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acroyearSo, what is it with him and killing off female characters off-screen just before the big finish?
Two I can name at the top of my head, Lady Montegue (R&J), and Nell (Mistress Quickly/Pistol) in Henry V, but I'm pretty sure they're not the only ones.
It is interesting that in some R&J productions, they just sort of cut out the L.M. death (including the Zefferelli film), making me wonder that it wasn't so much a plot requirement as a pragmatic one for the actors - the actor (male) who played the character was needed for another role, and with today's use of women to play their parts, and sometimes playing men's roles to balance things better, that's less necessary.
Just a thought that occurred to me. There are other off-screen "announcements" of deaths, some plot-related (Rosencranz and Gildenstern, of course), others not, just before the finale as well, again leading me to think it's a # of actors thing for the original production. :)
Two I can name at the top of my head, Lady Montegue (R&J), and Nell (Mistress Quickly/Pistol) in Henry V, but I'm pretty sure they're not the only ones.
It is interesting that in some R&J productions, they just sort of cut out the L.M. death (including the Zefferelli film), making me wonder that it wasn't so much a plot requirement as a pragmatic one for the actors - the actor (male) who played the character was needed for another role, and with today's use of women to play their parts, and sometimes playing men's roles to balance things better, that's less necessary.
Just a thought that occurred to me. There are other off-screen "announcements" of deaths, some plot-related (Rosencranz and Gildenstern, of course), others not, just before the finale as well, again leading me to think it's a # of actors thing for the original production. :)
