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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2018 18:28:12 GMT
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Post by Jan on Jan 19, 2018 7:37:18 GMT
One curious thing about Barton who made his reputation as a Shakespeare director is that he stopped directing Shakespeare a long long time ago - his last Shakespeare production must have been in 1982 with the Titus Andronicus/Comedy of Errors double bill. He was still quite active as a director after that so it seems odd he stopped. The best production of his I saw was Aphra Behn's "The Rover" with Jeremy Irons.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2018 20:36:25 GMT
Good point as always by Jan. John seemed to take on that advisory role at the RSC for a lot of years. I can remember seeing him being rather frail walking around the RSC a good decade ago when one of the Hollow Crown productions was being staged. But despite his advancing years, he still held a key advisory role with the RSC and was no doubt a great source of reference to Greg Doran and his artistic staff.
I would have loved to have heard him in conversation about some of the great Shakespeare plays to hear what he thought of them and his take on various characters.
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Post by Jan on Jan 22, 2018 8:55:14 GMT
Good point as always by Jan. John seemed to take on that advisory role at the RSC for a lot of years. I can remember seeing him being rather frail walking around the RSC a good decade ago when one of the Hollow Crown productions was being staged. But despite his advancing years, he still held a key advisory role with the RSC and was no doubt a great source of reference to Greg Doran and his artistic staff. I would have loved to have heard him in conversation about some of the great Shakespeare plays to hear what he thought of them and his take on various characters. Yes I saw him walking around Stratford quite often. I last saw him in the audience for the Kingston re-run of "Wars of the Roses" in 2015 - hundreds of the lines in that adaptation were his. His reputation as a traditionalist does not really fit with the fact he modified and added to the plays quite freely to suit his own purposes - in his version of King John I read that only one of the several death scenes had actually been written by Shakespeare. Given that I was surprised to read he had criticised Doran's (very good) "Midsummer Nights Dream" for being too inventive with too much added business - this from someone who directed a famous production of Much Ado in an Indian Raj setting with Dogberry and co as local Indian officials. Apparently he was very intense during rehearsals which lasted all day, one anecdote has him putting a razor blade in his mouth to stop himself falling asleep. In the early 80s he made a TV series "Playing Shakespeare" exploring some of the plays and roles with leading RSC actors - you can see them on YouTube. |
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Post by martin1965 on Jan 22, 2018 17:58:59 GMT
Though before my time that Titus/Verona double bill was not a success to put it mildly. Thereafter he directed sparingly , the Peer Gynt with Alex Jennings in the mid 90s was superb. He was clearly a mentor to Doran who has said his upcoming Troilus and Cressida will be dedicated to Barton.
I really liked Tantalus in 2000 which he kind of disowned following rows with Peter Hall.
A big loss.
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Post by joem on Jan 22, 2018 20:36:03 GMT
I thought Tantalus was quite awesome. A true experience.
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Post by Jan on Jan 22, 2018 21:07:51 GMT
Ah yes, it was Two Gentlemen of Verona, not Comedy of Errors, he twinned with Titus Andronicus. Doesn’t make it any better. Must have been a long evening. To make Troilus a true tribute to Barton Doran should cut 400 lines and add 700 of his own devising.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2018 22:24:00 GMT
Must admit it will be strange not seeing John's name as Advisory Director in the RSC's programmes going forward. I don't know exactly how many years he held that role but for a lot of them he was listed ahead of the Artistic Director and a PA/Assistant used to be shared by both of them so John probably was fairly serious about his role.
I'd have loved to known if he sat in on rehearsals and whether he gave his advice.
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Post by Jan on Jan 23, 2018 7:34:59 GMT
In a tribute (sort of) to Barton, Rupert Goold has noted that after one rehearsal Barton sent him a note saying "Why don't you just start the play with the opening lines rather than your usual stuff ?". Probably "The Tempest" where he started (brilliantly) with the shipping forecast. Again, an odd comment from someone who replaced hundreds of Shakepeare's lines with stuff he'd written himself.
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