go to the dogs
面白い記事を見つけました。Othelloくん、見出しはどういう意味ですか。（UG）
Shakespeare goes to the dogs
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 7:46a.m.
By Emma Jolliff
A Kapiti Coast animal trainer is training a Great Dane - a dog - for a play about Hamlet. He's thought to be the biggest Great Dane in the country. The Irish production is part of the International Arts Festival that starts in Wellington today.
Remus, the gentle, slobbering Great Dane is starring in The Rehearsal, Playing The Dane. According to trainer James Delaney, it seems his job's less about the dog and more about training the actors to deal with him.
"A lot of people are intimidated by a big dog and, when they lean on you, like Danes do, lean on you, it's 80 kilos, they just about push you over." Although Remus won't be performing special tricks, Delaney says theatre can be tricky. "It's not like film where you can go, 'Cut, reset.' With theatre you've got to play along as if it's supposed to be like that."
Delaney's no stranger to training animals, having worked on projects like the movie Babe. Artistic director Gavin Quinn describes the play as "a play within a play", an entertaining and accessible look at Hamlet.
So why the dog?
"For obvious punning reasons, the Dane playing the Great Dane is an obvious choice, but also it's really interesting to watch an animal on stage, the Great Dane is a very majestic dog who's unconsciously performing," says Quinn. The play's been performed in Ireland, the United States and Australia. Each time, the company recruits a local dog, an academic and nine teenagers.
"You have this weird thing where you're working really intensely for four days before and then we're on, so it hasn't quite sunk in that we're performing yet, and you're looking at the stage behind us and you're going ah, it's really happening," says student Sam Skoog. "It's very interesting for local audiences to see, to hear their own accents on stage, and to have this contact with the local community," says Quinn.
The play won the People's Choice Award in Dublin. Delaney's confident Remus is up to the job, but just in case there is an understudy - or in this case an underdog.
