Australian TV Plays: Macbeth in Camera (4 Nov 1964)

Adaptation of a play about the play. Directed by Ken Hannam.

Premise

Play about the special lessons to be learnt from an actor's work on a Shakespearean play - presented in the form of a lecture.

It took place in a rehearsal room during a village arts festival. Uptight academic organiser Geoffrey Kerr Ph.D. confronted a couple of actors rehearsing Macbeth. Kerr threatened to eject them from the festival because of director Harold Lang’s approach, breaking the Shakespearean dialogue into everyday speech in order to explore the underlying meaning. During the course of the two hour play, the actors attempted to convince the academic that their approach could expose the reality behind the action.

Cast

* Harold Lang

* Lorne Cossette

* Greville Hallam

* Nicholas Amer

Original play

The play was devised by Harold Lang, Grevilla Hallam, Ralph Grsukin and Nicholas Amer. It grew out of a series of arguments the actors had during a rehearsal of Macbeth. Lang wrote up tape recordings of the arguments into a play. They applied to the British council for money to tour.

It toured the world.

It was performed at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts in March 1964. Ausstage link is here. There was not a single Australian play shown at that festival.

The Sydney Morning Herald theatre critic saw the production and called it a "complete success" which "could only have come from English theatre."

Production

The ABC decided to film it. Ken Hannam had his crew had one day to observe it and wrote the script overnight. Hannam decided to film in an off the cuff style to maintain spontaneity

It was shot at the ABC's Gore St studios. It ran for 135 minutes!

Reception

The Canberra Times called it "disastrous".

It was repeated in september 1965. The Sydney Morning Herald called it "fascinating".