Re-Staging the 1934 Abbey Theatre Production of Yeats’s <em>The King of the Great Clock Tower</em>: An Evaluation and Critique
This essay investigates and critiques an attempt from the surviving evidence to re-stage the first performance of Yeats’s The King of the Great Clock Tower at the Abbey Theatre in 1934. This dance-drama was the last of four collaborations between the playwright and the dancer-choreographer, Ninette...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Firenze University Press
2013-03-01
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| Series: | Studi Irlandesi |
| Online Access: | https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-sijis/article/view/7155 |
| _version_ | 1818247749202608128 |
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| author | Richard Allen Cave |
| author_facet | Richard Allen Cave |
| author_sort | Richard Allen Cave |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay investigates and critiques an attempt from the surviving evidence to re-stage the first performance of Yeats’s The King of the Great Clock Tower at the Abbey Theatre in 1934. This dance-drama was the last of four collaborations between the playwright and the dancer-choreographer, Ninette de Valois, during the period when she established for him a School of Ballet at the Abbey in Dublin. A wealth of evidence survives from which a performance text (as distinct from the printed text) may be inferred. The limitations to be found in various kinds of extant data concerning performance (music scores, set designs, photographs, revisions to play scripts, reviews, correspondence, reminiscence) are discussed in the light of the writer’s experience of bringing such a re-staging into production. The dangers of overly hypothesising or historicising are examined and devices for negotiating gaps in the evidence while being wholly transparent in one’s efforts are discussed. Finally the essay explores the many and diverse levels of collaboration on which a successful staging of one of Yeats’s dancedramas depends. In the course of that discussion the meaning of the word, collaboration, is interrogated and to some degree re-defined. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T15:09:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a36a02a3d1034a87a2717a6f31409b5c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2239-3978 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T15:09:39Z |
| publishDate | 2013-03-01 |
| publisher | Firenze University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Studi Irlandesi |
| spelling | doaj.art-a36a02a3d1034a87a2717a6f31409b5c2022-12-22T00:20:39ZengFirenze University PressStudi Irlandesi2239-39782013-03-012210.13128/SIJIS-2239-3978-1241610862Re-Staging the 1934 Abbey Theatre Production of Yeats’s <em>The King of the Great Clock Tower</em>: An Evaluation and CritiqueRichard Allen CaveThis essay investigates and critiques an attempt from the surviving evidence to re-stage the first performance of Yeats’s The King of the Great Clock Tower at the Abbey Theatre in 1934. This dance-drama was the last of four collaborations between the playwright and the dancer-choreographer, Ninette de Valois, during the period when she established for him a School of Ballet at the Abbey in Dublin. A wealth of evidence survives from which a performance text (as distinct from the printed text) may be inferred. The limitations to be found in various kinds of extant data concerning performance (music scores, set designs, photographs, revisions to play scripts, reviews, correspondence, reminiscence) are discussed in the light of the writer’s experience of bringing such a re-staging into production. The dangers of overly hypothesising or historicising are examined and devices for negotiating gaps in the evidence while being wholly transparent in one’s efforts are discussed. Finally the essay explores the many and diverse levels of collaboration on which a successful staging of one of Yeats’s dancedramas depends. In the course of that discussion the meaning of the word, collaboration, is interrogated and to some degree re-defined.https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-sijis/article/view/7155 |
| spellingShingle | Richard Allen Cave Re-Staging the 1934 Abbey Theatre Production of Yeats’s <em>The King of the Great Clock Tower</em>: An Evaluation and Critique Studi Irlandesi |
| title | Re-Staging the 1934 Abbey Theatre Production of Yeats’s <em>The King of the Great Clock Tower</em>: An Evaluation and Critique |
| title_full | Re-Staging the 1934 Abbey Theatre Production of Yeats’s <em>The King of the Great Clock Tower</em>: An Evaluation and Critique |
| title_fullStr | Re-Staging the 1934 Abbey Theatre Production of Yeats’s <em>The King of the Great Clock Tower</em>: An Evaluation and Critique |
| title_full_unstemmed | Re-Staging the 1934 Abbey Theatre Production of Yeats’s <em>The King of the Great Clock Tower</em>: An Evaluation and Critique |
| title_short | Re-Staging the 1934 Abbey Theatre Production of Yeats’s <em>The King of the Great Clock Tower</em>: An Evaluation and Critique |
| title_sort | re staging the 1934 abbey theatre production of yeats s em the king of the great clock tower em an evaluation and critique |
| url | https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-sijis/article/view/7155 |
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