Feste as Hieronimo/Revenge

There was only one actor multi-faceted and complex enough to play Heironimo, and that was Feste. This "sad clown" is able to reach down to the depths of raw despair and up to the heights of blood-thirsty mania within a moment. Oh yes, Feste was the only one with a dark and complex enough center to play Heironimo. You see, Feste sees the world as it is, and he knows what it means to struggle with disillusionment. Instead of entering an existential crisis, Feste stays detached and darkly bemused about the injustice of life, but he knows the dark side of human psychology very intimately. He is a wanderer and has nothing like a son to lose, but he says, in addition to his perverse sense of humour, this detachment is the only thing that has saved him from his own Hieronimo-like doubt and desperation.

You see, Feste is a fool- but a wise fool at that. Feste is a clown- but a sad clown at that. He is a man in opposition with himself, much like Hieronimo. Hieronimo is Knight-Marshal of Spain, and though he is in charge of Justice he can find none for his son. Feste can tap into this conflict and the madness it creates.

In addition, Feste is very circuitous in speech, and Heironimo is very circuitous is character- both hint at an absurdity of life. Feste himself, if he was more tied to the world that he examines, would be thrust into an existential crisis much like Heironimo.

In this way, however, Feste has a removed and omnipotent way about him that will work very well when he steps into the red-light and becomes the frame character of Revenge. During his audition, he was able to prove to me that he knows ways about this world that your average soldier or nobleman would shudder to think about. He has a way about him that is more knowing than those around him, much more able to accept the profane without blinking, much like Revenge.

Since rehearsals have started, and since they are cast in antagonistic roles, Barabas often challenges Feste to a battle of the wits, but Feste can out maneuver him every time. He just plays to Barabas's weakness; he will smile and bring up Barabas's desire for justice, or in other words, Barabas' want of revenge against Ferneze. Barabas is unable to find such an emotional hot-spot in Feste.

However, I know somewhere in the soul of this jester there is actually a vast ocean of world-worn wisdom. Wisdom that deep and dark enough to drown even the most balanced Knight-Marshal.

Corvino as Andrea/Balthazar

Corvino was another runner-up for Lorenzo. He is able to play such a deliciously vile and cruel character, that he was almost cast in our most villainous role. However, he is also very much a hot-head, and not as much of a schemer as Barabas, so I thought him perfect for Balthazar. I could definitely see Corvino assisting Barabas in his murderous plots, as Balthazar helps Lorenzo kill Horatio.

As I said before, Corvino has a wild temper. Balthazar and Andrea are also very volatile. So this was a great match. I wanted a character who did not think before he acted- this was Corvino.

Unfortunately, Rose is not getting along with Corvino at all, who keeps calling her a "whorish strumpet," and insisting that she "know her role" and threatening to "put her in her place."

Rose threatened to quit if Corvino didn't shape up, so rehearsal was put on hold while Corvino attended a three day seminar about sexual harassment at the local community college.

Corvino does not have the same range as Barabas or Feste, but he doesn't need to. I want him to play Andrea and Balthazar in a similar way. Balthazar is led on by Lorenzo as Andrea is led on by revenge. Neither Andrea nor Balthazar are/were actually in love with Bel-Imperia, it was more of lust for both of them. They are two sides of the same soldier. As Andrea gets more and more irate about the time it is taking for Revenge to take its course, he will become more and more like the passionate Balthazar.

Lacy as Horatio

Lacy has practice acting beneath his noble status, and so he really fits the part of Horatio who is put in stark economic contrast with Lorenzo as they both lay claim to Balthazar. In addition, Lacy is a remarkable romantic and the chemistry between him and Rose during emboldened flirtation in  Act II scene IV is amazing. They span the spectrum from innocent flirtation to heated innuendo and their connection is one that the audience will believe to be true love.

That is how I see Horatio, as the one true romantic in this play, and I would like the audience to see that his connection with Bel-Imperia is more true than the connection to which the ghost of Don Andrea still clings.

Lacy is also such a likable character, truly charismatic, and a pure romantic at heart. I think that he will play Horatio up to be the most liked character in the play, the audience will really fall for him, and it will be even more tragic when he dies in front of Bel-Imperia in Act II Scene V at the hands of Pedringano, Lorenzo, Balthazar, and Balthazar's manservant Serberine.

Rose as Bel-Imperia/Isabella

When Rose walked in I knew she was made to play Bel-Imperia. Originally, I had wanted Jane, whom I felt had an willful style that would really work for Bel-Imperia, who does not want to let her brother dictate her romantic life. Unfortunately Jane was on holiday.

Rose, too, had this spunk to her that set her apart from so many other actresses who are better fit to play Abigail in The Jew of Malta. 

However, what really attracted me to Rose was the monologue she did for the audition. It was all about the absurdity and inequity of arranged marriages. She really knew what she was talking about.  Rose knew from personal experience what it felt like to have a patriarchal society dictating whom she may or may not marry. In the case of Bel-Imperia, she desires not to marry prince Balthazar and instead wants to follow her heart and marry Horatio, who is below her station. Rose told me, post audition, that she had set her mind to marry above her station against her father's wishes- and did just that. Her distaste of patriarchy, her passion for free love, her strong will, free spirit, and her disinterest in strict class divisions all made her the perfect candidate for Bel-Imperia.

Since we will be doubling up on roles, Rose will also be playing Isabella.

She will also be playing the General.

Needless to say, I can already tell that I will have great problems keeping Rose and Lacy off one another- but it works to my advantage. Their natural chemistry comes off perfectly on stage and brings the romance between Horatio and Bel-Imperia alive with fireworks.

Barabas as Lorenzo

I have chosen to cast Barabas as Lorenzo. I needed a man who was familiar with political nobility, specifically the duplicity of nobility, and Barabas is this man. He himself is not nobility, nor involved in politics as he is a self-made businessman, but Barabas has lived comfortably in margins Malta and suffered under the hypocritical nature and vile schemes of political nobility. I didn't want to cast someone who might sympathise with Lorenzo, rather, I wanted someone who would detest what he stood for.

I told Barabas, "Play Lorenzo like you would play Ferneze." And it just clicked.

I think Barabas will highlight the villainous nature of our Machiavellian character, Lorenzo. He also has a great skill for speech, and Lorenzo uses his words to force others to do his dirty work. Most of all, though, he is a treacherous schemer that will stop at nothing to get what he believes he deserves.

There was a darkness to Barabas that he was able to tap into when auditioning for Lorenzo, I believe he was thinking about his gold. Barabas' own tragic tale of revenge had me thinking that he might make a good Hieronimo, but someone more multi-faceted came along for that part. Ultimately, I saw Hieronimo as a very complex and even circuitous character. Barabas driven by pride and greed, and in this way he is much more suitable to play Lorenzo. 

Casting

I have decided on which actors to cast! 

The London Stage tour of The Spanish Tragedy will feature:

Barabas 

as Lorenzo

Rose 

as Bel-Imperia/Isabella/General

Lacy 

as Horatio/ (King of Spain in last Scene)

Corvino 

as Balthazar/Andrea

Feste 

as Hieronimo/Revenge

In order to make this play work with five actors, some scenes must be cut. The characters that will be present in this play are Don Andrea, Revenge, Bel-Imperia, Isabella, Lorenzo, Horatio, Hieronimo, Balthazar, and the characters that compose the subplot, which will be the Viceroy of Portugal, Alexandro, and Villuppo. 

However, I could not cut scene 1.2 where the General retells the story of battle so I have reduced this to a monologue. The general will be played by the actress who plays Bel-Imperia/Isabella. I think this gender shift will go over well with modern audiences.

It is important to keep the perspective of the General in the play, as he adds another point of view from the original account we first hear from Don Andrea. It is the theme of multiple re-telling and points of view that I am aiming to keep in my version of Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy.

Pedringano is being cut from the play but his story will not. His story will have to be told by other characters referring to what happened. 3.6 is the only scene I have a hard time doing without. So I am going to film it before hand,  and project it on the cube, except the whole scene is going to feature only Pedringano and the Hangman in witty retorts, roughly line 41-91, in a very Quinton Tarantino style. I want to capitalize on this scene- where Pedringano is being antagonistic and ambivalent to the Hangman- as it really embodies the tragedy of his foolishness and betrayal at the hands of Lorenzo. I will add as little of my own lines as possible in order to tell the story of Pedringano’s fatal gullibility through Lorenzo and Hieronimo. The reason I chose those two characters is that they will give a two different accounts of Pedringano's betrayal, since Lorenzo is the chief agent in this scheme and Hieronimo, in the thick of his existential crisis and present in scene 3.6, will also have a perspective on the events. 

These two perspectives will parallel the two perspectives of the General and Andrea.

Notes from the Underground

In addition to the frame, I want to keep the subplot. I want to keep the detailed and profound parts of this comprehensive tragedy intact, side by side with horror-movie violence of popular entertainment projected upon the cube. 

I quite like the idea of a subplot that acts as a foil for the chief narrative and creates a nuanced contrast without any resolution. In the case of The Spanish Tragedy, the chief narrative is broken up by a sub-story about Villuppo, who accuses a Portuguese nobleman named Alexandro of killing Balthazar, the Portuguese prince. The king of Portugal then sentences Alexandro to an expedited death, but news of Balthazar’s capture make it back in time to spare Alexandro’s life. The king then sentences Villuppo to death, and Villuppo confesses to acting out of envy and greed.  The subplot’s effectual justice becomes a foil for the larger tragedy. Villuppo becomes a lens through which we can understand Lorenzo, and Alexandro can be likened to Horatio. The Portuguese king also becomes Heironimo’s opposite, a man who not only saw justice, but did not (at that moment in the play) lose his son.  That is how I am going to have the actors double up on these parts, a quick costume change and change in movement and tone of voice will signify the difference to the audience, so I can include the subplot on a five actor tour. 

Doubling Up

The ghost of Don Andrea is crucial to the overarching theme of a revenge tragedy, where and characters are made mad by thwarted desire and violence begets violence in the name of revenge. Through deceit, retelling of stories, and Hieronimo's play within a play, the audience has the frame as a quick reference; to never forget this is a tale of revenge. In terms of the stage and how to make this play work for an audience, I think the frame creates a visual touchstone in an otherwise chaotic narrative. 

I have chosen keep the original ending as the chorus of Don Andrea and Revenge as the frame. However, because I only have five actors to work with, I am faced with the challenge of casting, and cutting roles. Having the actors double-up their roles allowed me some further creative expression. I decided that the same actor that plays revenge will play Hieronimo, and the same actor that plays Andrea will play Balthazar. Yes, they will have to move in and out of frame and character during the very same scene, but I think this will work to a creative advantage. They will step into a deep red light when they are acting as the ghost of Don Andrea and Revenge. This visual symbol, via lighting,  will work to convey a frame and distinguish the same actor as two discrete characters. This will help the audience get it. Not to mention the implications of paralleling Revenge and Hieronimo and Balthazar and Andrea! This, I think, works wonderfully. Hieronimo is our protagonist in this Revenge tragedy, so yes, yes, yes to the irony that he shall be played by Revenge! Also, we shall draw Balthazar and Andrea as mirror images of each other. After all, even though Andrea talks of being taken from his Bel-Imperia, he cares more about being killed in battle than about losing his love. Does he even care that she dies at the end? No. He may want us to think otherwise but we know the truth. No, Horatio is the only romantic in this play, not Andrea. Think about this: Andrea becomes just as hot-headed as Balthazar by the end of this play, they can be performed with a very similar character and by the same actor.   

Tom Savini

Needless to say, I will be putting emphasis on the violent scenes in this play and taking advantage of special effects make-up and the horror effects championed by Tom Savini. Let me take you through a brief tour of the most violent scenes I will be highlighting: First, is the battle between the Spanish and Portuguese and Don Andrea’s death at the hands of Balthazar. These battle scenes will take place through Don Andrea’s memory and the Generals memory, and also flashbacks from Balthazar. There will be a very large white cube placed with its corner facing the audience so that each side of the audience will see the top, but a different side of the cube. When the battle which between the Spanish and Portuguese is retold by the character on stage, say the General, edited moving scenes of battlefield gore will be projected onto each side of the cube. The multiple retellings of the battle between the Spanish and the Portuguese will work to my advantage as I will have ample opportunity to stage horror movie gore.

The next scene that will be emphasized is Horatio’s death at the hands of Lorenzo and Balthazar. In this scene Horatio is hung and stabbed to death in front of Bel-Imperia. Such a scene will include sound effects, and a harness, and special effects.  Blood splattered on the cube, which will be wiped clean during intermission.

This leads us to the penultimate display of violence and gore in this play, Hieronimo’s play within a play. This will be a horrific spectacle of blood. When Heironimo lifts back the curtain to expose his dead son, his decomposing body will make The Walking Dead look like teletubbies. It won’t be the actual actor, due to casting issues, though. 

Either way, all his sympathetic perversity Dexter will have nothing on Hieronimo. 

The play will end with Don Andrea’s account of each the punishment each character receives in hell, as Kyd wrote it. The fact of the matter here is that, after waiting the whole play for his promised revenge, Don Andrea has become as lustfully violent as Hieronimo, damning all the dead to everlasting torment including the somewhat innocent Don Cyprian. Don Cyprian is not featured in this play, alluded to but not made firm by a corporeal symbol as we only have five actors. These scenes will also be projected on the  large white cube, for each punishment three separate scenes. Though these scenes are brief, they will nevertheless be as shocking and as repulsive as Don Andrea (taken by the spirit of revenge) had wished them to be. 

Lucius Anneus Seneca

Kyd adapted Seneca to the English stage. Seneca was a Greek philosopher who wrote these plays, called closet dramas, which were made to be read to oneself and not acted aloud. Plays like Hercules, Medea, and Oedipus. Kyd took the elements of the Senecan closet dramas-  histrionic soliloquies, moralization of the tragic narrative through a philosophical lens, classical unities of time and space- and made them into popular theater. However, Senecan closet dramas were timid in comparison with Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, which featured bloody violence right on stage. This is what I will be capitalizing on in my vision of Kyd’s play. In essence, I want to take the brutal violence and gore that characterizes so much of our popular entertainment and put it back where popular entertainment used to thrive, back on the stage.  I want to see how my modern audience, so used to graphic violence in video games and television and movies, reacts to this same violence when it takes place in the theater. I think this will have a very unique impact on the modern audience, and will be also a commentary on the roots of theater as well as the long standing tradition of violence in public entertainment. It might also raise discussion about the division of entertainment into the categories of “high” and “low,” and why graphic violence is relegated to the latter, and what that means in terms of morality.

A Little Background

There was a time, and to be more approximate this time was somewhere around the late 16^th century, when stage drama was considered a “low” form of entertainment. In a very real way, Renaissance theater was to English society what contemporary Hollywood is to American society.  Both made a business out of entertainment that was considered central to society, but also quite subversive. In fact, London alderman passed regulation banning theaters from being built within city limits. Neither the Globe nor the Blackfriars were legally considered to be part of the city. Today, there is a television in nearly every household, but keeping true to its theatrical roots, Hollywood remains notorious for base, outlandish, sinful, and subversive material. 

Critics accused renaissance theater of debasing English culture, dampening intellect, and promoting sex and violence. Sound familiar? 

But what of theater today? The stage certainly has put its wild years behind her, for plays are now considered a very cultivated, very “high” art form. Entertainment? Yes, but only entertainment for the cultured, not for the masses. The Glass Menagerie for the intellectual elite and The Walking Dead for the rest.

This historical metamorphosis of theater is part of my inspiration for staging The Spanish Tragedy. I want to open the secret diary of Our Lady Theater and read the details of her most sultry and sordid past. I want to remind this refined woman of where she came, less we forget, Shakespeare was Spielberg, Jonson was Judd Apatow, and Middleton wrote shows like One Tree Hill and Sons of Anarchy. 

As I half-mentioned before, I am currently in charge of actors from the London Stage tour of Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.  I am going to use this blog to tell you a bit about my thought process going into this project.