I found three pictures of female actresses of, two of whom would have been contemporaries of Arkadina. The first is an actress performing in "La Dame Aux Camelias." The second is Eleanora Duse and the third is Sarah Bernhardt. They are both performing and I think their theatrical poses are exemplary of both how Konstantin resents his mother, her indulgence as an actress and her ability to exude passion only on stage and never for Konstantin--and also his attraction to the theatre. Looking at these pictures, I see a bit of Nina in all three of them, the poses are striking and I would have coached Nina to follow the example of these larger than life actresses. So while I outwardly balk at the "modern theatre" and profess the "doctrine of new forms," I admire the same traditional, arguably indulgent technique in Nina as she performs my play.
No comments:
Post a Comment