I encouraged my actors (the young Tilda Swinton, among others) to abandon any notion of a fixed social order, and express instead a cacophony of competing voices, fighting for status and advantage, joking and insulting, jostling and struggling to the bitter end. We did everything we could to ensure that the characters with the least social status [in Comedy of Errors] were as demanding of the audience's attention as their (so-called) betters and relished the power that this temporary reversal afforded them. And soon the action felt as alive as the street outside.
The way we formulated it at the time was that on Shakespeare's stage there was no 'hierarchy of reality,' and that his vision of humanity was all-encompassing and indivisible. 'Everyone on stage is interesting,' we agreed, 'and you shouldn't assume that those who speak the most are the most important, or that those in power are more interesting than those who aren't.' This is much more than the old theatrical adage that 'there are no small parts, only small actors'; it is a re-evaluation of the playwright's attitude to the world. While some of Shakespeare's characters might wield greater power than others, their creator saw them all as human beings, equal in the eyes of God, if not the society in which they lived. Or so it seemed to us.
germansingergirl
areudirty
jacobvanloon
2087
blakekathryn
prguitarman
romaincrisis
janainaart
vaporwave
