R.S.C. looking at love, too

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34156, 18 May 1976, Page 12

R.S.C. looking at love, too

The Otago Theatre Trust, after continued negotiations in Australia, has now arranged for the Royal Shakespeare Company to bring to the South Island not only “The Hollow Crown,” as announced recently, but a second production, “Pleasure and Repentance.”

Best described as a lighthearted look at love, “Pleasure and Repentance,” like “The Hollow Crown,” is an anthology — but, instead of eavesdropping on the Kings and Queens of England, takes a romp with love through the ages. It was devised by Terry Hands, an artistic director of the R.S.C. and of Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre, and the prizewinning director of “Richard III” at the Comedie Francaise in 1972.

“Pleasure and Repentance” shows love in all its moods — often gay, occasionally sad, sometimes spiritual, but frequently carnal. It can be gentle, and it can be brutal — but most of all it can be, and nearly always is, rather blue.

“Pleasure and Repentance” shows how little real change there has been in man’s desire for woman from Genesis to the Rolling Stones. The audience will hear from Sir Walter Raleigh, Charles Dickens, Mickey Spillane,

Oscar Wilde, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Bernard Shaw, and frequently from D. H. Lawrence.

“While Kiwis may have embarassing difficulty with the word love,” said the trust’s chairman (Mr Doug Lovell) "they will love this evening with love.” “Pleasure and Repentance” will play on alternate nights with “The Hollow Crown” in Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch.

The Royal Shakespeare Company plays concurrently in two theatres, one in-Stratford-upon-Avon and the other in London, the Aldwych. A new theatre is being built for it by the City of London in the Barbican Arts Centre, near St Paul’s Cathedral, and the company expects to move there in 1978.

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s chief artistic director is Trevor Nunn, who, at 35, holds what is acknowledged to be one of the top theatre posts in the world. He began his theatre career at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, under Tony Richardson, who for eight years directed Auckland’s Mercury Theatre. “Such is the reputation of the Royal Sheakespeare Company that interest in its first visit to the South Island since the early 1930 s is already considerable. With two productions, lovers of world class theatre will now be able to enjoy a double treat,” said Mr Lovell.