The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.1577 Tuesday, 24 August 2004
[1] From: David Evett <
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Date: Monday, 23 Aug 2004 12:01:56 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 15.1568 Shakespeare-Politics References
[2] From: Larry Weiss <
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Date: Monday, 23 Aug 2004 14:57:11 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 15.1568 Shakespeare-Politics References
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Evett <
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Date: Monday, 23 Aug 2004 12:01:56 -0400
Subject: 15.1568 Shakespeare-Politics References
Comment: Re: SHK 15.1568 Shakespeare-Politics References
>I think one needs to be very careful in the characterization of a
>soliloquy as a character talking to itself. There are very few instances
>of characters talking to themselves; Romeo is one. There is no fourth
>wall in Elizabethan Theatre, the actor and the audience are fully aware
>of each other, and the actor has full permission to talk directly with
>the audience. Questions asked in soliloquies are truly that, questions
>to the audience on their thoughts. When played this way, even today,
>they often evoke response.
If I've made this point in this way before, forgive me. I got to see
the theatrical version of Peter Brook's *King Lear* in Boston in 1964.
Ian Richardson as Edmund delivered much of his first soliloquy sitting
on the stage apron with his legs dangling down, as a professor might sit
on the desk or table at the front of a classroom, chatting with the
audience, charming us, taking us into his confidence, making us, indeed,
his confidants, his accomplices, accessories before the fact,
effortlessly creating a context within which the idealism of Cordelia
and Kent and Gloucester could never finally thrive. Like lots of things
about that production, It was revelatory.
David Evett
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Larry Weiss <
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Date: Monday, 23 Aug 2004 14:57:11 -0400
Subject: 15.1568 Shakespeare-Politics References
Comment: Re: SHK 15.1568 Shakespeare-Politics References
Questions asked in soliloquies are truly that, questions
>to the audience on their thoughts. When played this way, even today,
>they often evoke response.
When Mark Rylance played Hamlet at the Globe, he repeated the line "Am I
a coward?" as a question to the audience. No one answered when I
attended, but I hope someone had the presence of mind to respond, "Ay,
and a villain"; thus leading to the next line: "Who calls me villain?"
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