Spent part of the day revisiting the cuts I made quite some time back to Shakespeare's As You Like It when we were considering the play for performance by our drama guys. We're now looking at a July performance, so I thought I'd better start looking at a practical working script in detail. Fortunately the excisions still made sense to me, though I'm now looking to make even more in the interests of pace and not overwhelming the cast with stuff to memorise.
Wielding the blue pencil makes you realise the degree to which the Bard can't resist being dragged by his linguistic inventiveness to add layer upon layer to his dialogue. It's partly decorative, but also an exploration of all the possibilities afforded by the suggestiveness of key images and ideas. I'm aware of much that is being lost, but what's left is so strong that it easily survives the process.
I feel as if I'm uncovering something fundamental, seeing into the heart of the drama somehow.
No comments:
Post a Comment