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I SSUE 13 | FEBRUA RY 2019 Hamlet | 6 Degrees Festival | SCRIPTprov™
WGTN
ISSUE 13 FEBRUARY 2019
The setting is Club Illyria. Inspiration has come from the Wellington drag scene. It's described by director Anastasia Matteini-Roberts as “a dragulous performance of Twelfth Night”. Drag is in. RuPaul's Drag Race and NZ's own House of Drag have definitely moved the drag scene into the spotlight in recent times, and the cross over into theatre spaces has already been happening.
Victoria University students presenting work created for their Masters of Fine Arts (Creative Practice), a course that aims to introduce new emerging artists as they celebrate a year of work and learning.
Anastasia is a fan. “The Wellington drag scene is so talented, with so many styles of drag and types of performers all working together.” She is also a Shakespeare enthusiast. The play is still Shakespeare's, but shorter and with a contemporary feel. With publicity including such lines as -
ORDER UP! DEVISED BY THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON ACTORS ENSEMBLE Directed by Nino Raphael Tues 12th - Sat 16th Feb 9pm Bats Theatre TICKETS: $18/$14/$13 BOOKINGS: www.bats.co.nz Publicity quote: “Only a life lived to the service of others is worth living.” Albert Einstein may not have been thinking of our hospitality industry when making that statement, but I guess it can cover it. The entire cast of this show work or have worked in hospitality, so they should know. Hospitality is, apparently NZ's largest industry. And Order Up! is based mostly on the ensemble company's real-life experiences. It's a cabaret. A series of vignettes in hospitality settings. The cast looked at the subject from many angles, but the status issue is a main theme. The status of the customer. And of the manager of the venue. The pressure put on staff by both, and the need to maintain a public face in spite of it. Waiting tables, serving behind a bar - sound like easy jobs, but actually requiring a large variety of life skills. So although yes, this is a fun night out, with music, I imagine it will remind us that hospo workers are humans too - which a surprising number of people seem to forget when in the role of customer. “Creating this show through the university,” says Nino, “gave huge resources and tools to use which were fostered in a learning environment so that failure was a more welcomed guest when it came to learning new skills.” He leads the Victoria University of Wellington Actors Ensemble, which aims to create exciting theatre to appeal to the young people of Wellington. This should do it.
TWELFTH NIGHT YELLOW STOCKING THEATRE by William Shakespeare Directed by Anastasia Matteini-Roberts Tues 12th - Sat 16th Feb 6:30 pm Bats Theatre TICKETS: $18/$14/$13 BOOKINGS: www.bats.co.nz
THINKING DOLPHINS PRESENTED BY ACTS OF KINDNESS
“Drag yourself to Illyria and see why it's the hottest club in town”.
DEVISED BY THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON ACTORS ENSEMBLE
Cross-dressing has always been a Shakespeare feature. And Yellow Stocking Theatre is Anastasia's new venture, which will specialise in modernising Shakespeare's texts. Being part of the degree course has, she says, been invaluable to her first effort.
Directed by Clare Kerrison and Sarah Kirwin Bats Theatre Thurs 21st - Sat 23rd Feb 7pm TICKETS: $16/$13 BOOKINGS: www.bats.co.nz
“To be working closely with the other project leaders on their shows and with the university lecturers has given me so much inspiration and guidance. “I've also had the opportunity to receive guidance and assistance from so many talented theatre-makers in and out of the university, which has given me the confidence to grow. I couldn't be making this show, at this level, without the university and I can't wait for the audience to see it.” Well, I won't be dragging my heels...
Frank's son, Bruce Robson. He spent many weeks working with script mentor Lori Leigh, wrote many drafts and did plenty of workshopping.
Written by Mark Nicholas Directed by Tabitha Arthur Tues 12th - Sat 16th Feb 7pm TICKETS: $18/$14/$13 BOOKINGS: www.bats.co.nz
The dolphins appear as near-life-size puppets, created as a bit of a team effort by all involved. They are, Mark says, “definitely characters.They all look different and have different personalities.”
Yes, dolphins. Always a good vibe. And this is a feel-good real-life story about a Kiwi bloke dolphin whisperer. Based on the autobiography of Frank Robson.
“The dolphins themselves bring a lot of light-hearted fun, as they do in the wild. But aspects of the play touch on serious issues. Money and greed are some of these themes.”
In the 1960's Frank was on a mission to save dolphins from exploitation and big-business greed. Yes, already an issue way back then. Frank was convinced we could learn from dolphins and become better humans. He also claimed to talk to them.
SCRIPTprov™
I ask Mark about the mood of the piece.
Crafty idea. First you do a scene from a play. Properly. Rehearsed. Then exchange one of the actors for an improviser who has no idea what's going on, and do it again.The concept originated in Denver, Colorado. It was invented by Cindy Laudadio-Hill in 2009. Co-director here, Sarah Kirwin, has been in it from the beginning, performing for six years before moving to NZ. So. There will be four rehearsed actors and five to six improvisers. I ask Sarah about the scripts. “Clare Kerrison, who is directing the scripted side of the show, has chosen scenes that will showcase the talents of NZ playwrights. The exact plays are kept a secret from myself and the rest of the improvisers, we have to go in completely clueless.” Are some plays more suitable than others for this process? “We usually prefer to use two-person scenes so there is a clear give and take with the dialogue. We have worked with scripts from all genres of theatre. From comedies to tragedies and Shakespearian to contemporary. Any type of scene can work.” And does the improvised stuff usually diverge hugely from the original? “It all depends on the initial choice of the improviser, and from that choice the scene is sent in a new direction, which usually is very different from the original scene.”
Much of the action takes place at sea, of course. But no high-tech effects or water features, mostly storytelling, lights and imagination. Everything that needs to happen onstage is created by the ensemble.
How does it feel being the only one not knowing the script? “There are always some nerves. The actors and the audience are on the inside of the joke. They know what you don't and they get to see you sweat trying to justify what's happening.”
Writer Mark Nicholas made this story his year's work on the Masters course at Vic. He read the book and met
Well, if theres's one thing I can't resist it's a near-lifesize dolphin puppet onstage...
An actor's nightmare? An improvisers dream? Or the other way round...? Fun.
SUMMER SHAKESPEARE HAMLET
famously a play about fathers and sons. By portraying Hamlet, Polonius, Gertrude and Ophelia as female it becomes a play about mothers and daughters.”
Directed by David O'Donnell The Dell Wellington Botanic Gardens 15th Feb - 2nd March Tues - Sat 7pm Sun 4pm. TICKETS: $18/$12 BOOKINGS: www.eventfinda.co.nz
As easy as that? At https://wellingtonhamlet.home. blog/2018/11/16/this-is-i/ the production's dramaturge, Lori Leigh, writes of the mountain of critical discourse that surrounds Hamlet as woman or Hamlet's supposedly “effeminate” qualities. And goes on to say:
It's that time of year again. We brave wind, chill, discomfort and even pouring rain at times, for a further dose of outdoor Shakespeare. Or yeah, maybe bask in the warmth of a summer sunset... After a couple of years in other venues, we're back in the Dell - with a female Hamlet. Well, not just Hamlet herself, but female Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Gravedigger. As well as the more usual Gertrude and Ophelia. I ask director David O'Donnell why? About both of the above. Firstly, the Dell. “ It's the perfect setting for the themes of nature and humanity in the play. Also, audience feedback suggests it's the preferred spot. And this year is the 150th anniversary of the Botanic Gardens - a history that Summer Shakespeare has long been involved in.” As for the female Hamlet question: “Hamlet is one of the biggest, most complex parts ever written and the actor has to go on a massive physical, intellectual and emotional journey. This is a journey that female actors want to experience and Hamlet has been played by numerous women in the past and present. Hamlet is
“What is more interesting to me than the content of the discourse is the existence of the actual arguments themselves. If, for whatever reason, centuries of critics, artists, filmmakers, and theatre artists have cast Hamlet as female, effeminate, or androgynous then it means that they have been unable to firmly centralise the universal protagonist as male. Hamlet rejects essentialism and societal norms. Hamlet is other, ambiguous, both, unable to sit comfortably at one end of a binary scale, disruptive of our assumptions about gender. I believe this gendered fluidity is one of the reasons we are all drawn to Hamlet.” Not convinced myself - I've always found him a bit of an unattractive lad. And am not a fan of male roles played as female. To me, this doesn't raise my gender's status more likely the opposite. But, as they say, there's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so... And David thinks that this change of gender makes the play more universally relevant and enhances the huge questions raised about the nature of power and gender politics in the play. Which can only be a good thing. I ask if there is a particular look to it, a time in which it's set?
“Our designers are treating this as a site-specific production, enhancing the epic scale of the bushy setting with an abstract expressionist style design. The production has a contemporary setting to highlight the continuing relevance of the play. In Shakespeare’s own time, the actors mostly wore contemporary English clothing no matter where and when the play was set. So there’s a sense of an eternal present in the best of Shakespeare’s work and we keep that tradition alive to show this play is a living thing, not a museum piece.” There are, of course, challenges in outdoor performance. So, in this one? Most of the first act of the play is set on a castle battlements at midnight, where Hamlet meets the ghost of her father. “We’ll be performing this outdoors in broad daylight, so all of the tricks of theatrical lighting and illusion aren’t available to us. So we have to be imaginative in staging the ghost scenes - just as Shakespeare’s company had to be in the outdoors Elizabethan theatre.” So, despite my admittedly extreme viewpoint, which sees a case for Shakespeare taking a four- hundred-year rest, I will brave the elements, pack my picnic and make a night of it. After all, there are more things in heaven and earth...
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