Complete devotion

A beautiful friend of mine said to me recently while we were lazily discussing a comrade’s latest directorial offering, that he didn’t see any reason, any value whatsoever in reproducing a great historical piece of writing, as written. He was completely devoted to the idea of adaptation and in the forward theatrical thinking of post-dramatisation and the deconstructionism of classicism.

Image (above) by Phil Maxwell

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I, on the other hand suggested to him, that nothing gave me greater joy than to experience great writing from previous centuries delivered as though it was fresh and seen for the first time; to indulge in the immediacy and if well-executed, the unfaded delicacies of the writer’s craft and wit.

Pictured above: The original stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando (far right). 1947.

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To unravel the secrets of the ‘Great Plays’, for me, as Director, is an artistic turn on. To learn through practice and research the intricacies of language – its rhythms and power. The skillful nature of birthing characters driven by turbulent passions, and plot and story woven through action and reaction. All intentional, all deliberate, all delivered, for us, as theatre directors, actors and audiences alike to devour and find our own reflection within the play’s refined construct.

Above: A Streetcar Named Desire. 1947. Starring (although not all pictured) Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden.

— Peta Hanrahan