Good King Charles Study Guide New.Pub
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days By Bernard Shaw ONNECTIONS Shaw Festival CStudy Guide The Shaw Story 2 The Players 3 The Story 4 The Playwright 5 Who’s Who 6-7 Director’s Notes 8 Designer’s Notes 9-10 Production History 11 World of the Play 12-16 Did You Know? 17 Say What? 18 Sources 19 Activities 20-32 THE SHAW STORY MANDATE The Shaw Festival is the only theatre in the world which exclusively focuses on plays by Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries, including plays written during, or about the period of Shaw’s lifetime (1856 – 1950). The Shaw Festival’s mandate also includes: • Uncovered Gems – digging up undiscovered theatrical treasures, or plays which were considered major works when they were written but which have since been unjustly neglected • American Classics – we continue to celebrate the best of American theatre • Musicals – musical treats either from, or set during the period of our mandate • Canadian Work – to allow us to hear and promote our own stories, and our own WHAT MAKES points of view about the mandate period. SHAW SPECIAL MEET THE COMPANY — OUR ENSEMBLE • Our Actors: All Shaw performers contribute to the sense of ensemble, much like the players in an orchestra. Often, smaller parts are played by actors who are leading performers in their own right, but in our “orchestra,” they support the central action helping to create a density of experiences that are both subtle and informative. • Our Designers: Every production that graces the Shaw Festival stages is built “from scratch,” from an original design. Professional designers lead teams who collaborate with each production’s director to create set, costumes, and lighting designs that complement the play’s text. • Our Music: Music played an important role in Bernard Shaw’s life – in fact, he wrote music criticism for several years under the pseudonym Corno di Bassetto. Just as the reach of musical theatre is vast and manifold, so is The Shaw’s approach - present- ing Brecht and Weill, Rodgers and Hart, and everything in between. • Our Play Development: The goals of Shaw’s Play Development Program include: 1) to Festival Theatre develop new adaptations and translations that will tell classic stories in a contempo- rary way; 2) to produce new plays alongside those of Shaw and his contemporaries. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW As Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell says, “We all know the man can talk, but Bernard Shaw is also one of the most prescient, provocative, sparklingly articulate writers in the English language. His words and ideas, expressed in plays that are well-known, such as this season’s The Devil’s Disciple, or in plays that are not so familiar but no less Court House Theatre interesting, have extraordinary relevance today. It is a joy to draw attention to those ideas and bring them to life on our stages.” OUR THEATRES The Shaw Festival presents plays in three distinctive theatres. The Festival Theatre with 869 seats is The Shaw’s flagship theatre; the historic Court House where The Shaw first began performing seats 327; and the Royal George Theatre, modeled after an Edwardian opera house, holds 328. THE SHAW’S COAT OF ARMS In 1987, on the occasion of our 25th Anniversary, the Shaw Festival became the second theatre company in the world to be granted a Coat of Arms by the College of Heralds. A large painted sculpture of our Coat of Arms adorns the lobby of the Festival Theatre. Royal George Theatre ONNECTIONS 2 ShawC Festival Study Guide ONNECTIONS CStudy Guide THE PLAYERS A practical, hands-on James, Duke of York ANDREW BUNKER resource for the King Charles II BENEDICT CAMPBELL classroom which Louise de Kéouaille, LISA CODRINGTON contains background Duchess of Portsmouth information for the play, suggested Nell Gwynn NICOLA CORREIA-DAMUDE themes for discus- Mrs Basham MARY HANEY sion, and Ontario Barbara Villiers, CLAIRE JULLIEN curriculum-based Duchess of Cleveland activities. Designed by educators and Sally ESTHER MALONEY theatre profession- Queen Catherine of Braganza LAURIE PATON als, the activities and George Fox RIC REID themes for discussion Isaac Newton GRAEME SOMERVILLE are organized in modules that can be Godfrey Kneller KEN JAMES STEWART used independently or interdependently according to the class level and time availability. In Good King Charles’s Golden Days is recom- mended for students THE ARTISTIC TEAM in grade 9 and higher. Director EDA HOLMES This guide was Set Designer CAMELLIA KOO written and compiled Costume Designer MICHAEL GIANFRANCESCO by Suzanne Merriam and Amanda Tripp. Lighting Designer BONNIE BEECHER Additional materials were provided by Joanna Falck, Eda Holmes, Camellia THE STORY Koo, and Michael Gianfrancesco A philosopher, a religious leader, an artist, an actress and a King meet at Sir Cover: Julie Martell, Isaac Newton’s house. The set-up for a joke? No, it’s Shaw’s Restoration Claire Jullien, Lisa Codrington comedy, where everything from geometry to art to love potions are Photo by Shin Sugino debated and discussed by some of history’s leading figures. If only King Charles’s mistresses would stop interrupting! Previews April 17 Opens May 21 Closes October 9 ONNECTIONS 3 ShawC Festival Study Guide In Good King Charles’s Golden Days Such a lot of A True History That Never Happened interesting By Bernard Shaw people lived “then and he is T he play’s subtitle, A True History That Never Happened , gives us an insight into Shaw’s almost whimsical approach to this fascinating and humorous play. In throwing writing it, he took the opportunity to play the ‘what if’ game: what might have happened had several prominent men of history met at the height of their powers? them all in What if a leading scientist had a painter, a religious leader and a King to his house for together to a good discussion? And what if this discussion was, on occasion, interrupted by one sink or swim or several of the King’s mistresses? The result was In Good King Charles’s Golden Days - a witty and decidedly Shavian take on some great men (and women) of history. Charlotte” Shaw The men that gather in the play include the host for the gathering, the great philoso- (wife of Bernard pher and scientist Sir Isaac Newton. His guests are leading portrait painter Godfrey Shaw) Kneller, religious rebel and founder of the Quakers George Fox, King Charles II and ”Charles’s argumentative brother, James II. Between them they discuss almost every- thing: questions of leadership (all of them being leaders in his own field) along with arguments about art versus science versus religion. Even King Charles expresses his excitement in anticipation of the discussion: Charles: I confess to unbounded curiosity to hear what George Fox can have to say to Isaac Newton. It is not altogether an impertinent curiosity. My trade, which is a very unusual one, requires that I should know what Tom, Dick and Harry have to say to one another. I find you two gentlemen much more interesting and infinitely more important. And into this mix of great men, Shaw introduces a few great women - to “relieve the intellectual tension”. Nell Gwynn, the famous comic actress; Barbara Villiers, Duch- ess of Cleveland, one of Charles’ most notorious mistresses who had five of his ille- gitimate children and held great power in his court; Louise De Kerouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, a mistress from France who was known for maintaining her ‘baby face’ good looks throughout her life. They each come to Sir Isaac Newton’s house looking for Charles, and none is too happy to find the other there. However, they hold their own with the great men and bring their own insights to discussions of science, religion, art, and love. When the Duchess accuses Charles of having been unfaithful to her “a thousand times”, Newton calculates with absolute mathematical precision that King Charles would have to be almost three hundred years old for that to be true: “Figures cannot mock, because they cannot feel. That is their great quality and their great fault,” he tells her. As in last year’s hit Getting Married, they fall into both serious and comic debate about big topics–it’s another great discussion play that only Shaw could write. The Story ONNECTIONS 4 ShawC Festival Study Guide BERNARD SHAW An acclaimed dramatist, critic, and social reformer Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin where he grew up in an atmosphere of genteel poverty. He attended four schools and was tutored by a clerical uncle, but left his formal education behind him at the age of fifteen. He developed a wide knowledge of music, art, and literature under the influence of his mother, a singer and vocal music teacher, and as a result of his visits to the National Gallery of Ireland. In 1876 he moved to London, where he spent his afternoons in the British Museum and his evenings pursuing his informal education in the form of lectures and debates. Shaw declared himself a socialist in 1882 and joined the Fabian Society in 1884. He soon distinguished himself as a fluent and effective public speaker, as well as an incisive and irreverent critic of music, art, and drama. Shaw’s first play, Widowers’ Houses, was produced privately in 1892 for the members of the Independent Theatre Society. Shaw achieved his first commercial success with the American premiere of The Devil’s Disciple, the income from which enabled him to quit his job as a drama critic and to make his living solely as a playwright. In 1898 he married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, an Irish heiress whom he had met through his Fabian friends Beatrice and Sidney Webb.