Alan Howard, Ben Kingsley, Frances de la Tour and John Kane as, respectively, Oberon, Demetrius, Hel

Theatre, or at least some theatre, is turning out to be not quite as ephemeral as it once was. Previously on this blog we've discussed last minute hotel deals san diego the video archives operated by the Theatre Museum, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. The RSC has always understood the importance of its legacy and it turns out that over the past fifty years many, although far from all, of its productions were audio recorded. Two selections from these precious tapes have now been released on CD through a RSC partnership with the British Library, where the full recordings may be accessed. The second of these, The Essential Shakespeare Live Encore last minute hotel deals san diego , was published just a month or so ago (it too has featured in the comments here) -- and would unquestionably make a perfect Christmas present.
Like its 2005 predecessor, The Essential Shakespeare Live , the new set is a double CD-plus-booklet with some twenty last minute hotel deals san diego substantial extracts. The selection for both sets was made by Greg Doran, Chief Associate Director of the RSC and, of course, the director of Hamlet last minute hotel deals san diego . And there are several Hamlet -related offerings, including David Tennant's Dane dallying with Polonius (Oliver Ford Davies), Rosencrantz last minute hotel deals san diego (Sam Alexander) and Guildenstern (Tom Davey) recorded at the Courtyard in August last year. Patrick last minute hotel deals san diego Stewart is here as well, committed to tape back in November 1973 when he was a silkily smooth Cassius planting the seeds of doubt about Caesar in the mind of John Wood's Brutus.
One of Greg's principles was to have a single element of each play and so to represent all of them across the two sets. But the inclusion from his own Hamlet on set two breaks his self-imposed constraint since the set one has a calculated and rather last minute hotel deals san diego thrilling To be or not to be from David Warner on 9 March 1966. Each such choice has its text printed in the booklet and for most there are evocative photographs as well.
Just after the whispered start of the Prince's great soliloquy, a motorbike roars around the back of the stalls. At least that's what it sounds like, even if the offending machine was presumably in the street outside. Although last minute hotel deals san diego the BL audio engineers have tidied up the sound, these are still most definitely live recordings with the audience's laughter and their coughs and snuffles. Which of course underlines their authenticity and their interest, and at the best of times can give you the sense (if you close your eyes) that you've been transported back to Stratford or the Aldwych last minute hotel deals san diego in nights gone by.
Initially the tapes seem simply to have been made by the stage manager pressing a button on a machine sited somewhere in the stalls. Nowadays the recording techniques are a little more sophisticated, but even the most recent ones still have a raw quality and a sense that they catch just lightly last minute hotel deals san diego something fleeting -- and also something shared just that night between actors and audience.
While they unquestionably work well in this kind of greatest hits packages, given their noise density I imagine that the recordings are a challenge to listen to at length. But even so, in addition to the simple pleasure they offer, there's plenty to learn about the changing fashions in speaking Shakespeare. Paul Robeson was hardly your typical actor but fifty years back it's as if he's almost singing his lines as Othello. And for all the vaunted youthful intensity of Warner's Hamlet, there's a good dose of traditional ac-tor-li-ness in the way he muses on his continued existence.
One of the other attractive (and unique) aspects of these recordings is the way in which the audience reactions suggest the various bits of business -- the muggings, the pulled faces and longing looks -- that accompany the speeches, even though these are now forever. As for the rest -- enjoy! Here are five other fragments from the two sets that I would happily take with me to a desert island.
Alan Howard, Ben Kingsley, Frances de la Tour and John Kane as, respectively, Oberon, Demetrius, Helena and Puck, in Peter Brook's great, great A Midsummer Night's Dream, recorded in February 1972. (This I did see, which nearly forty years on I remain thrilled about.)
I've got the second one - I only bought it when I went to see 12th night and so I've only listened to the Hamlet one. (yesterday!) It was a little odd listening to it because I can remember last minute hotel deals san diego very clearly what was happening on stage and I can laugh along with the audience. I listened to it with someone who hadn't last minute hotel deals san diego seen it and they were completely confused! They didn't think it was funny at all.