Читать книгу Dragon's Eye - Duncan Regehr - Страница 11

II

TO SEA ...

OR NOT TO SEE

Shakespeare

Macbeth OIL 17” x 11”

Othello WATERCOLOR 24”x18” 1974

I N 1974 I MARRIED FRANCINE WURSTER, a vibrantly sensual actress from Chicago. That same year I joined the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.

The characters and scenes of Shakespeare’s plays are so richly layered they breach reality. Similarly, many of the lead players at the festival were burdened with top-heavy personalities, usually perched upon a delicate fulcrum of psychological insecurity. Along with the plays, they became the resource material for a new series of paintings.

Artistic director Jean Gascon introduced the longstanding members of the company as “The Stratford Royalty.” The hierarchy was calculated and it served to intimidate newcomers who might rise too swiftly above their stations.

Richard III WATERCOLOR 24”x18” 1975

The tallish juve Stratford Shakespeare Festival, 1974

I remember one star of very short stature (a legendary giant in his own mind) who, upon noting that he was to share the stage with a tallish “juve,” announced in acid sibilants to the director: “Whenever I make an entrance, I want whatssshisssname, the hulking blue-eyed number in the loincloth, to ssstand well to the back!”

And so I did. I retreated into the world of my art and the honeymoon arms of the vivacious Francine.