The Revenger's Tragedy Workshop - Blog - Molly Rose King

Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy stands as a brilliant early example of parody, taking the

familiar tropes of tragedy and stretching them towards the grotesque for comedic effect. During our research and development process with Lazarus Theatre Company, we found ourselves laughing, at times uncomfortably, at its black comedy. The play confronts us with themes of misogyny, corruption, torture, and even necrophilia. That tension between horror and humour became one of our most striking discoveries in the room.

Our protagonist Vindice’s driving force comes from a guttural impulse: a willingness to leap

before he looks, to seize every opportunity with reckless intuition. He rarely holds the upper

hand for long, yet his constant impulse to say “yes” propels the play through its five acts.

That boldness, charismatic, dangerous, and unrelenting is what elevates him above the crowd of courtiers and conspirators. It is also, we realised, what often distinguishes a compelling protagonist.

A conversation that stayed with me from our two sessions was how much this “say yes”

mentality applies to us as actors too. Vindice moves the plot because he acts, not because he waits. In our own careers, we can claim agency, pursue the opportunities within our reach, and refuse to wait passively for permission; whether from Middleton, a casting director, or anyone else.

I have left the research and development with inspiration from the other creatives in the room, hungry to delve further into these early modern texts, and determined to carry a little bit of Vindice’s audacity…just perhaps with a little less murder.

A Life of Galileo - Blog - Edward Haines

Actively exploring Galileo’s journeys to fight for what was in his lifetime his own truth proved a great experiment in resilience! The company of actors in this Lazarus R&D remained physically, intellectually, creatively active outside a four roped ringed stage, when we were not diving into the beating verbal fencing matches of Brecht’s text, forensically noting others lines related to important themes. And there were a lot! From science to commerce, love to torture. You could tell how many obstacles Galileo had to contend with as he travelled across the Holy Roman Empire assuring different stakeholders the Earth is on the move and not at the centre of the universe.

It struck me how revered he was in his early career for helping improve navigation techniques for sailors. And that later due to pressures of the Church and social-economic structures, his communicative public persona turned to one that had to become more private and reclusive in order to protect scientific observations for future generations.

It’s interesting the parallels with Brecht choosing to flee his native Germany to write more openly. I got to multirole with 6 different parts and along with observing the other multirole tracks, they made me realise the directness in Brecht’s language. Perhaps similar to Galileo’s rigour in star pattern changes through telescopes, Brecht could really examine, with great magnanimity, how influenced a whole load of job roles were by societal pressures. This clarity meant he had to express his teaching plays with strong alertness.

A Life of Galileo - Blog - Hannah Breedon

I was over the moon to be invited to Lazarus Theatre Company’s rehearsed reading of

Bertolt Brecht’s “A Life of Galileo”. After too many delays (thank you TfL), I finally arrived at

the beautiful Admiral Rooms at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. What a treat to

be working in such a beautiful space. And an even better treat? Working with such a

talented group of actors and creatives.

I have never attended a play read quite like this one! After warming up and introducing ourselves, we used an exercise called “French Exiting” in which we recorded each new scene starting when someone entered or exited the space.

Pieces of paper with key themes were dotted around the room too, for actors to

write quotes relating to these themes when not in the playing space. And as the music

played each time someone entered or exited, we danced to a new theme. It was absolute

chaos (in the best possible way!). We continued with a slightly cooled down version of this

until the play was finished. Possibly my favourite part of the day was the post play

discussion. Listening to so many different perspectives and opinions on the piece was eye

opening. As a new creative, listening to those with experience and knowledge (particularly

on Brecht’s works) was invaluable to me. Seeing how many parallels a play written in 1938

had with our lives and the world around us today was astounding. It is proof that theatre

really is timeless!