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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2018 8:16:30 GMT
Are people regularly cutting 45 minutes out of Shakespeare plays these days? Please let me know which companies these are so I can stop subjecting myself to 3+ hour trips to the RSC and the Globe.
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Post by Jan on Feb 13, 2018 8:41:28 GMT
Are people regularly cutting 45 minutes out of Shakespeare plays these days? Please let me know which companies these are so I can stop subjecting myself to 3+ hour trips to the RSC and the Globe. Bridge Julius Caesar and McKellan King Lear and Almeida Hamlet were all heavily cut. However RSC Titus Andronicus managed to run much longer than is usual for that play. I was talking to a director the other day and they had been asked to direct a particular play and their contract specifically stated the running time (it needed lots of cuts to meet it). |
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Post by johng on Feb 13, 2018 11:00:34 GMT
McKellen King Lear ran 2 hours 55 minutes plus interval in the Minerva and Almeida Hamlet 3 hours 6 minutes plus intervals so not "heavily cut" surely.
Rose Bankside currently doing an 80 minute Macbeth and next month a 90 minute Loves Laboours Lost.
My highlights of 2017 included a 60 minute one actor Richard III in the back room of a pub, and a 93 minute plus interval two performer puppet Richard II in the freezing cellar of an art gallery in Brighton. This took place under a plastic roof in a biblical downpour and was one of the best Shakespeare productions I've ever seen. It's my favourite play and I normally like a full three hours at least as almost every word is joyous to me, but this showed how malleable these plays are.
Also Richard III in Salisbury Cathedral at under 2 hours plus interval required a lot of cutting for what is a very long text, but managed to retain Queen Margaret, who sadly often seems to get excised when a reduced running time is required.
Certainly the RSC could have improved all 3 Roman plays I saw (I missed JC due to being "Southerned" on the inward journey) by cutting 20-30 minutes from them.
Beckett would benefit from allowing more imaginative adaptations but that's not going to happen while they are treated with such absurd reverence and rigidity.
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Post by jasper on Feb 13, 2018 11:41:25 GMT
McKellen King Lear ran 2 hours 55 minutes plus interval in the Minerva and Almeida Hamlet 3 hours 6 minutes plus intervals so not "heavily cut" surely. Rose Bankside currently doing an 80 minute Macbeth and next month a 90 minute Loves Laboours Lost. My highlights of 2017 included a 60 minute one actor Richard III in the back room of a pub, and a 93 minute plus interval two performer puppet Richard II in the freezing cellar of an art gallery in Brighton. This took place under a plastic roof in a biblical downpour and was one of the best Shakespeare productions I've ever seen. It's my favourite play and I normally like a full three hours at least as almost every word is joyous to me, but this showed how malleable these plays are. Also Richard III in Salisbury Cathedral at under 2 hours plus interval required a lot of cutting for what is a very long text, but managed to retain Queen Margaret, who sadly often seems to get excised when a reduced running time is required. Certainly the RSC could have improved all 3 Roman plays I saw (I missed JC due to being "Southerned" on the inward journey) by cutting 20-30 minutes from them. Beckett would benefit from allowing more imaginative adaptations but that's not going to happen while they are treated with such absurd reverence and rigidity. I think you will find it is the Beckett estate who specify the plays must be played as written and not choices of the creative team. Footfalls with Fiona Shaw was a problem for them. |
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Post by johng on Feb 13, 2018 11:59:11 GMT
Not just the estate but Beckett himself, as shown by the note he legally insisted be added to the programme of a 1984 production:
“Any production of Endgame which ignores my stage directions is completely unacceptable to me. My play requires an empty room and two small windows. The American Repertory Theater production which dismisses my directions is a complete parody of the play as conceived by me. Anybody who cares for the work couldn’t fail to be disgusted by this.”
The Footfalls led to Beckett's literary agent issuing a statement that "the director will be forbidden to do his plays in the future", while Billie Whitelaw said she "felt as if Samuel Beckett were burned at the stake; I felt numb, physically ill."
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Post by Jan on Feb 13, 2018 12:47:01 GMT
McKellen King Lear ran 2 hours 55 minutes plus interval in the Minerva and Almeida Hamlet 3 hours 6 minutes plus intervals so not "heavily cut" surely. Rose Bankside currently doing an 80 minute Macbeth and next month a 90 minute Loves Laboours Lost. My highlights of 2017 included a 60 minute one actor Richard III in the back room of a pub, and a 93 minute plus interval two performer puppet Richard II in the freezing cellar of an art gallery in Brighton. This took place under a plastic roof in a biblical downpour and was one of the best Shakespeare productions I've ever seen. It's my favourite play and I normally like a full three hours at least as almost every word is joyous to me, but this showed how malleable these plays are. Also Richard III in Salisbury Cathedral at under 2 hours plus interval required a lot of cutting for what is a very long text, but managed to retain Queen Margaret, who sadly often seems to get excised when a reduced running time is required. Certainly the RSC could have improved all 3 Roman plays I saw (I missed JC due to being "Southerned" on the inward journey) by cutting 20-30 minutes from them. Beckett would benefit from allowing more imaginative adaptations but that's not going to happen while they are treated with such absurd reverence and rigidity. Full text Hamlet and King Lear both run close to 4hrs. |
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Post by johng on Feb 13, 2018 12:58:40 GMT
Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra both have more lines than Lear so you think both the recent RSC productions were heavily cut as well.
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Post by lynette on Feb 13, 2018 13:13:52 GMT
Isn’t the Hamlet long when they include all the lines from all 4 versions? He didn’t mean it to be so long, surely? And Beckett is controlled by the Estate isn’t it? Will this change do you think when his work emerges from copywright? Or will they do some clever legal thing to protect it for longer? Imagine if Shakespeare had this rigid control, how much poorer we would be for interpretation and illumination.
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Post by lynette on Feb 13, 2018 13:47:10 GMT
And probably tossing a ducat to see who would play Hamlet/Claudius each time so you could go see both...if you paid twice.
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Post by johng on Feb 13, 2018 14:17:09 GMT
I agree with Lynette, how much poorer we would be without the RSC King John ;-) I do remember watching the John Barton Wars of the Roses and discovering lines that completely clarified why people felt so hostile and untrusting of Clarence, and was confused why these lines were normally left out. Of course I subsequently discovered these were just some of the lines Barton had written and added, but it certainly convinced me of the value of not being over respectful of the text. I also seem to remember that Billington suggested that Barton's production of King John could be be included in the "Best New Play" category of the Oliviers.
I saw 2059 stated as when Beckett could pass into the Public Domain, so I think that follows the european rule of 70 years after death. Not sure about what they can do after that to maintain control (hopefully nothing, but rather academic for me!).
Branagh's "eternity" film version runs at 4 hours, and merges bits from the various texts. Most of the variant texts cover the same ground, so there are only a few bits that are in one version not another and can be added to make it longer (unless you add multiple versions of the same soliloquy, or where different characters have the same scene) I don't know whether someone has ever tried to stage one this long.
Tiffany Stern gave a British Academy lecture in 2014 dealing with the Elizabethan/Shakespearean attitude to time (it used to be available online). When she considered what the running time of plays might have been based on lots of contradictory evidence she (when pressed) said her best guess would be not more than three hours, although that would be without an interval, but might include the post show jig, which apparently could run up to 30 minutes.
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Post by lynette on Feb 13, 2018 14:41:54 GMT
I wonder if they kept the bar open after show and during the jig. 😂😂
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Post by Jan on Feb 13, 2018 19:32:45 GMT
Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra both have more lines than Lear so you think both the recent RSC productions were heavily cut as well. A&C was yes, it normally runs easily over 3:30. Not sure about Coriolanus, I am surprised it has so many lines. |
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