{"id":515,"date":"2007-01-02T00:47:34","date_gmt":"2007-01-02T05:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=515"},"modified":"2018-08-19T07:46:52","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T11:46:52","slug":"timothy-findlay%e2%80%99s-elizabeth-rex-sweete-2002-filmed-play-w-diane-d%e2%80%99aquila-peter-hutt-brent-carver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=515","title":{"rendered":"(Sweete 2002) Timothy Findlay\u2019s Elizabeth Rex [tv play; w. Diane D\u2019Aquila, Peter Hutt, Brent Carver]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim\u00ado\u00adthy Find\u00adley (1930\u20132002) was one of Canada\u2019s finest nov\u00adel\u00adists, but he began as an actor before turn\u00ading to writ\u00ading. He was part of the orig\u00adi\u00adnal Strat\u00adford Fes\u00adti\u00adval com\u00adpa\u00adny in the 1950s, act\u00ading along\u00adside Alec Guin\u00adness. His life\u00adtime part\u00adner, William White\u00adhead, his inseper\u00ada\u00adble oth\u00ader half from 1951 until his death, was an actor and direc\u00adtor, respon\u00adsi\u00adble, among oth\u00ader things, for over a hun\u00addred episodes of the ground\u00adbreak\u00ading sci\u00adence series The Nature of Things<\/em>, and the extreme\u00adly intel\u00adli\u00adgent radio series Ideas. They occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adrat\u00aded on screen\u00adplays. So it should come as no sur\u00adprise that Find\u00adley wrote a fine play, as well as famil\u00adiar nov\u00adels like The Wars<\/em> and The Last of the Crazy Peo\u00adple<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Eliz\u00ada\u00adbeth Rex<\/em>, his most suc\u00adcess\u00adful play, pre\u00admiered at the Strat\u00adford Fes\u00adti\u00adval of Cana\u00adda in 2001. It is the prod\u00aduct of a mature crafts\u00adman, and this tele\u00advi\u00adsion pro\u00adduc\u00adtion of the play, star\u00adring Diane D\u2019Aquila and Brent Carv\u00ader, is both great dra\u00adma and great tele\u00advi\u00adsion. The set\u00adting is the evening in 1601, when Eliz\u00ada\u00adbeth I is known to have spent with William Shake\u00adspeare\u2019s act\u00ading com\u00adpa\u00adny, and dur\u00ading which her para\u00admour, Robert Dev\u00adereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was exe\u00adcut\u00aded. Shake\u00adspeare is a char\u00adac\u00adter in the play, but only in a sup\u00adport\u00ading role. The dra\u00adma focus\u00ades on Eliz\u00ada\u00adbeth and one of the actors in Shake\u00adspeare\u2019s com\u00adpa\u00adny, Ned Lowen\u00adscroft. Lowen\u00adscroft was a famed per\u00adformer of female roles. Eliz\u00ada\u00adbeth, of course, is most famous for her ambigu\u00adous male and female per\u00adson\u00adae. Lowen\u00adscroft is as impu\u00addent and devi\u00adous as Eliz\u00ada\u00adbeth. Find\u00adley uses this fic\u00adtion\u00adal con\u00adfronta\u00adtion to explore every aspect of male\u00adness and fem\u00adi\u00adnin\u00adi\u00adty. The twists and turns in the dia\u00adlog, with first one, then the oth\u00ader gain\u00ading the upper hand, like two hell-cat lovers flip\u00adping sex\u00adu\u00adal posi\u00adtions, are writ\u00adten and act\u00aded with mas\u00adter\u00adly skill. Find\u00adley used mod\u00adern lan\u00adguage in the play, not some pseu\u00addo-Eliz\u00ada\u00adbethan anachro\u00adnism. But the rhythm is Shake\u00adspear\u00adi\u00adan. I have rarely seen a mod\u00adern play with this degree of delight in (and con\u00adtrol) of lan\u00adguage. Find\u00adley under\u00adstood and loved the Eng\u00adlish lan\u00adguage, just as he obvi\u00adous\u00adly loved and under\u00adstood peo\u00adple. This is the work of a for\u00admi\u00adda\u00adble man.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim\u00ado\u00adthy Find\u00adley (1930\u20132002) was one of Canada\u2019s finest nov\u00adel\u00adists, but he began as an actor before turn\u00ading to writ\u00ading. He was part of the orig\u00adi\u00adnal Strat\u00adford Fes\u00adti\u00adval com\u00adpa\u00adny in the 1950s, act\u00ading along\u00adside Alec Guin\u00adness. His life\u00adtime part\u00adner, William Whitehead, \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[948,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-d-viewing","category-dt-viewing-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9279,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions\/9279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}