Ifs and Buts by Frederic Raphael

Author:Frederic Raphael [Frederic Raphael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847778819
Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd.
Published: 2011-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Collaboration is the devil. Of Mycenae and Men has been a trivial project, a larky appendage to the Oresteia in the office of Aeschylus’s lost satyr play. I had the idea and wrote the first (and last) draft; 98 per cent of the text was directly from me. Richard Broke did not see why Ken should be credited at all, but I thought it would be cruel to exclude my co-translator of the main text. What did it matter? The drama arose when there was difficulty finding a director. Someone called Alan Botten or something like that was solicited by Richard. He usually works with a group of actors and is keen on improvisation. Moi non plus. Before he decamped, after deciding that he could not do two shows at the same time, he had persuaded R.B. and convinced Ken that the script was neither funny nor performable; there would have to be extensive re-writes. Promises were made behind my back. Ken had been panicked by rejection and at the same time excited at the chance he would have (I did not plan to return to England for rehearsals) to prove that he was the truly comic writer. He made his bid for independence without the means to honour it. It led him to announce to Richard Broke that I was not really able to write comedy at all, an announcement relayed to me by R., who needs me more than he needs Kenneth. When the new director came in, he declared that he did not want to change a single one of my words. This amiable opinion, by Hugh David (who says he is ‘too afraid of me’ to give me a call), made me much more indignant than before. Sartre was almost right: hell is working with other people.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.