WEEK 7: WELCOME TO EPHESUS
February 25, 2012
16 December 2011
Director Nizar Zuabi is setting The Comedy of Errors in a Mediterranean smugglers' town. In our version of Ephesus, the weather is hot, doors are always open, news travels fast, and trouble travels faster. Instead of what he calls the 'shame culture' of Britain, Nizar wants the play to be set in the 'honour culture' of the Middle East.
Nizar, a Palestinian, is well-versed in this rhetoric, and Shakespeare's text lends itself to this setting:
'Herein you war against your reputation
And draw within the compass of suspect
Th'unviolated honour of your wife…
Be rul'd by me, depart in patience…
For slander lives upon succession
For e'er hous'd where it gets possession.'
(III. i. 86-88, 94, 105-106.)
During rehearsals, Nizar told the company he would not block any of the scenes until technical rehearsals in Stratford. I could sense the nervous shudders making their way through the rehearsal room.
Stage managers and designers like to know the shape of each scene as early as possible. The advantage of leaving the blocking loose is that it allows actors do whatever feels right in the moment. If I'm honest, it can also make actors feel quite vulnerable, which (to Nizar's credit) corresponds with how people would feel in Ephesus — a town steeped in crime and superstition.
'They say this town is full of cozenage,
As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches that deform the body,
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such-like liberties of sin:'
(I. ii. 97-102.)
In an afternoon rehearsal, Nizar pulled me aside and asked if I didn't mind getting my hands dirty. He was being literal; I ended the rehearsal covered in rust, dust, oil residue, and sweat.
Nizar wanted me to workshop the movement possibilities of using oil drums from the set. I folded in half, slid into an oil drum, and then rolled around the studio, feeling a little like Shaobo Qin in Ocean's Eleven.
After jumping in and out of standing barrels, Nizar taught me how to walk on a rolling barrel. We finished the session by hurling barrels at each other at speed, to see how we could use them in fight scenes.
'How has thou lost thy breath?
By running fast.'
(IV. ii. 30.)
Photo: Nizar Zuabi, director, The Comedy of Errors
by Ankur Bahl
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