Intrigue at the (Royal) court Essay Example For Students

Intrigue at the (Royal) court Essay Alls quiet now on the behind-the-scenes front at Londons Royal Court Theatre, which means the Sloane Square playhouse can devote its attentions to its real function as Britains premier theatre for new writing. But it wasnt always thus, and who know how long the calm will last? The British press spent 1991 reporting all manner of courtly intrigue, and this year has already seen artistic director Max Stafford-Clark win his first-ever libel suit, against GQ magazine in Britain, for spreading defamatory comments about him. Personalities aside, the Chelsea venues plays have often made news. Everyone knows that this is where modern British drama is said to have begun in 1956 with John Osbornes Look Back in Anger, but the theatre was more recently the sight of a protracted row over Jim Allens purportedly anti-Semitic piece Pendition, which was withdrawn from a production in 1987; and John Guares Six Degrees of Separation this past June drew a local loony several nights running claiming the plays real-life story of Manhattan con artistry as his. ITS RARE ON AND OFF stage to find a theatre so consistently in the headlines, which may be a tribute of sorts to the esteem in which the Court has long been held. Still, do readers of the downmarket London tabloid the Daily Express even know what the Royal Court is? Perhaps not, but last year, that paper, like many others, knew a good story when it saw one, and Stafford-Clarks security of tenure was for a while the hottest showbiz story in town. The fact is that journalists want controversy, and most people in the British theatre are so uncontroversial, Stafford-Clark, 51, says now, looking back at the fierce debate engendered by his desire to prolong his leadership. Appointed in 1979, Stafford-Clark had already extended his contract once only to find that his desire for yet another extension was dividing the theatres ranks. Leading the pro faction were playwrights like Timberlake Wertenbaker, whose career has blossomed at the Court from The Grace of Mary Traverse through Our Countrys Good and Three Birds Alighting on a Field, her 1991 play which returns to the mainstage in November. The nay-sayers included Hani Kureishi, who was a Court dramatist some years before he found screenwriting and an Oscar nomination with My Beautiful Launderette; and Matthew Evans, chairman of the publishing house Faber and Faber and former head of the Royal Courts governing board, whose barbed comments in GQ prompted Stafford-Clarks lawsuit. The ultimate decision, when the board delivered it, seemed like a classic fudge: Stephen Daldry, 31-year-old artistic director of the tiny Gate Theatre in west Londons Notting Hill and winner of a special Olivier Award for that theatre in April, was appointed artistic director designate and would accede to the top job in October 1993. At that point, Stafford-Clark would become Daldrys deputy, with the proviso that Daldry could dispense with him altogether if he wished. On April 1, Daldry moved into the buildingto a desk adjoining Stafford-Clarksonly to find that it would be a while before the two men occupied the room simultaneously. Stafford-Clark had a prior engagement with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford to direct Richard Bromes 1642 play, A Jovial Crew, adapted by the Courts literary associate, Stephen Jeffreys. And Daldry was off in the summer, rehearsing his Royal National Theatre debut Sept. 12 with an unexpected choiceJ.B. Priestleys wartime warhorse, An Inspector Calls. The National opening night arrived, and history, it can fairly be said, was made: Here, working on a scale heretofore unavailable to him in London, was Daldry exploding for full emotional and visual impact the fustiest of repertory stalwarts, bursting Priestleys play wide open to discover the Pirandello-ish masterwork that lay inside. No longer a domestic chamber piece about civic duty, Inspector Calls was played for visceral bravura, allowing Priestley his full weight both as a leftist agitator and theatrical renegade. Working with an extraordinary set by Ian MacNeil, Daldry turned the play inside out (often literally), placing the Birlings drawing room in a jewel box perched near the rear of the stage, while a charred, war-ravaged landscape occupied the front. The result was to cast Daldry immediately as a directorial subversive, which is no bad thing for an adventuresome cutting-edge theatre to have at its helm. .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .postImageUrl , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:hover , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:visited , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:active { border:0!important; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:active , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: American Theatre' marks 10th year EssayAlthough Daldry hasnt directed at the Court since his appointment (excepting a reading of Canadian writer Brad Frasers Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love), his influence can be felt in the choice of repertoire. While most Court shows are chosen by committee, its not difficult to tell which selection bears which artistic directors imprint. While Six Degrees might have materialized at the Court anyway, it probably wouldnt have arrived so speedilyand with the name of director Phyllida Lloyd, a Daldry chum, attached to itwithout Daldrys appointment. German dramatist Klaus Pohls Karate Billy Comes Home, seen in the Cour ts Theatre Upstairs studio space in April, was originally meant for the Gate until Daldry, and it, shifted homes. CONVERSELY, APRIL DE ANGELISS spiky but problematic Hush, seen on the main stage in August, was classic Stafford-Clark farea vaguely left-of-center lament for lost idealism written by a woman who had graduated from the 70-seat studio to the 397-seat mainstage. The Courtss similarly pungent but underwritten current entry, John Byrnes Colquhoun and Macbryde, about two London-based Scottish artists and lovers, represents a longstanding commission from a writer-designer whose most celebrated work, The Slab Boys Trilogy, began at the Court in 1978. Next years principal commissionsfrom Martin Crimp and Martin Sadofski, among othersare from writers with whom Stafford-Clark has sustained a relationship, a list which includes significantly more women (Wertenbaker, Clare McIntyre, the immensely gifted Winsome Pinnock) than are ever seen at the RSC or the National. Indeed, if Daldry has any catching up to do, its not in the field of directorial legerdemain but in forging ties with working write rs. What, then, is the Courts agenda? Undoubtedly to do the highest quality new work around, a task that may be more daunting than ever as competition for top-rank work mounts. Already, the Court has lost such writers as David Storey (In Celebration), Jim Cartwright (Road) and Alan Bennett (Kafkas Dick) to the National, where it is rumored that longtime Court devotee Caryl Churchills next play, The Striker, may end up as well. Under Richard Eyres guidance, the National is as hot right now as its possible to get, and its no secret that Six Degrees would have opened there also if Eyre had been fonder of the play. (As it was, the Theatre of Comedy, owners of the British rights, brought Guares play to the Court.) Elsewhere, the Almeida and the newly opened Donmar Warehouse offer significant competition, not to mention fringe houses like the Bush, Hampstead, and, yes, the Gate. ON THE CLASSIC FRONT, the Court has an equally free (if competitive) rein, and its been heartening to watch the theatres programming establish certain modern plays as outright classics. Last years revival of Churchills Top Girls, directed by Stafford-Clark, reasserted the timelessness and scope of a play originally seen as a product of its age, the early years of Margaret Thatchers 1980s. (Lesley Sharps delivery of the final word, frightening, was indeed that.) This winter, the Court mounted Brian Friels 1979 Faith Healer, directed by Joe Dowling, in a shattering evening that gave this difficult playa sequence of four monologues left to the audience to piece togetherits due. In January, Stafford-Clark will make a rare foray into Shakespeare to direct Tom Wilkinson, his onetime T.S. Eliot in Tom and Viv, in King Lear. It wasnt long ago that some thought Stafford-Clark to be exhibiting a Lear-like folly as he clung to a theatre from which it was perhaps best to move on. But he, like his audiences, knows that when a play works at the Court, theres nothing like it. Stafford-Clark may be tenacious; he and Daldrys greatest link is their recognizable ambition. But when it comes to acknowledging a good thing on your doorstep, he is, as Lear might have said, no fool.