Students can find the concept of a script being 'read' in many different ways a little daunting. One way of approaching this without spending valuable time comparing different productions in full is to compare key scenes or soliloquies. Such comparative clips are already available online and I have found that this keeps the focus tighter with attention on how different perspectives have been achieved while the script remains largely the same. The inherent richness of the play's language enables actors and directors to tease out alternative perspectives of character and situation.
By narrowing the field and the time spent on developing an informed response, students can often gain a greater scope of the interpretive potential that exists. This short clip from RSC version was still long enough for students to recognise the impact of tonal shifts, pausing, emotional delivery and so on on the meaning of what is said. It also helped them utilise metalanguage better by recognising the interplay of pathos, logos and ethos and the use of varied rhetorical devices.
How do you read this interpretation of the lines?
