Reviews for Talking to the Audience: Shakespeare, Performance, Self

The average rating for Talking to the Audience: Shakespeare, Performance, Self based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-06-16 00:00:00 Adrian Yoshiyama Bridget Escolme makes a good case for a metatheatrical approach to Shakespeare, where performers connect with spectators and remind them that the play is a performance that involves them all. Accounts of productions mostly in 1999-2000 Illustrate both the more naturalistic, character-based approach that has prevailed on modern stages and the more experimental one that she advocates. For example, while the Almeida's Richard II with Ralph Fiennes allowed the audience to maintain a passive distance from the action, the RSC's production with Samuel West foregrounded his acting and drew spectators in. Similarly, she found Mark Rylance's 2000 Hamlet at the reconstructed Globe more compelling than some more psychological Hamlets, though she felt that the production suffered from his emotional withdrawal in Act 5. For her, the danse macabre jig brought the emotional connection back--for me too. The last chapter's account of an Italian company takes the approach too far, but the book as a whole is a useful contribution to performance study.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-19 00:00:00 Christopher Williams Boal, a man who truly understands the balance between artistry and education, provides an excellent set of instructive methods for theatre practitioners, or indeed, any one interested in using theatre to help colleagues, friends or patients, access difficult elements within their own natures. While I can't speak to this book's validity as a text for artistic therapy, I can say that reading this book sparked such a desire to teach and see these exercises in practice, that it was all I could do not to walk up to random people on side walks and say: "excuse me, do you feel like playing a little game called 'Analogy'?" But then I remembered that such educator related neuroses probably would not be looked upon favorably by those who renew my teaching license. Still, the strength of Boal lies in his gentle, considerate guidance. The same manners he used in running his own workshops are on display in the text here. He doesn't mandate obedience to the forms, but rather offers assistance. Any teacher who hopes to help students on their way to greater artistry could benefit from a review of Boal's methods.