Klarinet Archive - Posting 000327.txt from 2005/02

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] composer's intentions
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:47:51 -0500

dnleeson wrote:

> The text of a Shakespearean play is not casually alterable.

No, but it *is* idiomatic to make cuts and alterations to the text as
suits the context of the moment. Productions such as Peter Brook's
remarkable version of Hamlet of about 5 years back demonstrate quite
convincingly, in my view, that it is possible to considerably revise
Shakespeare and produce utterly remarkable theatre.

Of course, one might say "It's not what Shakespeare wrote". But since
it is remarkable theatre, does it matter, so long as what Shakespeare
wrote has not been burned?

I can't speak for Brook but my impression is that he approaches each
play as a voyage of discovery, looking to find something remarkable and
unique, something he has not seen before, and that depending on the
moment that may mean changing the text in some way. But of course,
because the aim is to produce something theatrically compelling, and
because he has a very good artistic sense of what is theatrical, it
usually comes off. Maybe in the hands of another person it wouldn't.

The point is that "intellectual property rights" are stupid things to
hold in the way of valid artistic exploration, especially when the
creator has been dead for a long time. If intellectual property rights
had been respected by Shakespeare he would never have written anything.
For certain it means that there will be stupid people doing stupid
things. But it also means there will be other people, like Brook,
taking us to places we have never been before.

We can do what we like with existing art. All that matters is that we
don't destroy the original and that what we create from it is
interesting in its own right.

This is especially true in theatre and live music where every
performance is a form of reinterpretation and re-creation.

-- Joe

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