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| Filename |
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DS_NO_au17.mov |
| Date of Interview |
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16 December 2002 |
| Date digital resource created |
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06 June 2003 |
| Creator1 |
: |
Nick Ormerod |
| Creator2 |
: |
Christie Carson |
| Creator role1 |
: |
Theatre Designer - Interviewee |
| Creator role2 |
: |
Principle Investigator - Interviewer |
| Description |
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Question: In terms of the effect you are looking for, I am particularly interested in the As You Like It. Why an all male cast? Was that about the original Shakespeare - boys playing women? Was there something else entirely going on? Answer: Well in a sense it was not about boys playing women just because Shakespeare did it. But it is absolutely intrinsic in the play that, that's what, because he was writing plays for that company. He naturally made the play about issues which, as it were, having to do that. I mean if he could have had women, I'm sure he would have had women. But having only men on stage, then he wrote plays for that company, and the plays are shot through, not all of them, but are shot through with issues that raises, that that fact raises. So consequently, and some plays like As You Like It are absolutely about those sort of gender issues. And As You Like It is, and by doing it all male, you kind of throw that into relief. Did you consider it a successful production from that point of view? Did it illuminate the text in the way you hoped it would? I think so, yes. I hope so. And I think what we achieved was by carefully drawing the audience into the idea by not presenting them full frontal with boys dressed up as girls, but by drawing them in in a gradual way, by initially presenting them with an all male company in a basic costume. In trousers and shirt or something, and then gradually introducing them to the idea of boys dressed as girls. But in a non-specific way, and then as the evening progressed it became more specific. And, well one of my favourite costumes was Audrey. Putting her in trousers, as it were, a boy dressed as a girl, but in trousers and just a blonde wig. It kind of, it gave it another, yet another level of irony if you like, fun. Well aren't you also dealing with the fact that the audiences expectations of a man dressed as a women are very different now than they would be in Shakespeare's day? I mean as you say, he had no other choice but to put...I think it's more difficult to take a man seriously dressed as a woman given you know...drag artists and pantomime dames.That's why we tried to be very careful and avoid that route, by kind of using costume in an emblematic way, not going the whole hog of full wigs and make up and full costume. But giving them a costume and maybe not a wig, and certainly not using make up in a particularly overtly feminine way. So that I think we achieved a sort of emblematic sort of costume which I think is, I think is how I approach costume generally, is is terms of almost like, of function of going for a function and allowing for the actor to, to as it were, fill in the outline of the drawing. |
| Source |
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DS_16_12_02 (2xmini DV tape) |
| Format |
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Quicktime Progressive (audio) |
| Type |
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Resource Audio |
| Rights |
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This clip may be used for educational purposes only, any commercial use of this material requires permission from the copyright holders. Misuse or misrepresentation may result in legal action. Copyright holder: Christie Carson, COMPH, Royal Holloway University of London. |
| Length |
: |
2 minutes 47.00 seconds |
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Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). Copyright 2003-5.