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@2024 BARD Project: back on the boil
Genesis : the Brecht||Bard Project 2019
Two weekend workshops took place at HUB Studio in Sydney in September & October 2019.
They were part of a 4 x workshop plan to explore 2 plays for their feasibility to be a stories about humans theatre company stage production in Australia in 2020 or 2021.
RICHARD THE SECOND was one of those plays.
Covid-19 & personal health issue conspired to halt the project.
Visit 2019/20/21/22/23 pages to find out more.
4th Development Workshop
The Belligerent Scenes in Richard the Second
@Flight Path Theatre, Sydney
Sat. 26th & Sun. 27th Oct '24
table read
Roger Adam Smith
Rian Howlett
Mary Haire
Ella Sullivan
Richard Mason
John Michael Narres
Bridget Haberecht
Producer/Director:
Jane Edwina Seymour
Fight Director:
Blake Wells
Bolingbroke & Mowbray come face-to-face before the King: their long-standing hatred now given substance by their unbridled accusations against each other of treason, lies & murder.
Act 1, Sc. 1
In front of the king-to-be, Henry IV & a circle of his peers, Aumerle litigates accusations of plotting murder & treason against the new King.
Act 4, Sc. 1
why these 3 scenes ?
The world of the play as it opens is in deep trouble, propelled by what Nigel Saul calls
"the crisis of Authority".
Social discontent, rioting proletariat, the Black Death plague, 100 years' war with France, punishing taxes & levies, Richard's increasing hostility towards the nobility, his creeping tyranny & overbearing exercise of Kingship coalesce to ignite a belligerent &confrontational tone for the whole play from page one.
What are the behavioral, relationship &
subtextual concerns of this crisis?
- given circumstances that concern us all.
How do grievance protocols, rules of engagement, physical assault & male belligerence find expression in the play?
- these need shaping by a fight director
specializing in combat, weaponry & fight sequencing that arise out of the world of the play; including acting moment-to-moments, actors physical capabilities & OH & S.
Exploring these imperatives was intrinsic to the goals of the workshop.
Additionally, contemporary productions edit these scenes (variously), in particular Act 4,
scene 1. The workshop sought to challenge the reasons why that takes place.
Act 5, Sc. 5
In solitary confinement, Richard faces more than his inner demons & an old stable hand, as a failed poisoning attempt launches a blistering attack by Exton & his co-horts ending in the death of two assailants, and the deposed King.
workshop key foci
*exploring stage combat possibilities
both implicit & explicit in these scenes
*language as weapons
inciting belligerence & unbridled aggression
*face-to-face accusations
as deliberately provocative
*murder as solvent
of crisis & monarchial tyranny.
stage combat work with fight director Blake Wells
the choke hold: learning curves & application
In act 5 scene 5 Richard is confined to the dungeon at Pomfret Castle. When the Keeper enters with his food, Richard, sensing treachery, challenges him, knocks the 'dish of meats' from his hand & attacks him. Fight director Blake Wells plots the moment-to-moment from Richard challenging the Keeper to taste the food, to Richard attacking the Keeper which drives the scene forward to the entry of Exton's co-horts & Exton himself.
A choke-hold needs to be taught correctly, with proper technique & attention to OH&S. When applied correctly, it is highly effective & dramatically thrilling.
multiple assailants : learning curves & application
The murder of Richard in act 5 scene 5 is brutal & messy. Wielding daggers, two of Exton's co-horts plunge into hand-to-hand combat with Richard but his fighting skills out-ranks them, disarms them & kills them with their own dagger. Simultaneously, Exton & another co-hort rush the fray & deal the death blows that kills an anointed King.
These combat moments are complex to break down. With so many elements - actors, weapons, essential hand props, heightened action & intention, rapid over-lapping dialogue, multi focal-points, all happening within a short timeframe - it's imperative the fight director & the actors carefully plot moment-to-moment until the deadly end-game.
Mary Haire
Richard Mason
Ella Sullivan
Roger
Adam-Smith
Bridget Haberecht
John Michael Narres
Rian Howlett
3rd Development Workshop
The Women Scenes in Richard the Second
@ReadyMade Rehearsal Studio, Sydney
Sat. 29th & Sun. 30th June '24
table read
Roger Adam Smith
Christine Greenough
Penny day
Terry Karabelas
Mary Haire
Ali Aitken
Grace Chau
Richard Mason
Producer/Director:
Jane Edwina Seymour
Act 1 Sc.2
Eleanor,
Duchess of Gloucester
confronts
John, Duke of Lancaster
Act 3 Sc.4
Queen Isabella &
her Ladies in Waiting
overhear bad news.
Act 5 Sc.1
Richard & Isabella meet for the final time.
Act 5 Sc. 3
Joan, Duchess of York pleads for pardon from the new King.
Act 5 Sc. 2
Edmund, Duke of York
& Joan, Duchess of York
uncover treachery.
why these 5 scenes ?
Richard the Second is a sweeping & complex narrative. Modern productions seeking to rein in that narrative, do so by cutting (variously) these scenes.
Yet within these scenes & specifically, the Women roles, reside the keys to the emotional integrity of the play by adding inter-personal depth & familial socio/cultural nuance to the inner-world of the play.
Such integrity & nuance imbues complexity to the relationships of all the roles they interact with.
They challenge the play's historically-based hegemony by being 'transgressors' of traditional behavioral standards for women of rank, social position & Courtly expectations.
Rather than remaining 'silent' & 'compliant', they are outspoken, daring & forth-right.
This workshop interrogated those assertions.
Relationships
Places/Spaces
Behaviors
workshop key foci
Relationships who
@between all characters
Places/Spaces where
@physical/personal/geographical
Behaviors why
@class system
Role Swapping:
Richard & Isabella
the final meeting
Act 5 Sc.1
Playing high & low status:
Queen Isabella &
her Ladies-in-Waiting
Act 3 Sc.4
8 actors, 5 scenes, 18 roles
An ensemble dynamic shaped the workshop in the following ways:
*weekend was kept moving along as per plenary
*if some scenes didn't get on the floor, that's OK
* plenary 'subject to change' at a moment's notice
*all actors will play any/all roles
*role swapping
*re-casting on the spot
*playing high & low status
*script-in-hand
*stop'n'start
*re-works on the spot
*notes & re-directs on the floor
Notes & re-directs on the floor:
York's entry
Act 5 Sc.3
Eleanor confronts Gaunt
Act 1 Sc. 2
Ali
Aitken
Terry Karabelas
Roger
Adam Smith
Mary
Haire
Penny
Day
Grace
Chau
Richard
Mason
Christine
Greenough
'24 inspiration...
All the World's a stage.....
a cold 2024 sojourn...
Richard's England...
Winter in England. The sun, the cold, the overcast skies. The mood and hue of the environment are distinctive.
Ancient buildings hold clues to place and time...rough hewn stone blocks, sturdy wood, iron-braced hinges, hand-cast nuts'n'bolts holding together bespoke structures and framework.
Cavernous interiors with hand-crafted ceilings in dark wood, paneled and painted with religious icons, arched support frames finished in stone tiles especially made for that purpose.
A chair made of darkened oak by craftsmen.
Hand-blown, hand-colored glass, lead-lined and soldered into window panes of houses of worship.
Family crests, representing linages traced back to 1066, struck and registered centuries ago, adorn the vestibule of these great houses and Churches.
the play's the thing
Shakespeare now...
Othello @Sam Wannamaker Playhouse London
Mash-up contemporary with striking notes of Elizabethan London.
Bold and brisk. Language loud, fast and furious.
Blending contemporary physicality with historical mise en scene.
Hand-cranked iron chandeliers with candles lit and extinguished by cast members.
Loose shirts and leggings, motor-bike boots and duffle coats.
Overt love-play between Desdemona and The Moor
[a no/no back then!]
Stone jugs filled with Ale or wine or brandy or beer.
Musical instruments made today but played for yesteryear.
A Midsummer Night's Dream @ RSC Stratford
A fantasy 'sky' lit from within and without...modern magic.
Characters inhabiting the stage as the audience took their seats.
Playful singing and jesting like a 'warm-up' comedian does to a live TV audience.
Quirky, eclectic, off-beat baggy pants, flowing skirts, multi-colored shirts under ill-fitting purple suit, spikey gelled hair.
Naughty. Bawdy.
Many conjurings with LED lights.
Platform boots. Bare feet.
Doc Marts.
The Merchant of Venice 1936 @ The Swan, RSC Stratford
A Jewish family opens the play celebrating a holy day, as family members offer apple juice to the audience so they can join in.
A woman plays Shylock.
Set in Europe against the rising tide of Nazism and the beginning of Jewish persecution.
Prejudice abounds. Propaganda proliferates.
Politics pushes to the forefront of the action.
Generic black military uniforms, bold black symbols adorn red armbands playing 'victim'.
Jews openly ostracized and avoided when mixing with gentiles.
Even the Maid avoids contact with them.
Posters slandering Jews are pasted to the family front door.
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