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Season 6 Casting, Sightings and Speculations

Swineherd

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Swamp Dweller Sellsword

Swamp Dweller

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So this acting troupe in season 6.... is the play in Braavos or KL? I had thought KL, but new casting story on WotW has actor tweeting that he is flying RyanAir to Bravosi [sic].

Possible spoiler (sorry I'm on my phone and not sure how to put it in a spoiler tag on here)

If it's like the Mercy chapter in tWoW the play will take place in Braavos
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HexMachina Council Member

HexMachina

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So this acting troupe in season 6.... is the play in Braavos or KL? I had thought KL, but new casting story on WotW has actor tweeting that he is flying RyanAir to Bravosi [sic].

I don't know. As I understand it they are shooting both Braavos and King's Landing in Girona so its going to be difficult to know who is shooting for what location.

 

EDIT: My initial thoughts were that they would be in Braavos (as with the Mercy chapter) and when they left Arya would leave with them. If we take the Waif scene as episode 8, Arya loses the Waif by hiding in th acting troupe and the troupe ship to Westeros, ending Arya's arc this year with her return to the Riverlands, mirroring her ending scene for Season 4.

 

Purely speculative of course

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WhitewolfStark Noble

WhitewolfStark

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Plus I wonder if a play mocking the royal family would be allowed to be performed in Kings Landing without some risks, just a thought. In Essos they can make fun of the Westerosi nobles all they want without fear of pissing off the wrong person, KL maybe not

If you haven't read Mercy... then I'd suggest stopping here and skipping on. Otherwise...
 

The play was mocking Tyrion more than anything. It was called The Bloody Hand after all. In it liberties are taken so that Tyrion is turned into this Richard III figure straight out of Shakespearean theatre.

Martin even makes the comparison obvious by paraphrasing lines:

 

 

“The seven-faced god has cheated me,” he began, snarling the words. “My noble sire he made of purest gold, and gold he made my siblings, boy and girl. But I am formed of darker stuff, of bones and blood and clay… “

 

The language is clearly drawing from below:
 

 

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;

The fact that The Bloody Hand begins in a lichfield and soon meets with an embodiment of the Stranger to swear his vow of death and destruction and "drink of his cup" is reminiscent to the scene in Hamlet when Hamlet is swearing for vengeance to his father's ghost.

 

The throwaway description of the play having two kings, a fat old one and young one at the end alludes not only to the situation in AGOT, but also to Richard III, especially the part about the fat old king having a good death speech is a good description of Edward IV's monologue in Richard III.
 

The chapter is filled with similar Shakespeare nods, from the title which is a wink to the main argument of Portia in The Merchant of Venice, that mercy is the quality worth having, even towards the merciless, and that it's mercy which separates the New Testament religion from the Old Testament religion. As is typical of Martin, mercy is denied, with the allusion made to give it an ironic tweak of the nose.

Phyro Forel is known for having penned the play The Bloody Hand, and is known for the bloodiest quill, which calls back to how Shakespeare got his start as his first few plays were blood and gore fests designed to compete with the other major form of entertainment in Renaissance Europe: the gallows.

In any case, the play is designed to do one thing: vilify Tyrion by making him the mastermind which started the Stark-Lannister feud and subsequent war, and turn Joffrey and Cersei into living saints on earth. There'd be very little drama about such a play performed in King's Landing IMO as that's exactly the story Cersei wants to hear.

Which brings us back to Shakespeare and that his history plays were exactly what the monarchs wanted to hear, with all the ancestors of the current monarchs whether they be Tudor or Stuart glorified and made saintly even if the truth is a bit more... well, complex.

Personally, I loved the preview chapter and am looking forward to seeing the TV show take a crack at parodying themselves and acknowledge their own tendencies that it might just afford them the opportunity to win back some respect after Season 5. Or they could instead fumble it by making fun of the books more than themselves... which would go very badly... very very badly IMO.

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Newstar Council Member

Newstar

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Judging from the photos of the actors in the theatre troupe in costume in Girona, coupled with the casting calls, it looks like the play will include "Ned," "Sansa," "Tyrion," "Joffrey," "Robert," and "Margaery." There is an actress in the theatre troupe wearing a red and gold dress who's only ever been shot in fan pictures from the back, but who isn't wearing a wig like the other actresses in the play; she has short, dark hair but she isn't supposed to be Maisie Williams. This might be "Cersei," but her lack of a blonde wig is strange (especially since she appears in shots where the other actresses in the play appear to be in full costume, including wigs). There are two actors in the theatre troupe wearing identical costumes--a red coat and trousers--with very different appearances: one is tall, lean, and clean-shaven, the other short, rotund and bearded. I wondered if they might be "Robert" and "Renly."

 

Even though there was no casting call that we saw for a little person to play Bobono (the actor playing "Tyrion" in the Mercy chapter play), there is indeed a "Tyrion" in some of the footage and photographs of the theatre troupe from filming in Girona.

 

The costuming for the play is actually pretty clever in terms of trying to call back to the real characters' costumes while deliberately making the replica costumes look cheap and ill-made. I love the play's cheap, low-rent versions of the costumes certain characters wear. "Margaery" (who appears to be played by actress Eva Butterly) has a ton of cheap-looking flowers in her hairstyle and her costume has a section with a gaudy, flowery print. "Ned" is wearing fabric with a diamond pattern that imitates Ned's actual leather tunic with diamond leather panels. "Sansa's" gown has a gold band of fabric at the bottom, but it has fluttery sleeves out of some cheap, white material with a similar diamond pattern.

 

For the record, since there was a debate about this in the Mercy chapter in TWOW, there are some good pictures of "Sansa" in costume (red wig and all), and Maisie Williams isn't "Sansa." I imagine that Arya will be playing a servant girl raped by "Tyrion" in the play, which seemed to be her role in the Mercy chapter. She posted a picture of herself after filming with her hair all curly and messed up, which led one fan to speculate that her hair was so messed up because it had been pinned into place underneath a wig.

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Hippocras Council Member

Hippocras

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Plus I wonder if a play mocking the royal family would be allowed to be performed in Kings Landing without some risks, just a thought. In Essos they can make fun of the Westerosi nobles all they want without fear of pissing off the wrong person, KL maybe not

well yes, but I had assumed the power dynamics would change during the season. That would make it a direct retaliation for the five kings pantomime at the Purple Wedding....which would certainly be a bit delicious.

Either way this theatre group is probably Arya's escape...it is just a matter of when the play happens relative to her joining them.


Newstar - You have seen pics I have not. Where did you see them? Nevermind! They must have been added after I read the article.
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Aemon's counsel Freerider

Aemon's counsel

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Question: is it possible that Ian McShae is a recast for the Blackfish?

 

Could very well be, but it would be a shame if true.

 

The show got a lot of things wrong with the Blackfish (in particular, forgetting that he existed for two whole seasons) but the casting definitely wasn't one of them.

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Hippocras Council Member

Hippocras

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Question: is it possible that Ian McShae is a recast for the Blackfish?


Why would you think that?

Best bet is he is Meribald/Elder Brother (merged character). I would have said Tarly but descriptions of his level of involvement and where and when he filmed do not match. We know we are getting Sandor (the Hound is dead, long live Sandor) so the reasons for his continuing existence will need context....like that "maester hanging out behind that rock" ie. Meribald, and that connected story wherever it goes.
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Hippocras Council Member

Hippocras

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SPOILERS


So it is Jamie who rides a horse up the steps. Would not have guessed that. And Marge is an "instrument of the Faith"? Interesting way of putting it, but in her book story she is very much about a show of Faith so this is not a huge surprise. The books just had more space to drop references to her religious activities.
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Swamp Dweller Sellsword

Swamp Dweller

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SPOILERS


So it is Jamie who rides a horse up the steps. Would not have guessed that. And Marge is an "instrument of the Faith"? Interesting way of putting it, but in her book story she is very much about a show of Faith so this is not a huge surprise. The books just had more space to drop references to her religious activities.


I know right, I honestly didn't expect that either but hey who else is that badass, (maybe a call back to Tywin riding into the throne room scene). But yeah maybe this is a show of commitment by Jaime to his role as LC by helping free the queen which his king obviously desperately wants but has been unsuccessful in doing without the proper force, while also undermining Cersei who he has to know is behind all this and probably isn't too happy finding out about Lancel.
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