Globe Education Online

This is Joanna's final blog post. This week she discusses audience reaction to The Antipodes, performing in two different plays and the perils of talking to the audience from the stage.

The audience and The Antipodes

Audiences seem to love The Antipodes, as it is such a fun show. The press has been saying what a wonderful find the play has been. What they don’t know is that Jerry Freedman [Master of Play for The Antipodes] has spent months trying to sort it out because the original text was rather a mess and the verse was infuriating to work with. Jerry has presented a very clear coherent play out of something that was far more confusing.

In The Antipodes I have to talk to the audience which I find very scary. In Hamlet I only say four lines to them and the rest of the time I am absorbed in the story. In The Antipodes I have to talk to them very personally. This afternoon I was picking out individuals to direct lines to and to my horror saw somebody that I know but haven’t seen in three years. He winked at me and all I could think about was trying to remember his full name as I could only remember his first name. That preoccupied me for the rest of my speech. I find talking to the audience at the Globe frightening. I have to grit my teeth and just do it. I have to be brave. I have spoken to the audience in other Shakespeare productions, but normally in conventional theatres where you can only see a few people and the rest is all a black mass. Here you can see every individual and you have to look them in the eye. I am getting braver.

Performances

I love having two such different roles to play in Hamlet and The Antipodes. I find that truly joyous. It is also lovely because we don’t have to rehearse anymore and suddenly I have found that I have free time again which is absolute bliss. It is a shame that it is only that way for a month.

Often you find when working in repertoire, that one play will inform the other. This has not been the case with Hamlet and The Antipodes. The only thing I do find is that working on the stage so often allows me to be more familiar with the space and its boundaries. That information is relevant to both plays.

Costumes

My costume for The Antipodes is much lighter than my Gertrude costumes. This is because of the difference in period of the play. The Antipodes is also a lighter play both physically and mentally. Gertrude has a huge emotional journey to go on through the play. The Antipodes is not like that. It’s just very happy go lucky. This means that I can relax and enjoy it.

These comments are the actor’s thoughts and ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

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