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Perhaps Dulux could come up with a chart?
(13 posts) (9 voices)
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Arghhhhhh! This debate drives me nuts. Casting should be about the best actor (regardless of what they look like, ethnicity, gender, disability, etc). Only that way will marginalized groups and disenfranchised performers get to play decent roles.
We should be arguing for more black Hamlets, not saying the black actor only gets to play third servant from the left because it looks accurate.
*bangs head on table*
(P.S. I've trained many non-white/male actors over the years - some of whom are performing/directing at the RSC right now. None of them would have got ahead, if they had meekly accepted the roles they were offered.)
(P.P.S. Audiences don't care. Within 15 seconds of a female King Lear being on stage, an audience will happily suspend its disbelief)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Almost completely agree. Saw Maxine Peake playing Hamlet - best version I've seen
However, context can be important - I can't quite imagine Su Pollard playing the lead in a biopic of Martin Luther King
Or a stickleback playing the title role in a remake of "Jaws", for that matter
Posted 1 year ago # -
We'll be having unidexters playing Tarzan next ...
Seriously, Mrs D once cast a white Mary and a black Joseph in a school nativity play. Apart from a couple of tuts from parents who thought their little treasure shouldn't have been a sheep, no-one minded in the least.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Audiences don't care. Within 15 seconds of a female King Lear being on stage, an audience will happily suspend its disbelief
Fair enough; in Shakespeare's own time, all parts (including the female roles - Juliet, Lady MacBeth, Ophelia, Cleopatra etc.) were played by male actors.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thanks for the reminder, MD
Pete & Dud:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty68LPKRQQQ
PS - Titus, I think that was it was illegal for women to act at the time, rather than a choice
Posted 1 year ago #
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