British Universities Film & Video Council

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Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Synopsis
Video recording of Ann-Marie Macdonald’s comedic play performed by The Totally Portable Theatre. Constance Ledbelly, a young English literature professor from Queen’s University, goes on a subconscious journey of self-discovery. Constance theorises that Shakespeare’s tragedies, Othello and Romeo and Juliet, were originally comedies, and believes the ideas for the plays originate from the indecipherable Gustav Manuscript. She believes this because, if a wise fool archetype were reinstated into the plays, they could not remain tragedies. The only thing stopping her from showing sceptics like her tutor, Professor Claude Night, that she is right is her timid self. In a moment of despair, Constance is thrown into both her subconscious mind and the two Shakespearian tragedies to discover the truth about herself, and to find the lost fool with the help of Desdemona and Juliet. [Synopsis adapted from the play’s Wikipedia entry].
Language
English
Country
Great Britain
Medium
Video
Technical information
Colour / Sound
Recording date
May 1998
Duration
123 mins

Credits

Director
Michael Cowie
Writer
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Production Design
Geri Bunzi
Costume
Angela Whitworth
Cast
Alisa ModelDesdemona
Arabella Butler 
Helen FittockConstance
Nic Gunton 
Toby Gaffney 

Additional Details

Theatre
Bridewell Theatre, London
Theatre company
The Totally Portable Theatre
Production type
Stage Recordings
Plays
Othello; Romeo and Juliet
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Archive

Name

V&A Theatre & Performance Collections: National Video Archive of Performance

Email
tmenquiries@vam.ac.uk
Web
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/nvap/ External site opens in new window
Phone
020 7942 2697
Fax
020 7471 9864
Address
Blythe House
23 Blythe Road
London
W14 0QX

Record Stats

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