{"id":20184,"date":"2012-06-29T09:31:11","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T16:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=20184"},"modified":"2012-07-02T21:48:33","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T04:48:33","slug":"behind-the-scenes-at-the-cameri-theatre-shakespeares-richard-ii-richard-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=20184","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Scenes at the Cameri Theatre: Shakespeare’s Richard II & Richard III"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does your heart beat in iambic pentameter? The Cameri Theatre<\/a> is all set to premiere Shakespeare\u2019s Richard II<\/em> and Richard III<\/em>, both directed by Arthur Kogan, and featuring the same cast. The ambitious project was presented in a press meeting that took place in the rehearsal studio at the Cameri on Wednesday, June 27th, with a glimpse of select scenes and a lively discussion about the plays with the theatre\u2019s artistic director Omri Nitzan, Arthur Kogan and the cast.<\/p>\n

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Itay Tiran as Richard II\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working with a single cast and the same set, Kogan emphasizes the thematic link between these two history plays, raising questions of leadership, legitimacy and use of authority, loyalty and betrayal. Yet each play stands alone and they need not be seen in sequence.\u00a0 Richard II<\/em>, written in 1595, takes a look at the fall of King Richard II of England (1377\u20131399) whose crown is usurped by a man who is perhaps more fit to lead, Bolingbrook (Gil Frank), with Itay Tiran playing the unfortunate king in this poetic tragedy. Richard III<\/em>, written around 1592, deals with an entirely different sort of Richard, also played by Itay Tiran, the physically and morally impaired schemer who lies, connives and conspires his way to the throne, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake.<\/p>\n

Among the scenes presented in the preview, was Act III, scene ii from Richard II<\/em>, with one of my favorite speeches, revealing Richard in all his poetic, ineffectual glory:
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Shakespeare was such a master poet that any non-English language production of his plays invites the question: will it work?\u00a0 As Itay Tiran demonstrated in the scene above, it can and it will work in Hebrew. This and other questions generated interesting conversations at the press meeting, with Omri Nitzan presenting the claim that birth contractions if amplified, would reveal themselves as iambic pentameter, Shakespeare\u2019s meter of choice, so that the human pulse is attuned to Shakespeare from birth, in any language.<\/p>\n

Itay Tiran pointed out that the average British youth whose native language is English, does not understand much of Shakespeare\u2019s text, taking his argument further, claimed that it is likely that many audience members in Shakespeare\u2019s own time did not understand all that was said onstage, for the simple reason that Shakespeare invented words and phrases, such as \u2018breaking the ice,\u2019 or \u2018knock, knock, who\u2019s there.\u2019 For Tiran, one of the amazing things about Shakespeare, beyond the poetry, is that one does not need to understand every word in order to identify with what is happening onstage, to be swept away by an experience that transcends reality, a poetic experience leading to catharsis.<\/p>\n

Tiran takes on quite a challenge with these dual roles, yet said that working on these two very different characters, the contrast between the two makes each a kind of negative image of the other, that in some ways working on one role helped him create the other by pulling the elements of the character in the opposite direction. Tiran said, \u201cRichard II has a capacity for innocence, a lack of comprehension from one moment to the next, of the many blows that befall him one after another, utterly blind to his fate\u2026 Richard the III is a manipulative creature who knows himself inside and out, controls every secret of political scheming, and when you have such polar opposites, it\u2019s very easy to know where you are, because you have the opposite coordinate,\u201d concluding that the \u201cschizophrenia\u201d of working on two roles at once was actually helpful in this case.<\/p>\n

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Scene from Richard II\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The question of power and leadership in relation to ethics and ability is central to both plays, as neither Richard meets a particularly felicitous outcome, and generated in turn, an avid discussion. Director Arthur Kogan said, \u201cOnce you have tasted power, which is among the passions \u2013 food, sex, power, government \u2013 a person can\u2019t give it up. There is no way back, it\u2019s one way. You can see it in our politicians, by \u2018our\u2019 I mean in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dudu Niv (York in Richard II<\/em>, and Buckingham in Richard III<\/em>) said, \u201cIn the context of talking about power, we too, not just political leaders, but for any person, it\u2019s hard to conclude well or alive in this lifetime… the question is whether during<\/em> our lifetime we are more or less \u2018human,\u2019 which path should we choose, and what intention underlies that choice of direction and I think that the two paths that we see in these two rulers \u2013 Richard II and Richard III \u2013 are completely different, with different intentions and different concept of what it means to be human and how one should behave.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bolingbrook (Gil Frank) and York (Dudu Niv) – Richard II\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere is another tragedy that we have not yet mentioned,\u201d added Tiran, \u201cthe tragedy of Gil Frank (Bolingbrook) in Richard II, a ruler with good qualities, a moral ruler, who is thrust into a position of leadership in an illegal manner, but is a good man and a worthy king. An injustice has been done to him, the day of his crowning is a tragedy\u2026 there is something that Shakespeare deals with in both plays, this randomness, this unbearable lightness, that an idiot can sit on the throne, which often happens, and that people who are worthy are cast out. This unbearable lightness, this frivolity, where nothing is clear and the wheel of fortune turns and one day you\u2019re on top and the wheel turns and the crown falls with you, and it can happen at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of the close relationship between power and corruption, Omri Nitzan spoke of the way in which Richard III keeps extending the boundaries of morality, saying, \u201cHe can start by killing a man, then killing his own brother, then killing two young boys who are also members of his family, and you see that one of the things that Shakespeare does is document the interior, sometimes all the information we receive about a person gives us only an external image, but he photographs the internal organs and he identifies an organ with which surgeons are unacquainted, and that is the conscience. He relates to the conscience, to morality, to that border that exists or does not exist, that may be far from you, the moral borderline and with Richard it\u2019s very clear how that line is distorted\u2026and that is an essential existential question in every system of rule. Just open the newspaper, it\u2019s far more shallow\u2026but the thoughts arise\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kogan, this project has been many years in the making; he first contemplated the project over a decade ago, along with the late Gary Bilu, then Director of the Beit Zvi School of the Performing Arts. Although Kogan did direct both Richard II<\/em> at Hasifriya Theatre in 2003, and Richard III<\/em> in 2007, it is only with this production that the dream will be realized.<\/p>\n

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Richard III (Itay Tiran) woos Lady Ann (Ruti Asarsai)\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking at the two plays, Gil Alon (Bushy\/Assistant gardener in Richard II<\/em>, and Sir William Catesby in Richard III<\/em>) said, \u201cThese two plays, so different from one another, one is so dramatic with a lot of blood on the stage and the other is so poetic, together they present a whole picture. That is, there is no middle ground; there are only the two extremes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey form one large essay on government and leaders,\u201d continued Itay Tiran, \u201cthe relationship between a ruler and his people, the ruler\u2019s relationship with himself, Richard III can be seen as representing the effects of government, we see the action \u2013 how Richard hires a killer, how he uses the lobbyist Lord Buckingham to bring the Mayor and Church leaders to crown him, murders the two brothers \u2013 we see the action, how all this takes place. In Richard II we see a different process, like an X-ray or rather, a CT scan that delves far deeper into what takes place inside the mind of the ruler, what are his feelings, what are his psychological processes, and it\u2019s a far more abstract play. Together, they create a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eli Gornstein (Percy, Earl of Northumberland in Richard II<\/em>, and Sir James Tyrrell\u00a0 in Richard III<\/em>) commented that he does not necessarily view Richard III as a \u2018bad\u2019 person and Richard II as a \u2018good\u2019 one, \u201che thinks he\u2019s the messiah, and he has a certain psychopathology because he thinks that God has blessed him, and this brings about suffering for the people around him. So there isn\u2019t really \u2018good\u2019 or \u2018bad\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this, Kogan added his own qualification, \u201cI have yet to find \u2018good people\u2019 in Shakespeare. Not a single character, I haven\u2019t found one \u2018good\u2019 character in all Shakespeare\u2019s works. He doesn\u2019t write about \u2018good\u2019 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itay Tiran summed up the discussion, saying, \u201cHe writes about human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

For information on dates, times and tickets, consult the Cameri Theatre website<\/a>, or call: 03-6060960.<\/p>\n

A selection from the conversation in Hebrew:
\n<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does your heart beat in iambic pentameter? The Cameri Theatre is all set to premiere Shakespeare\u2019s Richard II and Richard III, both directed by Arthur Kogan, and featuring the same cast. The ambitious project was presented in a press meeting that took place in the rehearsal studio at the Cameri on Wednesday, June 27th, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}