I keep seeing her in expensive outfits and scarves. My hair always looks permed and has the right high fashion mixture of salt and pepper, so that’s easy. She is perpetually calculating over how to achieve advantage for her family, herself, and her big strong boy. She is part of the power structure, no doubt, and pulls any strings she needs to pull. Yes, you have the model in mind; I’m sure. I’m interested in playing with a straightforward male voice and presence. Not necessarily to show she’s “unfeminine” or some such thing, but because she’s a serious force and I don’t want to distract with dragging it up. I’m not very good at drag, anyway. Sexually inscrutable unless I can utilize it in an utterly self-serving and direct way; which, I hope, can play as a shock for the audience when it suddenly emerges.
I, on the other hand, keep trying for that absolute female weakness in Virgilia that so exasperates Volumnia. I can’t quite get it, possibly because I have no clue as to how that kind of thing works.
Remember your Acting 101. “Weakness” may not be a useful idea because it’s not active; it’s characterization, not character. Volumnia is a crocodile; I would imagine most people would come across as “weak” in comparison. But I think there is something very powerful in Virgilia’s resistance in this scene. That comes from somewhere.
Even her successful resistance to going out on the town springs from her inability to confront the risk Martius has put himself in. She does not buy into the public “show me your scars”/manhood/Roman thing. I think she herself regards this as a failure. How would you categorize that impulse-wise?
Okay, so you want a close reading. I will see if I can determine Shakespeare’s POV. Yes, in the wake of the textual undecidability exegetes, I realize that was a naive thing to say.
Oooh, undecidability exegetes. I love it when you talk dirty to me.
Another question we could raise is whether Virgilia is in fact the “better” Roman wife, in that she does retire from view, instead of putting herself out there like Volumnia. Even their names are suggestive, I think: volume vs. virgin. In that sense, this scene is, as you suggested, a power struggle.
AND I don’t think we need to determine Shakespeare’s POV. Part of John Russell Brown’s shtick, if you will recall, is that you don’t work on that kind of thing. You learn your lines and slug it out with everyone else in the scene. The audience then figures out the POV themselves.
Is that in fact possible?
No, I quite agree. I was just trying to respond to the “impulse-wise” question without really responding. Whether or not Virgilia is just there to be a doormat is a question to explore in a rehearsal process. Ultimately, what makes for the most interesting playing? By the way, like any self-respecting pretentious theatre artist, I over-use the word “interesting.” Feel free to call me on it at any time.
Interesting.
I thought our discussion of Volumnia and Virgilia last night (8/20) was very good. I think Greg is right that the absence of Mr. Volumnia is key to her, and I’m voting for a husband that disappointed in every way. He’s never mentioned in the play, not once, and that’s highly unusual in Shakespeare, if not unique.
To play with the comments earlier here, and the ones last night re: the hidden power of Virgilia… What if she were an extremely strong character, playing at weakness, either 1) becuase it created an effective barrier against the Volumnia (who would surely charge all the harder given “real” opposition) or 2) because she knew it annoyed the snot out of her mother-in-law…
Her strength may lie in being true to her feelings. It is through her “resistance” that Volumnia reveals her nature. I agree. Playing “wimp” is not realistic anyway.
I keep seeing her in expensive outfits and scarves. My hair always looks permed and has the right high fashion mixture of salt and pepper, so that’s easy. She is perpetually calculating over how to achieve advantage for her family, herself, and her big strong boy. She is part of the power structure, no doubt, and pulls any strings she needs to pull. Yes, you have the model in mind; I’m sure. I’m interested in playing with a straightforward male voice and presence. Not necessarily to show she’s “unfeminine” or some such thing, but because she’s a serious force and I don’t want to distract with dragging it up. I’m not very good at drag, anyway. Sexually inscrutable unless I can utilize it in an utterly self-serving and direct way; which, I hope, can play as a shock for the audience when it suddenly emerges.
I, on the other hand, keep trying for that absolute female weakness in Virgilia that so exasperates Volumnia. I can’t quite get it, possibly because I have no clue as to how that kind of thing works.
Remember your Acting 101. “Weakness” may not be a useful idea because it’s not active; it’s characterization, not character. Volumnia is a crocodile; I would imagine most people would come across as “weak” in comparison. But I think there is something very powerful in Virgilia’s resistance in this scene. That comes from somewhere.
Even her successful resistance to going out on the town springs from her inability to confront the risk Martius has put himself in. She does not buy into the public “show me your scars”/manhood/Roman thing. I think she herself regards this as a failure. How would you categorize that impulse-wise?
Okay, so you want a close reading. I will see if I can determine Shakespeare’s POV. Yes, in the wake of the textual undecidability exegetes, I realize that was a naive thing to say.
Oooh, undecidability exegetes. I love it when you talk dirty to me.
Another question we could raise is whether Virgilia is in fact the “better” Roman wife, in that she does retire from view, instead of putting herself out there like Volumnia. Even their names are suggestive, I think: volume vs. virgin. In that sense, this scene is, as you suggested, a power struggle.
AND I don’t think we need to determine Shakespeare’s POV. Part of John Russell Brown’s shtick, if you will recall, is that you don’t work on that kind of thing. You learn your lines and slug it out with everyone else in the scene. The audience then figures out the POV themselves.
Is that in fact possible?
No, I quite agree. I was just trying to respond to the “impulse-wise” question without really responding. Whether or not Virgilia is just there to be a doormat is a question to explore in a rehearsal process. Ultimately, what makes for the most interesting playing? By the way, like any self-respecting pretentious theatre artist, I over-use the word “interesting.” Feel free to call me on it at any time.
Interesting.
I thought our discussion of Volumnia and Virgilia last night (8/20) was very good. I think Greg is right that the absence of Mr. Volumnia is key to her, and I’m voting for a husband that disappointed in every way. He’s never mentioned in the play, not once, and that’s highly unusual in Shakespeare, if not unique.
To play with the comments earlier here, and the ones last night re: the hidden power of Virgilia… What if she were an extremely strong character, playing at weakness, either 1) becuase it created an effective barrier against the Volumnia (who would surely charge all the harder given “real” opposition) or 2) because she knew it annoyed the snot out of her mother-in-law…
Her strength may lie in being true to her feelings. It is through her “resistance” that Volumnia reveals her nature. I agree. Playing “wimp” is not realistic anyway.