Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief has now opened at the Park Theatre where it runs until Sunday 8th June 2014. Below is a Guest Blog by the play’s director, James Bounds (pictured below), which was written during the rehearsal process…
We’re just starting our third and final week of rehearsals for Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief and I couldn’t be more excited - everything is coming together brilliantly and it’s going to be an amazing show!
The play is similar in some ways to Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in that it focuses on the supporting characters from one of Shakespeare’s plays (in this case, Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca from Othello) and presents the imagined, off-stage lives these characters have. We find out a bit more about them... and uncover some pretty shocking secrets about who they really are - especially when freed from the gaze of men.
It’s been great fun in rehearsals looking at the characters in Othello and how they appear in Desdemona, it’s a bit like putting together a jigsaw in terms of how the two plays connect and where they cross over.
The cast have been a joy to work with - hard-working, playful, generous and (most importantly I think) happy making the confident acting choices this play demands. It’s been a rare pleasure to rehearse a play with an all-female cast, especially in a play which explores big questions about the role of women within society, both historically and today - it’s really got us thinking and talking about some pretty fascinating subjects. Hopefully it’ll get the audience talking about them too.
What has been especially exciting is seeing how much fun can be had with Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca as characters, to really flesh them out and make them complex, fascinating, nuanced people with genuine wants and needs - wants and needs that don’t just relate to the men they are in relationships with. It’d be silly to say that Shakespeare is anything other than an incredible writer, but whenever I’ve seen Othello I’ve been pretty unconvinced by the female characters, they just don’t seem to hold water as real people with genuine psychological needs and wants; nor do they have any real agency in the plot, they just respond to events.
But what really prompted Desdemona to marry Othello? What does Emilia want to achieve from life? What does Bianca think about the fact that she has to work as a prostitute? Paula Vogel takes three classic female archetypes - virgin, maid and whore - and explodes them into real people. And as we’ve been finding in rehearsals, she does so with tremendous verve, humour, and imagination - crafting a hilarious and gripping pressure cooker of a play.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Park Theatre (and it’s lovely bar - I recommend a Bank cocktail or their Red Velvet cake). We’ve had a wonderful time rehearsing this play - lots of laughter and fun - and I know that this is definitely going to be evident on stage!
James Bounds
James Bounds' recent directing credits include: Milk (Bush Theatre), Compliance (Theatre503), Other Hands (Riverside Studios & national tour), For Services Rendered (Union), Laugh Your Farce Off (Pleasance) as well as a pop-up immersive Soviet dining experience called Secret Soviet Dinner.
His staff/assistant director credits include: Hamlet and The Cherry Orchard (both National Theatre) and Juliet and Her Romeo (Bristol Old Vic). James was a finalist for the 2008 JMK Award and his production of Chauntecleer and Pertelotte (Old Red Lion/Edinburgh Fringe) was nominated for a Total Theatre Award.
Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief runs at the Park90 Sunday 8th June 2014.
Please visit www.parktheatre.co.uk for further information and tickets.
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