king lear - cut thearte/brook productions (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter survivor
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timmii
sporadic attendee
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- Nov 9, 2002
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hmm I think i saw the Cut production last year at unsw. It was minimalistic - everyone was in white and all the actors were young. It emphasised the universality of the emotions/issues that King Lear portrays by downplaying the relevance of them being royalty - many references/scenes to such were actually excluded.
The exclusion of a lot of scenes also meant that the Edmund/Edgar subplot became more prominent even than the Lear plot, again emphasising the importance of family/loyalty/insight/perception.
There was a lot of use of digital media and there was a recurrence of "flies" as a motif whenever Edmund appeared. The director explained this as being a reference not only to the "like flies to wanton boys..." quote, but also to Edmund's regard of himself as being *above* nature. There is a scene when it is storming, and its shown by a "snow" being projected onto the screen at the back of the stage (think television reception not quite tuned kinda snow...), and when Edmund enters a hole in it appears so that he is not affected by the 'storm". (I can't remember the production well enough to go into detail, this is all off the top of my head, which means i've wasted a lot of space in my mind already remembering this...)
There was no fool - the directors took the stance that the importance of the play was in the themes and values rather than the clever wordplay etc that the fool brought to the play.
The exclusion of a lot of scenes also meant that the Edmund/Edgar subplot became more prominent even than the Lear plot, again emphasising the importance of family/loyalty/insight/perception.
There was a lot of use of digital media and there was a recurrence of "flies" as a motif whenever Edmund appeared. The director explained this as being a reference not only to the "like flies to wanton boys..." quote, but also to Edmund's regard of himself as being *above* nature. There is a scene when it is storming, and its shown by a "snow" being projected onto the screen at the back of the stage (think television reception not quite tuned kinda snow...), and when Edmund enters a hole in it appears so that he is not affected by the 'storm". (I can't remember the production well enough to go into detail, this is all off the top of my head, which means i've wasted a lot of space in my mind already remembering this...)
There was no fool - the directors took the stance that the importance of the play was in the themes and values rather than the clever wordplay etc that the fool brought to the play.
malayz_angel
Member
Wow...Timmii saw it last year and still remembers it pretty well...I saw it in August of this year and have almost completely forgotten it! But as far as I recall, Timmii is absolutely right. Also some of the actors doubled up and apparently this was also a technique used in Shakespearian times "doubling" when you could not find enough actors. This is kind of ironic since the rest of the production is quite contemporary.
malayz_angel
Member
Sorry survivor, I'll try and look for my notes on the production
Skunkylicious
Member
i dunno how to add attatchments here, but i saw the cut theatre production last term... i ahve a few pages of notes on it- as well as the questions and answers that were asked at the end
Skunkylicious
Member
ahhh wait i got it! i don't knwo helpful these will be- they're not that good...
Leanne
Member
i went to the Cut Theatre website....
www.cuttheatre.com.au
its got information by Megan Findlay the director......really good stuff!!!
p.s I want to do the Richard Eyre version..does anyone know where i can hire a copy on video??? thanx!
www.cuttheatre.com.au
its got information by Megan Findlay the director......really good stuff!!!
p.s I want to do the Richard Eyre version..does anyone know where i can hire a copy on video??? thanx!