A STUDYGUIDE by Marguerite O'hara
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www.inthecompanyofactors.com A STUDYGUIDE by MARGuERITE O’HARA www.metromagazine.com.au www.theeducationshop.com.au IN THE COMPANY OF ACTORS From a rehearsal room in Sydney, through to opening night in New York, a company of actors reveals the magic and struggle of creating theatre. Introduction In the Company of Actors is a documentary featuring an ensemble of Australia’s finest actors, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Anthony Weigh, Justine Clarke, Aden Young, Julie Hamilton and Annie Byron, as they prepare to perform the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Hedda Gabler at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. The film follows the rehearsal process over a period of five weeks as the cast and crew prepare for opening night in New York. The film runs for seventy-five minutes. Within the world of theatre, the rehearsal room is a sacred space, the private domain where boundaries are pushed, risks are taken, mistakes made, vulnerabilities exposed and, at its very best, magic created. It is not a place into which the public is often, if ever, invited. In raw and intimate detail the film takes the audience into the room to observe the actors immersed in the creative process. We discover that presenting a seemingly effortless performance is a complex, detailed, technical and exhaustive process, with the director and writer and their teams of artists and technicians working at high levels of intensity. As we enter their world, we feel and understand their deeply ingrained love of theatre and their passion for telling stories. The Director of the play, Robyn Nevin, is a perfectionist, paying great attention to every detail, every word is analysed and questioned, every move and gesture blocked until perfect. In a bold departure from tradition, Nevin SCREEN EDUCATION 2 has commissioned a new and IN THE COMPANY modern interpretation of the play from Australian writer Andrew wings. The house lights go down. Upton. How will a reputedly OF ACTORS The actors are ready. The Stage sophisticated and highly critical Manager calls her first direction: New York audience receive this adaptation in an Australian voice? ‘Sound cue one … And Cate … Go.’ While this film is about the process After three weeks in the sweltering involved in preparing for the IN THE COMPANY heat of the Sydney rehearsal Curriculum performing of Hedda Gabler, it will room, the cast and crew fly out to Relevance be of equal interest to students New York, to the bitter cold of a who are not familiar with this play, Brooklyn winter. The actors have In the Company of Actors is suitable as the focus of the film is on the OF ACTORS only two weeks left in which to for middle and senior secondary preparation for staging any play. hone their performances in new students of English, Literature, and unfamiliar surroundings, before Drama, Theatre Studies and My objective was to make a exposing their own version of Performance, Media and Film documentary that would demystify Henrik Ibsen’s classic. Studies, as well as students studying the process of creating theatre. Like acting and/or Theatre Studies at any production, theatre evolves over In the Company of Actors observes tertiary level. time, and my aim was to capture this the highly collaborative nature of gradual evolution on film from the theatre as the production gradually The documentary offers a initial rehearsal process through to takes shape. The production itself wonderfully accessible and opening night. becomes a major character in the engrossing insight into the nature film, as it is pushed and pulled from of a theatrical production, as well Ian Darling, all creative directions. as showing the audience something Director and Producer of of the complexity of staging a In the Company of Actors Opening night looms closer. The play like Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. About the play intensity increases. As their five- It explores the ways in which a minute call is announced over the play is different to other types of Hedda Gabler was written by dressing room speaker, the actors literature and how it only comes Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian scramble for their positions in the alive on the stage each time it is playwright, in 1890. It was first performed for an audience. staged in Munich, Germany that same year. It was not well received initially – the critics found nothing but an ‘enigmatic’ SCREEN EDUCATION 3 and ‘incomprehensible’ female character. There was ‘no suggestion of social reform, nothing edifying, no obvious symbolism’. The critics Ibsen had been writing since 1849, outdid each other in condemning and became well known after joining the Den Nationale Scene, the chief character. In the and boredom with her life, coupled a new national theatre where he newspaper Morgenbladet, Alfred with her own desire to live fully, worked for seven years. He went Sinding-Larsen wrote: ends in tragedy for both herself on to become Artistic Director of and her family and friends. She All in all, Hedda Gabler can hardly be Christiania’s Norwegian Theatre. both longs for life and is afraid of called anything but a sinister creature After leaving Norway on a grant it. Hedda has frequently been seen of the imagination, the author`s own in 1864 he lived abroad until his as a woman trapped in a society creation of a monster in the shape of return to Norway to reside in where marriage was the only way a woman, without any corresponding 1891. Most of the plays from his of achieving social recognition and model in the real world.1 later period of writing reflect financial security. As an only child social issues and concerns. The Since then, the play has been who seems to have been raised initial social controversy sparked performed in many languages in by her Father, Hedda does not slip by Hedda Gabler subsided in the different countries. It was first into the socially expected roles of mid 1900’s but it has continued to translated into English in 1891 by the time. be performed, initiating debate and Edmund Gosse. Today, when the interest in Hedda as a woman and The period in which the play is play is performed in English, the the social expectations of women set (the 1890s) was a time when most commonly used translation through the last century. middle-class and aristocratic women is the 1950 Penguin translation by generally did not work outside the Una Ellis-Fermor. It is an intense drama in four acts home, but had maids and servants about an unhappily married woman, to cook and clean the house. Hedda, who is unable to escape the Women were expected to play a conventional life she has chosen to subservient role to their husband’s create for herself. Her restlessness more outward looking life and career. Sexual abstinence was the only form of reliable birth control. SCREEN EDUCATION 4 During the course of the play IN THE COMPANY Hedda describes herself as ‘bored’ several times. Hedda is married to Jorgen Tesman in the play OF ACTORS and Gabler is her maiden name. About the title, Ibsen wrote that The Sydney (Currency Press, 2004) he explains his intention was to indicate that Theatre the process of ‘uncovering’ the Hedda as a personality is to be drama and updating the text and regarded as her father’s daughter, Company’s he explains why he has done this rather than her husband’s wife. production of Hedda during the documentary. Gabler Many famous actors have played The emphasis in the original is she’s Hedda, including Ingrid Bergman, In 2004, the Sydney Theatre petrified of scandal which just doesn’t Diana Rigg, Isabelle Huppert, Company staged Hedda Gabler in hold that much water anymore. And Glenda Jackson, Fiona Shaw, the Wharf 1 theatre in Sydney. The you can set the play back in the time Maggie Smith and Judy Davis. Like production was invited to perform that it’s set, as Robyn did, but if the Blanchett, many of these actresses eighteen months later at the audience aren’t aware of how dire are as well known for their screen Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) her situation is, then it’s just a woman performances as their stage roles. in New York. This documentary playing games with other people. follows the original cast and crew The play is sometimes performed during the five weeks of rehearsal Andrew Upton, in versions where the place, and restaging of Hedda Gabler in Writer and Adaptor period and setting are updated to 2006. emphasise more contemporary The website http://www. concerns about women’s lack of The production shown in this film inthecompanyofactors.com choices and opportunities for self- is set in the period in which it was contains the original study guide for expression. written, though Andrew Upton the play with further information has adapted the text from a literal about the text and adaptation. See http://www.ibsen.net for a translation of the original work. continuing listing of where the play In his introduction to his script is being performed around the world. SCREEN EDUCATION 5 Student Activities: Activity 1 Pre-viewing discussion Lower to Middle Secondary 1. What is a documentary? 2. In small groups, discuss: how is a play a different kind of text to a novel, a short story or poem. How is a play different to a film? Students should be encouraged to think about form, structure, the nature of an audience and the concepts of transformation of text. Use examples relevant to students. For example younger students may be familiar with the Harry Potter books and have seen their film equivalents.