"So much Shakespeare is performed with no ear for the language and no care for the sense."
In November 1935, Virginia Woolf saw a production of Romeo and Juliet. She was not overly impressed. 'Acting it,' she wrote, 'they spoil the poetry.’ Harsh words, you might think, for a cast that included John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans and Alec Guinness. Shakespeare on the stage was clearly something of a bête noire for the Bloomsbury group. ‘We, of course, only read Shakespeare,' Clive Bell later said.
I wish I had more access to performed Stoppard. I have seen the film version of Rosencrantz, and an NT version of The Hard Problem, but I am not sure if there's anything else available apart from some radio versions. I would love to see Arcadia performed, for example, but I don't see any options. Local theatres certainly never perform Stoppard and - reading the above - maybe I should be glad of that! But it's a shame that it would cost me thousands just to get to somewhere that I can see a Stoppard live.
The pub brawl shouting comment reminded me a little of the recent Andrew Scott one-person Vanya. I think this one-person conceit necessarily requires a bit too much octane just to make it work. I have heard that Kae Tempest's version of the Tempest was also very shouty but I haven't gone near it to find out.
"So much Shakespeare is performed with no ear for the language and no care for the sense."
In November 1935, Virginia Woolf saw a production of Romeo and Juliet. She was not overly impressed. 'Acting it,' she wrote, 'they spoil the poetry.’ Harsh words, you might think, for a cast that included John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans and Alec Guinness. Shakespeare on the stage was clearly something of a bête noire for the Bloomsbury group. ‘We, of course, only read Shakespeare,' Clive Bell later said.
Hazlitt was the same. As am I very often.
I wish I had more access to performed Stoppard. I have seen the film version of Rosencrantz, and an NT version of The Hard Problem, but I am not sure if there's anything else available apart from some radio versions. I would love to see Arcadia performed, for example, but I don't see any options. Local theatres certainly never perform Stoppard and - reading the above - maybe I should be glad of that! But it's a shame that it would cost me thousands just to get to somewhere that I can see a Stoppard live.
The pub brawl shouting comment reminded me a little of the recent Andrew Scott one-person Vanya. I think this one-person conceit necessarily requires a bit too much octane just to make it work. I have heard that Kae Tempest's version of the Tempest was also very shouty but I haven't gone near it to find out.
I’ll read anything about The Real Thing, a marvellous play, but enjoyed your take a great deal.
For what it’s worth I think I recall Stoppard talking in his Desert Island Discs about how he was a sucker for pop music too!