Jonathan’s knowledge of this piece was very important, for me. It was part of the reason why we chose it: he could explain to me how he had done it in the past, and the ways in which different performances interpreted the characters differently. For example, so that I would become more familiar with the show, we the scene of which our segment was part in the Hypocrites’ production – directed by Geoff Button (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wVHXd-EpMI) – but Jonathan pointed out that the escalation in their argument, in his opinion, did not feel natural. I am still rather unfamiliar with the rewriting/ reinterpretation of plays, but what made me interested was that grounded and realistic characters could behave differently and end the same way: since Jonathan said that the productions in which he starred followed the script very similarly, but with fairly different interpretations of the characters. I believe that would not be possible in other types of theatre we have studied so far, because the events of the plot seemed to unfold almost directly as a result of the protagonists’ character – as reward or punishment, in Greek Drama, for example. I was very interested by the dynamic and the ending of the “True West” as Jonathan described it to me – and the inversion of roles that happens as the story unfolds. Lastly, I would like to mention that my discomfort with acting also played a role in us choosing a piece in which I could take most of the directions from Jonathan – not only because he know this play specifically, but because he is an experienced actor.
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