Cross-posted from Flaming Moth Towards the end of his career, Shakespeare wrote a string of plays that make a feature of the relationship between an ageing patriarch and a daughter who is coming into adulthood. These young women are all possessed… Read More ›
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Wendy and Peter Pan and the RSC
Hands up who knew (or at least now remembers that they once knew) that the original play (and subsequent novelisation) by J.M. Barrie was titled “Peter Pan And Wendy” rather than just the “Peter Pan” that current publications and productions favour?
Sunday Theatre Spot: Mind The Cat
I met a theatre cat on Friday night, and he was typically imperious and graciously accepting the admiration that is naturally his due. Anybody else know a theatre cat or two?
Friday Hoyden: Yvonne Brewster
Director Yvonne Brewster founded Britain’s most prominent Black theatre company, Talawa, in 1986, in order to produce work that showcased actors from a diversity of racial backgrounds, who were not getting the work they should have been in the large, subsidised theatres.
Obnoxious pantomime alert: “trAnnie”
And the Sydney Opera House legitimises this. This is vicious, blatant sexist transphobia, masquerading as light-hearted entertainment.
Shakespeare and the Bechdel Test
We all know which way the Avengers falls, but have you ever wondered whether Shakespeare passes the Bechdel test?
Friday Hoyden: Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless has to be about the only awesome Kiwi we Australians haven’t unofficially adopted and claimed as our own.
Friday Hoyden: Dora Chance
Dora and Nora Chance (the “Lucky Chances”, naturally) are twins born into post- war London, on the wrong side of the theatrical tracks. Bastard children of a grand Shakespearean actor, Dora and Nora learn to dance to work their passage through a world that makes a great fuss of legitimacy, but likes to have less licit elements on call as well. Dora narrates, and you accompany her giddy passions, frantic hopes and pragmatic compromises.
Blegging: Name Orlando’s Book
My first book is to be published later this year, and I am still not happy with the title. It is an academic text, but one I hope will have a broader appeal for people interested in the theatre, and the way women are presented on stage.
Friday Hoyden: Emilia
In Othello, it is Emilia, unfortunate wife of the villainous Iago, who delivers the woman’s equivalent of Shylock’s more famous “Has not a Jew eyes?” speech.
Such is the focus on the central couple that it is easy to forget that two husbands kill their wives in this play.