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School
& Youth Theatre
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Return to the Forbidden Planet (3)The first thing that has to be said - and I've already said it in Part I - is that this show needs an experienced cast, and by that I mean an experienced cast of actors, not just of singers and musicians. For a start, they need to be able to handle Shakespeare's verse, to maintain the verse whilst making it intelligible to the audience and getting the right emotional tone. This needs training, talent and experience, for it is not only interpretation which matters here, but clarity of diction must be spot on. In a play which uses modern language it is possible to get by with a certain degree of slovenliness of diction, but in Shakespeare it is fatal. His language presents the modern audience with sufficient problems without adding to them by making it difficult to understand! My casts get sick of me yelling "Diction!" at them, but they know that, once they are onstage, the clarity that good diction gives is vital to success. But it must not be diction at the expense of emotion. There are some pretty strong passions at play here, and they have to be communicated to the audience with all the immediacy the actors can invest the words with. And if that is not difficulty enough, the author makes the point in his introduction to the libretto that the play must be played straight. There must be no attempt to "send up" or satirise the lines, because that will destroy the impact. The actors must have first-class stagecraft. The illusion that this show creates is so fragile - as it is bound to be: words by Shakespeare, music by pop stars, mis-en-scène by Star Trek! - that it is like a bubble waiting to be burst. Any awkwardnesses will destroy it. Please do not try this play unless you really have actors who are up to the task - or an audience which will forgive anything. I was about to write that I was fortunate in having the cast I had, but I wouldn't have done the show if I hadn't! To read a review of the show from the Shields Gazette, go to the next article. >> Part 4
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