Cinema and Stage: or, rather, sex and blood

I must admit, I was extremely excited for the arrival of ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore at CENTERSTAGE. At first, I wasn’t even sure why! When he discovered how much I was anticipating the production—before I had even read the script, at the time—our Resident Dramaturg Gavin Witt invited me to the department for a “brain-picking” session. Just why did this play interest me?

Through conversation with Gavin, Drew, and Katie, we realized one of the reasons for the appeal was that this script has a lot in common with the craft of filmmaking. Many of the movies that have made a stamp on our pop culture are those that combine beauty—lush in color, texture, or merely a graceful directorial touch—with a bit (or a lot) of the macabre. And this is no different.

’Tis Pity She’s a Whore is a Jacobean Revenge Tragedy, combing picturesque Italian setting and poetic dialogue with convoluted plot twists and a bloody and tragic ending. This balance of beauty and violence can be explored in any number of films, whether it is the stunning fights of Kill Bill, or Julie Taymor's Titus, which delves into Shakespeare's bloody tale violence and revenge with gutso, and yet so often during the film you find yourself gasping at the beauty of her shots.
And add into consideration that 'Tis Pity is a 350 year old play that deals with sexual taboo—and one that is still considered such, unlike many period plays that can often seem more tame to today's audiences. However, a brother and sister in love is still a sketchy subject, no question.

All of this came together to produce our TABOO Free Film series, in conjunction with City Paper and the Windup Space. So far we have presented Titus and The House of Yes (who can resist Parker Posey? and talk about brother/sister relationships...), and next week The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover rounds out the series. So, I guess we weren’t too off when we began describing this production as “Romeo & Juliet meets Quentin Tarantio,” after all!

Whether you can make the free movie showing or not, we hope you'll come see ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore here at CENTERSTAGE. With the official opening this week, it was great to see how all the hard work over the last month has come together to create something that audiences are really talking about: a perhaps shocking, surprisingly funny, and yet still touching tale.

~Heather

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Photos (top to bottom) Colby Chambers and Kristen Sieh; Reese Madigan and Felicity Jones; Reese Madigan, Colby Chambers, Curt Hostetter, Kristen Sieh, Corey Pierno, and Tim Artz. Photos by Richard Anderson