Tabling: The Podcast

Brittany Chandler, Mitchel Kawash, Samantha Blinn, Claire Curtis-Ward and Ariana Karp tackle the epic final act of The White Devil - our cold read ran around 55 minutes! 

We discuss a number of topics, including: 

• Flamineo’s changes in the final act, the realization of mortality
• Bracciano’s violent and public death
• Vittoria’s ascension to being a Duchess
• The significance of Francisco’s “moorish” disguise
• The ‘othering’ of different characters
• The Jacobean aesthetic of decay
• Marcello’s place as a sibling with Vittoria and Flamineo
• The play with traditional gender roles between Bracciano and Vittoria
• Revenge is a dish served very icily in this play
• Vittoria and Flamineo’s death “games” at the end of the play
• Does Flamineo at the very end, acknowledge his deep love for his sister?
• Who is “The White Devil”?

In this penultimate act Brittany Chandler, Claire Curtis-Ward, Samantha Blinn, Mitchel Kawash and Ariana Karp explore:

• Francisco’s Imagery & the complexity of his plot
• The fizzure in the relationship between Francisco and Monticelso
• Francisco as a socio-path
• The actress’s choice about how far the relationship has gone between Vittoria and Bracchiano
• Why does Vittoria stop speaking in the prison scene?
• Flamineo and Vittoria’s relationship in the prison scene
• The strong undercurrent of anti-Catholicism in the play 

This week Brittany Chandler, Christopher Weihert, Mitchel Kawash, Claire Curtis-Ward, Samantha Blinn, Parker Denton & Ariana Karp delve into the iconic trial scene of Act III of John Webster’s The White Devil.

We discuss, among other things:

• Three siblings on trial for the same crime
• The overt misogyny and patronization of the court
• The role of the ambassadors in foreign judicial system
• The Pope and the global ecclesiastical power 
• The Elizabethan/Jacobean knack for setting controversial stories in Italy
• Vittoria as a proto-Protestant hero in that she demands that the proceedings are conducted in the language of the people as opposed to Latin
• Why does Bracchiano leave in the middle of the trail scene?
• The timeline for the discovery of Isabella’s death 
• Intention versus action 

Promotional image for the RSC's production of The White Devil

ACT II

We move on to Act II of The White Devil with Director Brittany Chandler, and participants Christopher Weihart, Mitchel Kawash, Claire Curtis-Ward, Samantha Blinn, Parker Denton & Ariana Karp.

We spend the first couple of minutes trying to make sense of the complicated family relationships between all the the new characters that are introduced at the top of Act 2. We then progress to other topics:

• The various pros and cons of powdered unicorn horn
• Political power dynamics of the aristocracy Bracciano vs Francisco and Montecelso
• Shared figurative language (Similes and Metaphors) 
• Flamineo’s reckless cynicism
• Jacobean verse vs prose
• Rapid escalation of aggression between Bracciano and Francisco broken only by Giovanni’s entrance
• Isabella as a parallel/double to Vittoria
• Specificity of complicated Jacobean murders
• Elizabethan/Jacobean dumb shows 
• Webster and stage directions

Brittany Chandler, Mitchel Kawash, Samantha Blinn, Parker Denton, and Ariana Karp discuss Act I of The White Devil. 

Topics of discussion include:

• Carriage humor
• Social Darwinism
• Vittoria and Bracciano’s sexuality within the language
• Flamineo’s power and agency coming from ‘playing’ the man, rejecting traditional female avenues of power
• Why do Jacobean brothers pimp out their sisters?
• Capitalism and Jacobean personal relationships
• Cuckolded husbands and their portrayal in Jacobean drama and comedy
• Disconnect between how Vittoria is described and how she appears
• Farcical elements of the second scene
• Flamineo, chaos and motivation
• Webster and Religion

Poster for National Theatre Production

Brand new play with a few new voices! Join Brittany Chandler, Mitchel Kawash, Samantha Blinn, Parker Denton, and Ariana Karp as we dive into John Webster’s early tragedy, The White Devil. 

Director Brittany Chandler leads the discussion, introducing this Jacobean masterpiece through the lens of the character Flamineo, whom she played at LAMDA. Her concept is to examine the play with the given circumstance that Flamineo (a male character in the original play) is a woman. Brittany completed her master’s thesis on the subject! 

Among many topics we discuss:

• Our own experiences with the play
• Gender and gender fluidity in Elizabethan and Jacobean plays
• Family dynamics within the play
• How the Duchess of Malfi (also by John Webster) echoes The White Devil
• Historical reception
• Jacobean nostalgia for Elizabeth I and the chaste female ruler
• Siblings in Jacobean drama and the obsession with the sister’s sexuality

Webster's forward of The White Devil.

Claire Curtis-Ward, Samantha Blinn, Ariana Karp conclude our discussion of King Lear with an examination of Act V. Topics include:

• Is there hope at the end of King Lear?
• Is there a moral or lesson?
• Re-connecting with Erasmus “In Praise of Folly” 
• “Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.” The importance of “feeling” and experiencing things “feelingly”
• Degrees of sympathy towards Lear throughout the play
• Lear as an examination of the connection between loyalty and disobedience. 
• Parallels between Gloucester and Lear’s deaths
• 20th century ‘timeliness’
• Apocalyptic visions?
• “Pray you, undo this button, Thank you sir.” 

Colm Feore as King Lear, 2015. 

Claire Curtis-Ward, Rafe Terrizzi, Samantha Blinn & Ariana Karp discuss Act IV of King Lear. Discussion topics include:

• Edgar’s first philosophical monologue
• The mirroring and parallel situations/characters within King Lear 
• The textual differences between Quarto and the Folio
• The sexy messengers
• Goneril and her relationship to danger
• Cordelia and her imperative language as a leader
• King Lear and being filthy

Geoffrey Rush as King Lear

This week Sam Gibbs, Samantha Blinn, Rafe Terrizzi, Ariana Karp examine Act III of King Lear. 

• “Articulate” madness
• Writing for actors—Will Kempe the buffooning clown vs. Robert Armin the intellectual fool 
• Meta-theatrical moment of the fool’s prophesy
• The horror and cost of prophecy and incantation 
• Demonic possession (both true and framed) in the Jacobean era
• Sam Harsnett and The Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures and the overlap with Edgar’s “Poor Tom” dialogue
• The significance of Edgar’s madness
• Difference between the Quarto and Folio versions of King Lear
• The relationship between Blindness the Fool and the Madman
• Words that have the prefix “un” and their psychological significance 

Frank Langella as King Lear in Act III

Join Claire Curtis-Ward, Samantha Blinn, Sam Gibbs, Levi Morger, Rafe Terrizzi and Ariana Karp as we explore Act II of Shakespeare’s King Lear.

• The significance of setting-Gloucester’s Castle
• The two meanings of Nature
• The Fool’s silence during the "unnatural hags" scene
• The consequences of cruelty
• Who is the “everyman”?
• Feigned madness versus “true” madness
• The power of family love/hate
• The second circle of address and the relationship to the audience for each of the characters

Sir Ian McKellen as Lear