Theatreguide.London
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The Theatreguide.London Review
In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic
forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted
by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others
by streaming new shows. And we take the opportunity to explore
other vintage productions preserved online. Even as things return
to normal we review the experience of watching live theatre
onscreen.
Oedipus
Rex
Stratford
Ontario Shakespeare Festival 1954 and YouTube January 2023
One of the Twentieth Century's most inventive and influential directors takes on arguably the single greatest work of drama ever. And the result is certainly remarkable.
In what way remarkable depends a lot on you. If you fall under the spell of Tyrone Guthrie's production of Oedipus Rex you may find it hypnotically absorbing and offering a more compelling sense of high tragedy than you've ever experienced.
If you don't you may find it a mix of confusing artificiality and gross overacting that will leave you alternately bored and giggling.
In either case it is worth having a look at, in this 1959 onstage filming of Guthrie's 1954 staging for the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival.
I won't insult you with a plot summary. If you don't know the story, it is laid out clearly in the opening scenes.
What is important is that director Guthrie was reaching for the sense of an almost religious experience the ancient Greeks would have had at the theatre. To this end he dressed his actors in ceremonial robes and larger-than-life masks that left only their mouths exposed. And he required a larger-than-life acting style as well.
Everyone recites rather than talking naturally, making speeches at each other in something between speaking and singing, with exaggerated and distorted verbal music. Vowels are elongated and consonants rolled.
As Oedipus Douglas Campbell employs an almost constant tremolo while switching repeatedly from James Earl Jones-level reverberating basso to running up and down the musical scale in a single sentence.
Meanwhile movements and gestures are large and stylized almost to the level of Kabuki, and the Chorus moves, writhes and grovels in a choreography of its own.
You can see how this could be off-putting, and I confess to finding some of it heavy going. And yet the meanings of the words always come through clearly, as do the passions being expressed.
There are moments of absolute communication and beauty, as in Jocasta's (Eleanor Stuart) silent pose of horror and grief at the moment that she figures out where things are going, and in the dignity Campbell gives Oedipus at the end just with his posture.
Even if you judge this experiment unsuccessful, it was unquestionably a necessary going-too-far that could guide others to find the boundary more precisely, and anyone interested in modern theatre history will spot the roots of later successful productions and performances (as, for example, the aforementioned James Earl Jones).
Give it ninety minutes of your attention. The experience may be wonderful and will certainly be educational.
(And a side point. You'll find YouTube listing this as 'William Shatner in Oedipus Rex.' Shatner is in fact one of the lesser members of the Chorus who you will not be able to pick out, though if you look fast you'll spot him as the one who hands Campbell his robes in the opening moments.)
Gerald
Berkowitz
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