Othello v Titus
Sun, 6 Aug 2000, 11:22 amGrant Malcolm13 posts in thread
Othello v Titus
Sun, 6 Aug 2000, 11:22 amHaving spent the previous night at Bell's Dream I was looking forward to an evening of contrast with Shakespearience's Othello v Titus.
I'll confess it wasn't entirely without some trepidation. While I shared much of Robert Cook's enthusiasm for Gibson Nolte's performance in the recent Macbeth, I'd wished someone had taken a nail gun to his somewhat undisciplined interpretation of Macduff and stapled his feet to the floor!
However, I had seen Gibson's Winters' Tale at Kalamunda last year and I was confident that, as a director, he had a firm grasp of the bard and I was looking forward to seeing how he and his fellow director Claire Hooper tackled these condensed versions.
It's difficult not to draw comparisons between the original sources and Kaiser's shorter versions. Shakespeare's Othello and Titus Andronicus they are not. That said, the stripped down texts stand perfectly well in their own right and succeeded admirably in performance.
The contrast with Bell Shakespeare was at once apparent in the almost complete lack of setting and the very simple costuming - not to mention the size of the venue. For all this, the company filled the space with inventive performances that invited the audience to share their journey.
Each play is performed by a cast of three and thankfully, with skillful editing, each actor plays at most only three parts. Shifts in characterisation together with single items of costume or rearrangments of hair neatly distinguished one role from another.
The plays move quickly. The performances are dynamic and the energy never flagged. Titus is as obscenely funny as Othello is tension packed. The invention and passion held the small Blue Room crowd firmly in its thrall.
Some more work on vocal technique might have assisted to carry the otherwise excellent performances of Booth and Keen, but it was a delight to see the development of Toby Malone as a performer. If occasionally physically understated his almost melodramatic vocal range was admirably suited to the roles. Rebecca Pithers performance was the highlight for me with extraordinary assurance, sensitivity and vocal clarity.
And I have to ask... Rebecca is that you? I thought you looked very familiar, but I didn't read the programme until i went for coffee after the show. Can it be that i really directed you when you were ten years old???
Cheers
Grant
I'll confess it wasn't entirely without some trepidation. While I shared much of Robert Cook's enthusiasm for Gibson Nolte's performance in the recent Macbeth, I'd wished someone had taken a nail gun to his somewhat undisciplined interpretation of Macduff and stapled his feet to the floor!
However, I had seen Gibson's Winters' Tale at Kalamunda last year and I was confident that, as a director, he had a firm grasp of the bard and I was looking forward to seeing how he and his fellow director Claire Hooper tackled these condensed versions.
It's difficult not to draw comparisons between the original sources and Kaiser's shorter versions. Shakespeare's Othello and Titus Andronicus they are not. That said, the stripped down texts stand perfectly well in their own right and succeeded admirably in performance.
The contrast with Bell Shakespeare was at once apparent in the almost complete lack of setting and the very simple costuming - not to mention the size of the venue. For all this, the company filled the space with inventive performances that invited the audience to share their journey.
Each play is performed by a cast of three and thankfully, with skillful editing, each actor plays at most only three parts. Shifts in characterisation together with single items of costume or rearrangments of hair neatly distinguished one role from another.
The plays move quickly. The performances are dynamic and the energy never flagged. Titus is as obscenely funny as Othello is tension packed. The invention and passion held the small Blue Room crowd firmly in its thrall.
Some more work on vocal technique might have assisted to carry the otherwise excellent performances of Booth and Keen, but it was a delight to see the development of Toby Malone as a performer. If occasionally physically understated his almost melodramatic vocal range was admirably suited to the roles. Rebecca Pithers performance was the highlight for me with extraordinary assurance, sensitivity and vocal clarity.
And I have to ask... Rebecca is that you? I thought you looked very familiar, but I didn't read the programme until i went for coffee after the show. Can it be that i really directed you when you were ten years old???
Cheers
Grant
RE: Vale - Secret Squirrel
Sat, 12 Aug 2000, 08:11 pmWalter Plinge
I feel compelled to write in an attempt to qualify or at least understand the severe and indeed malicious character assasination that is occuring on this website. I have not now, nor before ever stated that my views and opinions were to be privelidged over those of others or that I believe myself to be infallible. I saw a shortage of quality (indeed any) reviews and decided that perhaps I should turn my intelligence and experience into voicing what a good number people think about various productions. Yes, I have stated that one of the reasons was that I saw so many people being unashamedly two-faced and complimenting performers and crew and then with the same breath telling someone else what they really thought. Of course, many people enjoy community theatre and compliment with sincerity and honesty. However, as I have already explained it is not a useful charade to continue to promote both ignorance and a mediocre standard of local theatre. Attacking me for using a psuedonym was the first easy defence, passionately arued, the pros and cons of which I will not go into here, suffice to reiterate that my choice was intended to divert attention to the review, rather than the reviewer - there were never any malevolent or cruel intentions to slag and bitch from behind a safe facade.
I admit that I was tactless in my first review, at that stage I was trying to prove a point and to get some intelligent discussion motivated - this is not to say that my reviews were slipshod and hasty, I have honestly spent quite a while thinking of the right thing to say. Having then been criticised for my "vitriol" (along with a host of other derogatory comments and name-calling) I then wrote a sugar-coated review of Macbeth. I was promptly shot down for getting it wrong. Not only did a professional reviewer accuracte portray what I wanted to say but many other people voiced their disagreement with my tactful, constructive review.
A no win situation!? Probably, nevertheless I continued on, clinging to the assumption that what I was doing still had some value. I was then asked to review a show written and directed by a fellow Curtin student, and he saw fit by way of retaliation to reveal my identity - which was greeted silently on the website. I habour no resentment towards Luke but will admit I was quite disturbed and worried that now the hoardes of pro-community theatre groupies would be after me and I would never work in local theatre again (oh no!). The challenge for fellow ita'ers to come and try their hand at reviewing me went unmet and I can say it was their loss.
Sorry about the length of this rant, but I feel I am allowed to justify myself in the eyes of general readers and those who attack me more savagely than I have ever reviewed.
To conclude, I will continue to review - you can read or not, take heed or not - I impose my opinion on nobody.
Thankyou for your time
Luv Secret Squirrel (or should that be Secret Smartarse - I lose track of the insults)
I admit that I was tactless in my first review, at that stage I was trying to prove a point and to get some intelligent discussion motivated - this is not to say that my reviews were slipshod and hasty, I have honestly spent quite a while thinking of the right thing to say. Having then been criticised for my "vitriol" (along with a host of other derogatory comments and name-calling) I then wrote a sugar-coated review of Macbeth. I was promptly shot down for getting it wrong. Not only did a professional reviewer accuracte portray what I wanted to say but many other people voiced their disagreement with my tactful, constructive review.
A no win situation!? Probably, nevertheless I continued on, clinging to the assumption that what I was doing still had some value. I was then asked to review a show written and directed by a fellow Curtin student, and he saw fit by way of retaliation to reveal my identity - which was greeted silently on the website. I habour no resentment towards Luke but will admit I was quite disturbed and worried that now the hoardes of pro-community theatre groupies would be after me and I would never work in local theatre again (oh no!). The challenge for fellow ita'ers to come and try their hand at reviewing me went unmet and I can say it was their loss.
Sorry about the length of this rant, but I feel I am allowed to justify myself in the eyes of general readers and those who attack me more savagely than I have ever reviewed.
To conclude, I will continue to review - you can read or not, take heed or not - I impose my opinion on nobody.
Thankyou for your time
Luv Secret Squirrel (or should that be Secret Smartarse - I lose track of the insults)
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