John Masters’ profile
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Seen, or going to see
- As You Like It, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1973 – 1974
- Richard II, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1973 – 1974
- Joined 26th March 2013.
- Last logged in on 26th March 2013.
Last five observations
- To production of Richard II, by William Shakespeare, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1973 - 1974: “Simply the best production I’ve ever seen of any play, anywhere. Forty years on it still lives with me. Richard Pasco and Ian Richardson alternated as Richard and Bolinbroke. We saw the Saturday matinee with Pasco as Richard and then the evening performance with Richardson as Richard. Barton included a prelude to the action, in which Shakespeare himself advances downstage with the two leads identically dressed towards a tee-shaped clothes stand on which the symbols of kingship rest – a golden poncho and a golden crown and stylised face mask. He points to one of the heads, who then assumes the role of Richard. At the end of the play the king appears again fully clothed and masked, and at the final flourish of drums, the two hooded monks flanking him throw back their cowls to reveal Pasco and Richardson. Sheer magic.”
- To production of The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1973 - 1974: “The production featured a lot of busy creative detail and business – for example carrots descending on parachutes from the flies, and a prop ham labelled “The Royal Bacon Company”. On the night that we attended, a lady in the third row of the stalls stood up midway through a scene and started shouting “This is a terrible production. You should all be ashamed of yourselves!” In the hiatus which followed, Alan Bates, who was playing Petruchio, walked to the front of the stage, beckoned the woman to him, and then in a loud stage whisper told her to f**k off, to a standing ovation from the audience.”
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