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Contributors
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- By James P. Bednarz, William C. Carroll, Francis X. Connor, Trevor Cook, Gabriel Egan, Julia Griffin, Brean Hammond, Rui Carvalho Homem, Sujata Iyengar, Russell Jackson, Isabel Karremann, Arthur F. Kinney, Tina Krontiris, Barry Langston, Stephan Laqué, Dennis McCarthy, Ellen MacKay, Roderick H. McKeown, Sonia Massai, L. Monique Pittman, James Purkis, Carol Chillington Rutter, June Schlueter, Charlotte Scott, Will Sharpe, James Shaw, Simon Smith, B. J. Sokol, Stephen Spiess, Gary Taylor, Leslie Thomson, Sir Brian Vickers, William W. Weber
- Edited by Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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- Book:
- Shakespeare Survey
- Published online:
- 05 October 2014
- Print publication:
- 02 October 2014, pp vi-vi
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Producing the Comedies
- Edited by Allardyce Nicoll
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- Book:
- Shakespeare Survey
- Published online:
- 28 March 2007
- Print publication:
- 02 January 1955, pp 74-80
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Summary
Memory plays strange tricks, and it is a somewhat hazardous undertaking to revive recollections of the course of the production of Shakespeare’s comedies over a period of some sixty years. Youthful enthusiasms are responsible for much distortion, but I would never subscribe to the doctrine of “the good old days when everything was so much better than it is today”. As in life itself, the changes in “the mirror of the age” have been so many and so diverse as to have been totally unbelievable half a century ago. So far as Shakespearian comedy is concerned, the diversity has naturally lain in the treatment rather than in the comedies themselves. These are firmly embedded in things elemental to humanity. To suggest “for all time”, a phrase often heard, might be claiming too much, but the settling of any precise period is far beyond our understanding. In everyday parlance, “for all time” is as good a guess as any other.
Before dealing with purely personal recollection of the changes in the production of the comedies, some reference to their treatment in the nineteenth century might be considered.
I have in my possession the prompt copy of the production by Charles Kean of The Winter's Tale in 1856. The time and energy expended to achieve this orgiastic hash exceeds all comprehension. For some unaccountable reason—probably Apollo and the Delphic Oracle—the action was shifted from Bohemia to Bithynia. Hermione's reference to her father, the Emperor of Russia, was, of course, cut. But that was only one of the never-ending excisions. On the front page of the paper binding is a list, presumably written by the stage manager, of the works consulted, including, of all things, an atlas. Among the cast is the name of Ellen Terry—her first appearance on any stage at the age of nine—as Mamillius, and a Miss Heath as Florizel.
On Producing Henry VI
- Edited by Allardyce Nicoll
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- Book:
- Shakespeare Survey
- Published online:
- 28 March 2007
- Print publication:
- 02 January 1953, pp 49-52
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Summary
[The Birmingham Repertory Theatre produced 2 Henry VI on 3 April 1951, and 3 Henry VI on 1 April 1952. The latter was taken to the Old Vic on 21 July 1952. Editor.]
Over a lengthy period of playgoing it is inevitable that certain productions of the classics make more lasting effect than others. This may be due to superlative rendering or, and I think more probably, the frame of mind of the spectator, who by some chance happens to be in a receptive key or mood to receive the play’s message. Of the whole chronological sequence of Shakespeare’s histories given at Stratford-upon-Avon by F. R. Benson in 1906, it was the unknown Second Part of King Henry VI that made the greatest impression on my mind. To see all the histories in succession was the experience of a lifetime, and, under present conditions, very unlikely to be repeated. Benson and his company had all the histories excepting the three parts of Henry VI in their repertoire: no existing company of artists can claim so much, and it was of unimaginable help in presenting the entire cycle to have only the Trilogy to rehearse and prepare from scratch. To embark upon the project with a blank sheet would prove a superhuman task. Nowadays, the only practical method, as with Benson, would be to build up the histories over a course of years with a permanent company. As modern theatrical activities are, in the main, opposed to team work, the chances of ever witnessing the entire chronology in order must remain beyond possibility.