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I finished a reader response on The Late Lancashire Witches. So I'm rewarding myself with a post before getting back to my work.
Doubling, the act of one actor playing more than one part, has really intrigued me of late.
M told me a few weeks ago about a production of Cymbeline she once saw where Posthumous and Cloten were doubled. Not having seen it I can't tell for sure but I believe that this doubling would, being that there is no physical difference between the characters, serve to intensify the social differences between them. This also produces some interesting punning in regard to the body scene. Imogen says she knows this to be her lords leg. I wonder though if this would also say anything about class barriers and whether that was intended or not.
Friday night, during my Friday night Shakespeare movie night, we watched Pericles, Prince of Tyre. And about a third of the way in, I realized that there was an interesting chance to double. What if Antiochus and his daughter and Simonides and Taissa were doubled? Antiochus with his incestuous relationship to his daughter contrasts so completely the "good" Simonides that such a doubling would, similar to the Cymbeline doubling, accentuate the moral differences. However, it may have the reverse effect if done a certain way, because of the playful nature in Simonides, causing the audience to see him as similar to Antiochus. That could really be freaky.
Because of how easily these comparisons are, I wonder how many more doubles could be used to make thought provoking comparisons.
Doubling, the act of one actor playing more than one part, has really intrigued me of late.
M told me a few weeks ago about a production of Cymbeline she once saw where Posthumous and Cloten were doubled. Not having seen it I can't tell for sure but I believe that this doubling would, being that there is no physical difference between the characters, serve to intensify the social differences between them. This also produces some interesting punning in regard to the body scene. Imogen says she knows this to be her lords leg. I wonder though if this would also say anything about class barriers and whether that was intended or not.
Friday night, during my Friday night Shakespeare movie night, we watched Pericles, Prince of Tyre. And about a third of the way in, I realized that there was an interesting chance to double. What if Antiochus and his daughter and Simonides and Taissa were doubled? Antiochus with his incestuous relationship to his daughter contrasts so completely the "good" Simonides that such a doubling would, similar to the Cymbeline doubling, accentuate the moral differences. However, it may have the reverse effect if done a certain way, because of the playful nature in Simonides, causing the audience to see him as similar to Antiochus. That could really be freaky.
Because of how easily these comparisons are, I wonder how many more doubles could be used to make thought provoking comparisons.
