Bernhardt/Hamlet Flashcards
Costume Designer: Marg Horwell quotes on Sarah
“we are playing with [Sarah’s] proportion constantly to manipulate the gender representations in order to make the struggles of Bernhardt proving she can play Hamlet more visible”
“costumes are based on period shapes but use contemporary fabrics … she can feel more vulnerable and small, or powerful and broad”
Sarah Bernhardt actor:
Kate Mulvany
Edmond Rostand actor:
Charles Wu
Maurice actor:
William McKenna
Director
Anne-Lousie Sarks
Set and Costume designer
Marg Horwell
Alphonse Mucha actor
Tim Walter
Constant Coquelin actor
Marco Chiappi
Lysette actor
Tahlee Fereday
Rosamond actor
Izabella Yena
Sarah Bernhardt Character Motivation:
to break gender barriers
retain her relationships (Edmond, Maurice)
Establish a legacy as the greatest actor
Sarah Bernhardt Character Objective:
To play Hamlet
To make money
To prove men/her critics wrong
To shock the world
To show her talent
To create a legacy
Sarah Bernhardt Character Function:
The protagonist
Show the struggles of women
To challenge status quo of P society
Sarah Bernhardt Character Traits:
Egotistical
Mercurial
Loud
Opinionated
ambitious
Sarah Bernhardt Character Status:
High status - upper echelons of society as an actor
… but she is losing her wealth and is a women (automatically second caste in P society)
Edmond Rostand Character Motivation:
To create art (that lives on after he dies AKA legacy)
To love Sarah and keep his family together
To move his legacy out of Sarah’s shadow
Edmond Rostand Character Objective:
Become a famous playwright
To write for Sarah
Write a good play
Edmond Rostand Character Function:
Be Sarah’s writer, her lover, her defendant, her challenger … an obstacle for Sarah
Edmond Rostand Character Traits:
Egotistical
Opinionated
Dedicated
Loving
Edmond Rostand Character Status:
lower status, just a writer
Themes of Bernhardt/Hamlet:
- Gender Inequality
- Love
- (gender) Expectations
- Identity
- Status and legacy
- authenticity vs artifice
Bernhardt/Hamelt theatre styles:
Heightened Naturalism and Melodrama
Heightened naturalism theatre style:
slightly exaggerated
realistic acting
illusion of reality
fourth wall
Melodrama theatre style:
stock characters
codified gesture
exaggeration and over-emphasis (gesture and enunciation)
Slow movement
Context of play:
Paris 1899
Art Nouveau style in La Belle Epoqué (eg. the play posters, the tree sets, lysette’s costume)
The Divine Sarah: the first international celebrity
Motifs of play:
Flowers, trees, rocks - Beautiful and languid idealised women, world Sarah has created
Opulence and materialism - power (illusion of)
Contrast example Act 2, Scene 3/4: (set)
maximalist opulent crowed dressing room dinner party
vs
minimalist rehearsing space with one table and the blue infinite backdrop
Contrast example Act 2 Scene 1 vs Act 2 Scene 3 (costume and character):
dark and brooding, awkwardly fitting Hamlet costume, round hose elizabethan pants, puffed+slashed sleeves
vs
Sarah Bernhardt dinner party, slim-fitting dress with opulent greens and sparkling rhinestones
Contrast example Act 1 Scene 4 (costuming):
Sarah’s Hamlet costume
vs
Lysette’s Ophelia costume
(the new ingenue is upstaging Sarah, who as an aging women must use male costume for power in P world)
Contrast example transition from Act 2 Scene 4-5:
sudden tonal shift with Kabuki drop
Contrast example Act 1 Scene 1 (theatre styles):
spotlight on ‘Hamlet’ in the melodrama presentational acting
vs
the naturalistic lighting that illuminates the entire stage with ‘Sarah’ and heightened naturalism
Variation example Act 1 Scene 1 (acting):
Sarah (haughty, overbearing, dismissive gestures) vs when playing Hamlet (codified gesture, serious, weighty, grave)
Up-tight Sarah vs relaxed Edmond
Variation example entire play (costume):
The pieces of the Hamlet costume deconstructing over the play
Variation example in Act 2 Scene 3, dinner, (acting and character):
Sarah’s changing demeanour with Rosamund, Maurice, her male peers/critics
Rhythm example Act 2 Scene 4 (acting):
“I play him as myself” - banging her chest, deliberately contracting the pace to emphasises her ponderous projection, revealing character pscyhe
Rhythm (contrasting) example Act 2 Scene 3 (acting):
fast pace of Maurice and Sarah convo
vs
slow tension of drawn out pace of Sarah and Rosamund
Motion example Act 2 transition from Scene 3- 4 (set):
As the set of Sarah’s dressing room smoothly and independently pulls back from her, into the wings, the particular arrangement of the movement sees the space around Sarah expand, becoming an isolated and vulnerable figure in Scene 4
use of trucks
Cohesion example (flower symbolism):
- Sarah’s dressing room Act 2 Scene 3
- Lysette costume
- Alphonse costume
Cohesion example (set):
continuous fluid movement of the set through entire play as directorial intention of a play within a play
Cohesion example Act 2 Scene 1 (costuming):
Elizabethan theatre costumes
Emphasis example Act 2 Scene 4 (acting):
Sarah “I play him as myself”
Emphasis example Act 2 transition bw Scene 3 - 4:
reading of the cyrano script
Emphasis example Act 2 transition bw Scene 4 - 5:
Kabuki drop
Quote from director Anne-Louise Sarks on women and flower symbolism
“this aesthetic of beautiful, languid, romanticised women taking the forms of flowers was a significant part of art nouveau. That idealised romantic women is something that Sarah challenges through her determination to play Hamlet, a man”
Actor Audience relationship types:
- Presentation acting: Elizabethan melodrama
- Representation acting: heightened naturalism, immersive
Marg Horwell, set designer intention:
“friction between the real and the representation”
Play wright
Theresa rebeck
