Maybe it is too soon, but
like
In a weird (magical, mysterious?)
coincidence, Alice, I spent a chunk
of the weekend thinking about scenes, too, and many of the ones I thought of
also had a reunion/recognition/recovery kind of theme. The only hesitation I have about the
scenes from the romances (like the end of Winter's Tale or the Thaisa return in
Pericles--both of which I cannot watch without serious sobbing) is that so much
of the emotion derives from what has gone before. It's the sense of GRACE that always
kills me, the sense that it might have, was really likely to have been,
otherwise--a near-tragedy magically averted. In the big picture, you know?
Still, I love those scenes. I'd say that the reunion of Pericles
and Marina might be better than the reappearance of Thaisa, because we have
a good build-up WITHIN the scene and Pericles' slow awakening to what is directly
before him is dramatic in and of itself. In comedy, we could find a
parallel in the end of Twelfth Night or the end of Comedy of Errors.
I always want more comedy,
rather than less. One scene I love
and which is all-too-appropriate for us ancianos is the conversation between
Justice Shallow and Justice Silence in III.2 of Henry IV, Part I. Reminiscing about their youths and
absent friends. It is so, so right
for us. It's the scene I'd most
like to see on the menu.
The Pageant of the Nine
Worthies in Love's Labours Lost would give us a great
opportunity to be very, very silly.
See V.2. Hilarious costumes
opportunity. Doc must be one of the
Worthies.
We could consider also
scenes in which the age of the characters could be turned to our
advantage (though there's someone directing an R & J right now, even as
I write, that's set in a nursing home--I'm not making this up--in general I'd be
shy of giving young, impetuous lovers a go at this stage of my
decrepitude). Beatrice and
Benedick. A younger man to play
Hamlet to an older Gertrude. Or Volumnia and Coriolanus. The old Countess in
All's Well. The beautiful speech
about the ship's boy in Henry IV, part 2 (III.1). v None of these depends on
youth and beauty.
You mention Lear and
Cordelia's reunion. Fabulous
scene. I once saw a group of RSC
actors do the Pyramus and Thisbe scene from MND and segue from that straight
into 'Howl, howl, howl', transforming P and T into L and C. It knocked me out.
One of the things I love
about doing scenes is the chance to juxtapose them, creating beautiful or
surprising or shocking transitions from one to another.
If we go beyond Shakespeare,
surely we should do the HANDBAG scene in The Importance of Being
Earnest.
What else, what else, what
else? I can't wait to hear from
everybody.