Thursday, October 30, 2014

Seven stars Had Ursa Major
Tables turning, turning
And rain maker

"Public consultation has chosen Watt for the next production from the Riddled Amateur Dramatic Society", said the Riddled Public Consultation Department. It is not clear precisely what the public were asked, nor indeed quite how they responded, since "Watt!" and "WTF!!" are interchangeable for the Pub.Cons.Dept which currently consists of Swearing Bob.

Anyway, Beckett's off-kilter combinatorial text does not lend itself to an easy transposition into dramaturgical terms. I said it would make a better opera with a Philip Glass score, but no-one ever listens to Uncle Smut. Thus Another Kiwi (RADS director and chief adaptationater) has chosen to interpret the story as Lovecraftian horror, as related by a classic unreliable narrator, driven to the comforts of madness and obsession by too close an encounter with inhuman otherness.

But did AK explain what is to be done with the circular bed in the mysterious upper storey of Knott's house, in which Knott changes his position from night to night as if linked to the stars in their sidereal sphere? DID HE BOGROLL.
Thus the long-suffering script-writing department (to whom no-one listens) has dredged up an early manuscript version of Watt, in which the bed is otherwise described; and we will work with that instead:
Meanwhile these are what the Props Department came up with. Apparently Evangeline van Holsterin's vile nephew Throgmorton liberated them cheap from the hospital but this is NOT WHAT THE SCRIPT CALLS FOR. I am driven to despair and there will be akvavit cocktails and shouting at the trees tonight.

Images hoicked from Derrick Cherrie


Images hoicked from Arthur Tress

Below: BONUS linkage to stars in their sidereal sphere.

4 comments:

OBS said...

http://i.imgur.com/lH5ExZq.gif

OBS said...

Dammit. T'was s'posed to be a link.

Another Kiwi said...

Every new production has unique problems and Watt is singularly blessed in this respect.I felt that my performance as the sleeping Knott was outstanding and it's not my faault if people don't get the "sleeping around" joke.
Similarly combining the traditional roles of the piano tuning Galls into a pantomime horse called "Lucky" may not have been an obvious enough pun on Australian actor Lucky Grills. but it is not a RADS core to explain every bleedin' thing.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I am driven to despair and there will be akvavit cocktails and shouting at the trees tonight.

The usual, Evangeline van Holsterin!
~