The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 20.0194 Tuesday, 28 April 2009
[1] From: Michael Luskin <
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Date: Monday, 27 Apr 2009 17:48:08 EDT
Subj: RE: SHK 20.0181 Playing Iago
[2] From: Mike Shapiro <
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Date: Monday, 27 Apr 2009 17:06:25 -0700
Subj: RE: SHK 20.0187 Playing Iago
[3] From: John W Kennedy <
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Date: Monday, 27 Apr 2009 23:44:43 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 20.0187 Playing Iago
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael Luskin <
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Date: Monday, 27 Apr 2009 17:48:08 EDT
Subject: 20.0181 Playing Iago
Comment: RE: SHK 20.0181 Playing Iago
To me, the essence of Shakespeare is that the characters are usually so
human that they are even more than human. So many of them make me wonder
about what happened in Act zero. All Shakespeare characters, Edmund,
Aaron the Moor, Osric, have something to like about them. Maybe not
Clothen... And Iago is the same. I would like to think that if someone
had sat down with Iago, and said, "There, there" maybe he would have
come around a little. What had happened to make him the way he is?
Though everything he does is evil, I find it hard not to sympathize with
him.
Verdi's Iago is fascinating because he is a powerful embodiment of evil,
while Shakespeare's Iago is perhaps less evil and more human.
Think of C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, when he writes to his nephew
about the tang of Hitler's soul, which I think that Verdi would
understand perfectly, but not Shakespeare.
So, to play Iago badly would only require an actor to think that he
fully understands him.
Mbl
[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mike Shapiro <
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Date: Monday, 27 Apr 2009 17:06:25 -0700
Subject: 20.0187 Playing Iago
Comment: RE: SHK 20.0187 Playing Iago
I wanted to correct my statement regarding "Terry" who made remarks
concerning Sarah Siddons' Lady McB. It was actually her partner, John
Irving.
Mike Shapiro, Owner
Corrected Posting:
***************
From: Mike Shapiro <
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Date: Sunday, 26 Apr 2009 22:12:29 -0700
Subject: 20.0181 Playing Iago
Comment: RE: SHK 20.0181 Playing Iago
I think back on Stanislavski's position that the Cherry Orchard played
in Moscow in 1925 should not be the Cherry Orchard played in France in
1955. The advancements in understanding psychology, current events,
social manner and customs of the present audience should be considered.
How people scammed back in the 1600's (the posture, the volume and pitch
of their voice, was their speech pressured or did they throw away any
urgency, what level of relief will success provide them) does not work
for me in 2009.
My experience with the criminal mind leads me to believe that those who
commit violent felonies are saddled with existential deformity. To
themselves, they do not exist. Whether the malady's origin is nature,
nurture or both they are damned to relentlessly pursue relief. If it was
not the personnel decision that completely consumed Iago it would be
some other crisis in which the existential conundrum would play out.
For example, I do not feel Branagh's Iago in his filmed version was
successful. To my, albeit unreasonably high standards, a successful Iago
is one who seduces every man in the audience into believing that this
Iago or someone with similar powers of persuasion could expose their
vulnerability to such conniving. This brings to mind a review that John
Irving wrote regarding Sarah Siddons' Lady McB in which he commented
that every man in the audience was terrified because they felt this Lady
McB could talk them into anything. I need today's Iago to come across as
innocent, unassuming and trustworthy as James Earl Jones. And if James
Earl Jones, squirming in his seat, hesitantly spit out that I should
start keeping on eye on the comings and goings of my wife . . . God damn
it, I'd be hard pressed not to start watching. However, if Branagh
delivered the news in that same manner as he did in his film version,
I'm looking at him and thinking how do I get this guy reassigned to
another department. In addition, the con man must be able to, with
heightened sensitivity, identify the needs of the individual he is
conning. Most talented con men possess that sensitivity because they
exist externally and have made an art of reading people. Brando had this
quality, where at once you could observe him discerning the personality
of the individual with whom he was acting while at the same time
addressing the character the actor was playing.
Mike Shapiro
[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: John W Kennedy <
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Date: Monday, 27 Apr 2009 23:44:43 -0400
Subject: 20.0187 Playing Iago
Comment: Re: SHK 20.0187 Playing Iago
From: Louis Swilley <
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>It is the duty of every director and every actor of roles of
>villains to make him/her as sympathetic to the audience as
>possible. In the recent Alley production of "Othello",
>Desdemona knelt before Iago, weeping and begging him to
>help her convince Othello of her devotion; Iago moved his
>hand over her bowed head and was about to caress it in
>sympathy - but then quickly brought his hand behind his
>back with his fist clenched.
In other words, he rudely and impertinently intruded something into the
play's text that is not there.
>Unfortunately there was nothing else in the production to pick up on
>and continue or reflect this humanizing moment for the character. In
>a long-ago production of "Romeo and Juliet", John Wood as Capulet
>raged against his daughter for refusing to marry Paris -- but broke
>into tears in the midst of his rage.
Thus making complete hash of the plot, which demands that Juliet find
herself trapped with no exit.
>These humanizing corrections are necessary; otherwise we are merely
>given the one-dimensional, "you-must-pay-the-rent" villain of cheap
>drama.
Is cheap sentiment, then, the only alternative? I have known men as
devoid of conscience as Iago, and they wasted no time on crocodile
tears, for they were quite certain that they were in the right, in
whatever mad sense "right" bore for them. I thought we had long ago
decided to laugh at Pope for putting into his edition what he would
have written in Shakespeare's place.
From: Mike Shapiro <
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>I think back on Stanislavski's position that the Cherry Orchard
>played in Moscow in 1925 should not be the Cherry Orchard played
>in France in 1955. The advancements in understanding psychology,
>current events, social manner and customs of the present audience
>should be considered. How people scammed back in the 1600's (the
>posture, the volume and pitch of their voice, was their speech
>pressured or did they throw away any urgency, what level of relief
>will success provide them) does not work for me in 2009.
Then why except their grammar and vocabulary?
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