“My plan for how the Bard could rule TV.”
No, it’s not my plan – it’s Michael Billington’s plan. Normally I wouldn’t link to a random review of a random production that I had no chance of seeing, but this article is different. Here, the author (Mr. Billington) goes off on the tangent of how exactly to position Shakespeare for the wider television audience:
This suggests there is huge potential for making Shakespeare available to a wider audience. You can, of course, take cameras in to a live performance and show the results on big screens. It has already happened with the National’s All’s Well That Ends Well and Hamlet, and the same technique will be be used for the Donmar’s King Lear on 3 February. I suspect Lear will look sensational in the cinema, since Michael Grandage’s chamber production is based on intimate pyschological detail.
But there is surely also room for rethinking stage Shakepeare for TV. If I were a BBC boss, I’d get Goold to adapt his current Romeo and Juliet for the box. It’s the most exciting version of the play I’ve seen in 50 years, and with its key image of fire blazing on the Veronese streets and in the loins of its young lovers, it could set the screen ablaze.
The article is small, but it is part of the Guardian. So if you like the idea, go comment over there and maybe get the idea some attention!
You do have a chance of seeing this production. The RSC is bringing R and J to Lincoln Center, along with 4 others, in summer 2011. I already have my tickets.