's 'Othello' working in a
space so different from the Cottesloe however, where the intimacy and
nuance which the space afforded was so central to the production.
Perhaps the fault lies not with the production but with the venue chosen
in Wellington by festival orgainsers wanting to make as much financial
gain as possible out of the RNT's reputation?
Jacquie Hanham
