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This production fused elements of commedia dell' arte and intense
physicality in an attempt to explore:
- the colonisation tendencies of an imperial elite in relation
to other classes and to outsiders
- the paralysis at the heart of a decadent, decaying aristocracy
- the subjugation of male-male bonding to the economic and political
requirements of male-female bonding.
It had long been our intention to explore this great play, drawn as
we were by the unanswered problem which opens it "In sooth I know
not why I am so sad." Over several weeks we eeked out possible answers
to this problem of Antonio's, seeing it as an expression of ennui
in a society too rich for its own good, and leading us to emphasise
the themes of subjugation and colonisation in the text. This approach
reaped rich rewards in our understanding of the play (seeing Portia,
for example, as a woman not only dominated by the will of a dead father
but excellently schooled in the same manipulative behaviour patterns
herself).
The production ran at the Crypt Arts Centre in Dublin Castle in November
1997 and played to capacity teenage and adult audiences. It was directed
by Peter Hussey, designed by Wilma Warner Ó Keeffe, with set by Hugh
Mc Ginley. Cast included: Michael Byrnes, Paul Smith, Kieran Galvin,
Conor Mahony, Shane Mc Grath, Kate Pierce, Pauline Clooney, David
Ó Sullivan, Anne Marie Ó Sullivan, Matthew Lalor, Anna Swords-Murphy,
Andrew Buchanan, Barry Mulrennan, and Antoinette Henderson-Banks.
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