Ancient Enemies
There is really only one subject at the moment — how near are we to pre-pandemic life? We have thought we were at this point several times, and “slipped back”. Well, we’ve had our hair cut now. The papers assume that what we think of as normality is freedom to jump on a plane. I feel old.
Actually, sometimes I feel young. John Humphrys suggested in his column that in the ’60s everyone had memories of the Second World War. He is very little older than me, who was as I am always telling people, born between VE Day and VJ Day, i.e. after Hitler’s death, with the War fighting its last phase a long way away. Perhaps that couple of years’ age difference is the point. In the ’60s — and earlier — I was bemused by the idea that the War was only just over. To me it was ancient history. I was a young fool, in that and so many ways.
I also rather disgree with John Humphrys, who writes good opinion columns, that we identified post-War West Germany with the Third Reich. Because the new Enemy was across the Iron Curtain, and because of German partition I think there was a tendency to see West Germany as a victim nation, not so much now a defeated aggressor. I’m probably wrong again, and it varied with individuals. A pal of my Father’s, who was Jewish, pulled out of a visit to Germany because he couldn’t face it — and that was much nearer the end of the century. Oddly it was also John Humphrys in the chair of ‘Mastermind’ at the weekend when a young ‘celebrity’ contestant couldn’t think what VJ Day stood for and had to be almost fed the answer. Yesterday’s enemies.
What do I see as normal? Well, theatre-going for one thing, naturally. I have an itch to at least find out more about the production of “Hamlet” which is announced as coming to Windsor, with Ian McKellen who is over eighty as the young Dane. Well, a hundred years ago and before that, it was comparatively usual for a star actor to play leading parts regardless of realistic suitability. And we have colour-blind and gender-blind casting with some very interesting results. As I see Francesca Annis is going to be the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father, this one seems to employ everything-blind casting. A friend of mine — on the phone, naturally — said “Well, we’ve had Patrick Stewart as Macbeth.” Part of me thinks that a mature warrior is a different matter from an elderly student, sidelined Prince, romantic suitor and all the various things Hamlet is. But I’d love to see it, to get my own reaction. Judi Dench as Titania comparatively recently was fine, played as a sort of Gloriana, that is: the Fairy Queen was like an idealised Elizabeth the First. And in Mark Rylance’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing”, the unusually advanced ages of James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave as the reluctant lovers was almost the least odd thing about the show. Rylance is a strange, but fascinating figure.
I did just wonder about the picture of Sir Ian in the publicity for “Hamlet”. He is wearing dark glasses. In how many ways is this to be what dear Ken McClellan always called a ‘freak production’? I have rashly given my own opinion that it doesn’t matter how and where you set “Hamlet” or “Lear”; the play will come through. I hope I am right. I am more broadminded and open to innovation than Ken, who nevertheless had quite an influence on my ideas of producing Shakespeare. My feeling is that the acting and the dramatic strength of the piece will survive what I agree with Ken can be very unhelpful and perverse presentation. A radio “Julius Caesar” was heavily geared to identifying Caesar with Mussolini (Second World War again). Good acting made me completely forget this ‘concept’ until I was suddenly startled by the rebel generals announcing their arrival to Brutus and Cassius by clanging on the outside of what in a conventional production would have been a tent. Characterisation had left concept behind, for me.
And what Ken objected to is nothing new. When I was fourteen I listened selectively to a radio production of “Troilus and Cressida”. Not having had a classical education, I was ready to get to grips with the heroes of the Trojan War on my own account. What I was not ready for was what has since become known as directorial “re-imagining”. The same production was re-aired when I was seventeen, and I was astonished and amused to discover that it was performed in the accents of the American Civil War. I think the Trojans were the South, and the Greeks the North. As a younger teenager, this secondary element of interpretation had passed completely over my head.
