"Not what we ought to say about the RSC?"

[Queen Mab]

Stanley Wells & Michael Billington converse.

bloggingshakespeare.com/not-what-we-ought-to-say-about-the-r-s-c

I respectfully disagree on the Russians & ensemble comments and pretty much everything Stanley was saying, actually.

[Witch 1]

I'm too inexperienced to comment on that, but I did like the pot plant ;D

[Rosalind]

I don't agree with he was saying about the ensemble, I like to see actors play a variety of roles.

[Fluellen]

I kinda agree and disagree at the same time about the ensemble. I love the ensemble idea SO HARD, but the characters do start bleeding into each other (I saw Antony&Cleopatra recently, and I loved The Winter's Tale A WHOLE FREAKIN' BUNCH, so King Lear got a little weird for me in places), and I wish they'd mix it up a bit so everyone gets at least one really brilliant part instead of some ensemble members constantly being in supporting roles.

[Lorannah]

Aug 23, 2010 22:19:03 GMT Fluellen said:

...and I wish they'd mix it up a bit so everyone gets at least one really brilliant part instead of some ensemble members constantly being in supporting roles.

I completely agree with that one, some of my favourite actors have had tiny roles in this ensemble and they have so much potential. Adam Burton, for example, was excellent as Edmund in the King Lear Understudy run (god love the understudy runs).

I guess though that's partly the nature of acting, there are different levels of performers and it can be difficult to move upwards - the ensemble suggests equality, but it's not really much different - better but not different.

I got interested in how casting works with regards to an ensemble (would love to talk to the casting directors) - and I'm pretty certain from the reading I did that the top level of actors knew what roles they'd be playing when they signed up. So Greg Hicks would have known he'd get to play Leontes, Caesar and Lear when he signed up. Mariah Gale mentioned she'd be playing Juliet quite early into the ensemble as an example. I doubt you'd be able to get such actors without that. And I think it is nice that those actors in other productions take much smaller parts, giving others to shine.

For those below that stage, I think it's a bit more open - I got the impression from somewhere or other that they have to audition for each director that comes in. So there is some opportunity for the larger supporting roles.

I'm not sure how well they could mess with that set up - but it definitely is sometimes frustrating. I particulalrly wish they would mix up who is playing against each other a little more. To some extent they keep the same actors together in similar roles - the one that sticks out to me, though there are others, is Greg Hicks (powerful flawed father figure) / Darrell Da Silva (his friend/follower) / Samantha Young (his (usually misused) daughter / Tunji Kassim (her lover). I feel like I've seen some combination of that in nearly all their plays and whilst I think it does draw attention to the tropes that Shakespeare reused and in some senses deepens the characterisation - I do end up craving a little variety. I'd like to see what other people do in those roles and to see what they'd do in different roles.