Latest news with #Oedipus
The Guardian
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Oedipus at Colonus/Electra review – a double shot of Sophocles in Sicily
Concurrent London productions recently presented Oedipus as a modern politician pledging a new start (Mark Strong in the West End) and as a distant detective investigating a climate catastrophe that jeopardises Thebans' future (Rami Malek at the Old Vic). Sophocles' late play Oedipus at Colonus, less commonly known, looks not ahead but backwards. This elegiac tragedy finds the exile reaching the end of his life. The 5,000-strong audience at Syracuse's ancient outdoor theatre hear Giuseppe Sartori's barefoot Oedipus before they see him. His wooden staff strikes the steps as he descends among us, down to the front row and on to a stage populated by trees that thicken the woodland around the theatre. 'It seems this place is sacred,' announces Antigone (Fotinì Peluso) at the wanderer's side. That goes for this Sicilian playing space as well as the drama's setting of Colonus, near Athens. Physically frail, Oedipus is approaching his resting place, yet Sartori strikingly shows us a man who steadily grows stronger not weaker in the face of death. Aside from the dependable Theseus (Massimo Nicolini), the inhabitants of Colonus recoil at his arrival, not just because he traipses across the forbidden ground of the Eumenides. Without even introducing himself, his stain is apparent. One local desperately cleans the dirty footprints this ragged stranger leaves behind him. In the play, Oedipus makes sense of, or rather comes to terms with, a past that is unspeakable – literally so, when he begs not to retread the horrific revelations about his parents. Sartori clutches his cloak around himself, as if covering his modesty, only to reveal a bare chest as the events of the earlier tragedy are unpicked. He discovers that he wields a power in choosing the place of his death and can control the outcome of the battle between his sons. But the play's most affecting conflict is internal, as Oedipus finds peace with himself and the staff is tossed to one side: 'I did what I did unknowingly.' Healing and a sense of purification are at the heart of Canadian Robert Carsen's taut production using Francesco Morosi's emotionally direct translation for this season, where plays are performed in Italian with other languages available to audiences via earpieces. Jugs of water are ritually emptied in the orchestra, the space between stage and audience, by the chorus. Or rather, by one of the choruses. As well as the turbulent pack of white-suited men, a sisterhood in verdant gowns arrive to deliver a speech signalling the radiant beauty of Colonus, their words spoken as if intoxicated by its beauty and their bodies posed to evoke green shoots of renewal. The women, too, are given Sophocles' painful yet moving assessment of the inescapability of suffering and death. Only the decision to lend Oedipus some of their choreography strikes an odd note that weakens the mysterious, secretive quality of his transformative death. Carsen balances the contrasting paces of a play which, with the scheme hatched by Creon (a suavely malevolent Paolo Mazzarelli), momentarily grips like a thriller amid the heavily reflective pronouncements. 'Time sees everything,' runs one. As if to remind us, designer Radu Boruzescu's tall trees, planted on a stage of tiered rows akin to the hillside audience's, observe it all throughout. The resilient forest of Colonus is a stark contrast to Gianni Carluccio's set design for Electra, the second tragedy in the season at Syracuse. Carluccio's stage is sloped rather than stepped; much of the drama plays out on a tilted floor that resembles a building's collapsed exterior. The fall of the house of Atreus. The dust-covered piano and busted bedstead give a sense that Electra still resides in a world before the brutal replacement of Agamemnon with Aegisthus at Clytemnestra's side. The windows, at this angle, become open graves; a plaintive string composition reverberates from within alongside the looped sound of broken glass. The scorched slabs at the back of the set begin to resemble fragments, too, of papyri. Under Roberto Andò's direction, this piercing new translation by Giorgio Ieranò sharpens Electra's affinity with the natural world. Her opening speech ('O pure sunlight') is given at the piano. In the title role, Sonia Bergamasco is as indelible as Sartori's Oedipus – her pain similarly twisting through her gestures (one knee is bandaged and she moves like a wounded animal) while her mind logically processes her father's actions. Dressed in ragged grey, she seems to merge with the floor when she lies still but is otherwise a frenzy of rebellion. A similar heat rises from a hair-flicking, often hissing female chorus in shift dresses. The sight of the urn supposedly containing Orestes' ashes is felt in the gut: she crumples from within, tenderly caressing the object as if it was his body. It's frequently asked why Orestes extends Electra's pain, fussily stage-managing his return, but Roberto Latini gives us a brother who after coolly planning the events is stunned by their reunion, almost unable to fathom it himself, fearful of her reaction. The moment is richly complex. Unlike Brie Larson in the recent London production, Bergamasco succeeds throughout in entwining the anger with grief. She is a sardonic match, too, for Clytemnestra (Anna Bonaiuto) who detonates the lines: 'Being a mother is a frightful thing. For as much as they hate you, there is no way to hate your own children.' This Electra is as physically disgusted as Hamlet is by the mother's 'enseamèd bed'. A sense of contest is inseparable from Sophocles' work, which was regularly entered in Athenian competitions, and one of the play's toughest scenes to conquer is Paedagogus's action-packed fabrication detailing Orestes's death in a chariot race. Danilo Nigrelli steers the speech superbly, only the wind to be heard during each pause, its transfixing effect heightened by a chorus who inch closer towards the teller. You almost believe the lie yourself and reach the edge of your seat as Electra's stasis is succeeded by a swift and ruthless revenge. The Greek theatre's summer programme runs until 6 July in Syracuse, Italy. Chris Wiegand's trip was provided by the National Institute of Ancient Drama.
Telegraph
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Hofesh Shechter interview: ‘The British are all for classical ballet, but they think dance is too arty'
Hofesh Shechter thinks we are confused by modern dance. 'People are misguided,' he says. 'English audiences, in particular, expect to come in, understand it, and have a good conversation about it afterwards.' The Israeli-born, soon-to-be-British choreographer would prefer people to approach contemporary dance 'more like a concert' – something you experience 'through your senses'. He adds: 'You never go to a classical concert thinking, I'm going to draw a conclusion at the end and then I will say one clever sentence to the person next to me.'' Since exploding onto the British scene nearly two decades ago with pieces like Uprising (which plays with masculine identity) and Political Mother (about indoctrination and totalitarianism), 49-year-old Shechter has shaken up modern dance. His shows, renowned for their booming soundtracks, which he often composes, can feel like a rock concert, although his latest artistic collaboration saw him co-direct a play. In Oedipus at the Old Vic, with Matthew Warchus, his dancers made a wordless, electrifying Greek chorus, punctuating Sophocles's drama like an excess of exclamation marks. Their contribution was exhilarating and visceral, words Shechter uses again and again to describe his work, as we chat over tea (a soothing lemon and ginger with honey for his sore throat) in London's Groucho Club. Shechter's input was a huge hit, enlivening an oddly stilted production that featured a critically mauled Rami Malek as Oedipus. The experience was 'a bit of a suicide mission', he says about doing something new with such a well-known text. 'How did I feel? It was a really great challenge! I was frustrated! People really did their best with a mass of curiosity and love to the art forms,' he adds. I wonder if British audiences, with our love for classical ballet and musicals, struggle with contemporary dance. Shechter blames the terminology. 'People watch dance in a theatre, which is a misleading word here because a theatre is a place where stories are told and narratives are given and people feel like they should understand something.' It's more helpful, he adds, to think about contemporary dance in terms of 'dreaming at night', which both does and does not explain why his newest creation, which premiered at Sadler's Wells last autumn, is called Theatre of Dreams. Not that Shechter is in the business of explaining much when it comes to his productions. 'I always prefer for people to know nothing,' he says. With the second UK outing for Theatre of Dreams coming up at the Brighton Festival, audiences can expect to lose themselves in a pulsating dreamworld that ricochets between fantasy and nightmare, enlivened by endless lighting-enhanced 'jump cuts', something of a Shechter trademark. It's folk dance meets clubland, with a score co-written by Shechter and his regular collaborator Yaron Engler. Or in his words: 'It's like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. It's going to play with your mind, it's going to play with your heart, it's going to play with your thoughts. Let it. Ride the wave and let go,' he says, his tuneful accent a gentle fusion of Israeli, French and the odd bit of American ('gonna'). It's hard to fathom the speed of Shechter's success looking back. Five years after arriving in London by Eurostar to work as a jobbing drummer in late 2002, his nascent company was headlining shows at Sadler's Wells. The internet boom helped – he uploaded Uprising to YouTube – as well as generous Arts Council funding. 'I think the visceral nature of the work, the honesty, the rawness of it, is what people connected to,' he says. Born in Jerusalem in 1975, Shechter was brought up by his father after his parents divorced. He did some folk dance at school but discovered ballet aged 15. 'That's very late. I was horrible at it,' he says. He stuck with dance, joining the junior company of Tel Aviv-based Batsheva, Israel's main contemporary dance company. Dancing gave him a special status, so he 'didn't really serve' with the Israel Defence Force, which is mandatory for Israeli citizens: 'I was this kind of a cleric in a high school.' In any case, he soon left, quitting both Batsheva and Israel. 'I didn't want to be there. The politics is way too loud, and it's a small place.' He hasn't visited for a while. 'Not since the war started. I have two little girls [aged 10 and 12] and it's all very distressing for them.' Shechter, who is lithe and tall and could pass for one of his own dancers, has the intense air of someone who is fulfilling his fate. 'What interests me is to make people feel connected through music and dance. I feel that it's an important mission that can melt the problematic nature of politics, which is polarising,' he says, never less than earnest. He likens the power of dancing with an audience to 'a ceremony… like the high priests, thousands of years ago'. The 'weirdness' of dance obsesses him. 'For me, it's a place to really explore the big unknowns. Dance is a great medium to look at stuff like death that we can talk about but we'll never understand.' Dance is also fun, something that comes across well in the 2022 movie En Corps (Rise, in English), a love letter to contemporary dance by the French filmmaker Cédric Klapisch that features both his company and Shechter himself; he persuades an injured young Parisian ballerina, Marion Barbeau (a principal dancer with Paris Opera) to swap ballet for a role in his company after she injures her ankle. It didn't get a UK release ('English people, right?') but is a must-stream. In reality, it's rare for classical dancers to make the switch to contemporary. 'They hold themselves very straight and my work is about flow and [being] gooey,' says Shechter, who is just back from touring Theatre of Dreams in Korea. In Britain, dancers come to contemporary dance 'very late', which puts them at a disadvantage compared to their European, Asian or American contemporaries. He adds: 'The culture here is very traditional – it encourages classical ballet or musical theatre but contemporary dance is [seen as] a bit too arty.' More young people should dance, full stop, he thinks. 'I feel that young people might be lost for purpose and I think dance is a great one in focusing people back to your body, to life, to the simple things.' In From England With Love, a recent piece for his junior company, Shechter II, his subject was the fractured state of his adopted homeland (he is soon to become a British citizen; 'I want to be able to vote.') He has no plans for a similar sister piece about Israel. 'There is too much nuance, there is too much argument, there is too much disagreement. It doesn't interest me as an artist to go there,' he says. Despite having something of a reputation for work with a political bent, he insists that it 'happens in the dust of politics… It looks at people in the shadow of the social structures that we created. We did our best and they're still quite sh-tty.' He wants to reprise his earlier creations. 'I'd rework them a bit, but bring them back. A lot of this work is unfortunately still relevant. I say unfortunately because all these works are dealing with the oppression and the survival of human beings inside the wonderful and pathetic structures we have created for ourselves.' Just remember: it's fine not to understand what you're watching.
The Independent
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Is this the final curtain for regional theatres?
When Lesley Manville was working as an actor in the 1980s, there was ample opportunity for her to work on stage and plenty of choices of shows for audiences to watch. But slowly, over the decades, she has sadly watched theatre after theatre close. It comes as theatre owners across the country have told The Independent of how they are worrying every day about underfunding putting their theatres at risk. As they struggle to keep their venues afloat, regional theatre might be facing its final act. Ms Manville called for better funding for theatres around the UK as she accepted Best Actress at the Olivier Awards for her role in Oedipus at the Wyndham Theatre, London. 'There is not enough money thrown into regional theatre,' she said as she picked up the award. She would later tell BBC's Today programme: 'It's tragic because those theatres serve their communities. Sometimes, travelling to go see a play, or a ballet, or an opera, might be prohibitive. 'And certainly from a performance point of view, there's less opportunity to work. When I was younger, you went anywhere to do a play. It's going to be a diminishing discipline because there's not always the amount of stage work available for them to go and do. The arts has to be, for our sanity, continued to be funded.' The two-time Olivier winner isn't the only actor concerned about the demise of regional theatres. Shereener Browne, soon to appear at Chichester Regional Theatre in The Government Inspector, said regional theatres are vital to the ecosystem of the arts. 'If we do not fund them properly and allow them to flourish, then actors emerging, and more established actors too, do not get the opportunity to flourish - to take risks with their arts and their creativity, which then is fed up the ecosystem to the larger theatres and the West End,' she told The Independent. 'I think the risk is that we will have a reduced number of creatives to feed the West End machine, which is huge. 'But more importantly and more potentially disastrous, we will lose the stories. we will lose those people who tell the stories that connect what's going on onstage to the audience. I mean, it's all very well and good for us to have Mamma Mia, but really what people want to see are stories that resonate with them and are relatable. And those will reduce massively in numbers if we do not fund the writers, producers, directors, and actors to make and create in these smaller spaces. It's all connected.' A survey by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre in 2024 warned that without urgent investment, nearly 40 per cent of UK theatre buildings risk closure. Meanwhile, there are 43 theatres currently at risk of closing in 2025 - an increase of five from the year before, according to the Theatres Trust. Kathy Bourne, executive director of Chichester Festival Theatre, said: 'I worry about it every day.' Underfunding has meant her theatre has had to be far more selective when it comes to taking on new work, she said, asking: 'How much risk can we take with new work? '[Regional theatres are] brilliant organisations to deliver new work because we are here to support the development of it.' Ms Bourne's biggest fear is that if funding is cut, Chichester Festival Theatre will have to cut its learning, education and participation work. It currently runs the largest youth theatre in the country for more than 900 children. 'They're the audiences of tomorrow,' she said. 'If we lose them, we're nowhere.' The theatre is being forced to fundraise and campaign to continue bursary funding for 23 per cent of the children in its youth theatre who would not otherwise have the opportunity to be a part of that group. The UK ranked among the lowest in Europe for government spending on culture in 2024, according to the Campaign for the Arts and the University of Warwick in 2024. It was one of the few nations to cut per capita funding between 2010 and 2022. SOLT and UK Theatre reported in February that if theatres could access the investment they need, 54 per cent could provide more jobs for their local communities and 62 per cent would increase or improve their outreach for work. Stephanie Sirr, president of UK Theatre and chief executive of Nottingham Playhouse, said current underfunding could lead to an 'existential situation'. 'I think the theatre sector is so inventive and creative and able to do more with less, that people have forgotten that there will be a bottom point where nothing can be done,' she added. 'It's risking an awful lot for a tiny proportion of public spending, and that's my worry. It's a lot of benefit for a tiny investment, and what you would lose if you lost it [theatres] is absolutely extraordinary.' Chris Stafford, chief executive of Leicester Curve, has said the 'standstill' in public funding has meant theatres are unable to build reserves to invest in their theatre. For the Curve Theatre, he warned: 'There's only so long that we can carry on without a real urgent injection of cash that will be required, and I look over the next five years, we need at least five million pounds to put into this building. 'I look at our theatre, it is a community hub. It's a hub for many people who live, work, and learn on our doorstep, and it's my responsibility to make sure that I keep this theatre standing as tall and strong as it can.' SOLT and UK Theatre have called for the government to invest £500 million over four years in theatre buildings and venues to address urgent repairs in order to prevent closures. They said it would unlock at least another £500 million in additional private investment, delivering value for money and creating jobs. Mr Stafford said: 'I really do believe it's real investment because there is absolutely the public purse is getting bang for its buck in terms of the economic impact of what we do.' A DCMS spokesperson said:"We're under no illusions about the financial issues facing the culture sector and are committed to supporting them during this difficult time. "More than £150 million of lottery and tax payer money went to theatres last year alone and we are ensuring that theatres are able to thrive across the country through our recently announced £85 million Creative Foundations Fund, which is part of the £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund, and will support urgent capital works at theatres and venues across England."
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in theatre: Manhunt; Jab
Robert Icke goes on disrupting, reinventing what we see on stage. His new production, Manhunt, does not have the sleek incisiveness of the superb Oedipus with which he lit up the theatre last year: it sprawls, tries to lasso too much, is sometimes overexpository. Yet it is coruscating. It transmits indelible images. Not moving but transfixing. Manhunt is a departure for Icke: a modern, real-life story that he has written as well as directed. This is a portrait of Raoul Moat, who in 2010 shot his former partner, killed her lover, blinded a policeman and caused one of the biggest manhunts in British history. He was described by the then prime minister David Cameron as 'a callous murderer, full stop, end of story' – and glorified on Facebook. Drawing on Moat's own words (he wrote a 49-page letter to Northumbria police), Icke abstains from simple condemnation (superfluous) or sentimental exculpation. He does what theatre does best: embody a human being, not dilute him into case history, horror or sob story. Samuel Edward-Cook is phenomenal as Moat. He is something like Ross Kemp as EastEnders' Grant Mitchell: shaven-headed, muscled-up (tattoos bulge on one arm), swerving into sentiment when not punching out or throwing a table across the stage. He also resembles the amazing busts made in the 18th century by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt – a roaring head trapped in a block, rage made rigid, his own character a cage. It is an extraordinary performance, not least because there is no room in this personality for inflection: Edward-Cook is nonstop blast and yet is never monotonous. Moat's dangerousness and his difficulties vibrate brilliantly through Hildegard Bechtler's design, Azusa Ono's lighting and Tom Gibbons's soundscape. Before a word is spoken, Edward-Cook is seen pacing behind a black metal grid; his head lit up bright and white like a grotesque party balloon, later gleaming like a cannonball. The air is full of clash and grind. When Edward-Cook, stock-still but bursting, faces out to the audience, he glistens with sweat. There are unexpected digressions that do not immediately propel Moat's story but are among the evening's most interesting episodes. The footballer Paul Gascoigne, who in real life turned up, high on drink and drugs, when Moat was ringed by police, but did not speak to him, is here imagined in conversation as a woozy therapist; he is hauntingly played by Trevor Fox. As David Rathband, the policeman who two years after being blinded by Moat, hanged himself, Nicolas Tennant has a commanding soliloquy, performed in total blackout so that the audience are immersed in his darkness. The attempt to make one man's terrible history the occasion for a general examination of male violence (adding to the debate sparked by Adolescence and Punch) leads to some superfluous spelling out. Yet the core of Manhunt – the steady look at the central figure – is strong, unflabby. This looked like a giant leap for Icke. From Oedipus to Moat. Yet there is a thread. Fathers. The damage caused to men by not knowing a good one. I have long anticipated – feared – an epidemic of Covid plays. Wrong. The Zoomed dramas produced during lockdown – small casts with bedheads for backdrops – did not lead to a new genre. Though any mention of plague, such as the RSC's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet, carries a new charge of recognition, theatres have shied away from explicitly evoking the experience of the pandemic. Now here is Scott Le Crass's production of James McDermott's Jab, a vax drama, first produced last year at the enterprising Finborough, which is also a jab of an evening: a short, sharp-edged two-hander with cutting dialogue. In lockdown a marriage slowly unravels. What begins as playful chiding – to the tune of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – turns bitter. The children have left home. A woman tells her husband of 20 years: 'You're non-essential.' She works for the NHS and provides for the two of them; his shop cannot open. He burps, crunches crisps loudly when she's trying to watch The Durrells, sprawls behind the Daily Mail. She looks wan and responsible. He wants sex; she doesn't. When the vaccine arrives, she administers it; he refuses to have it. Kacey Ainsworth is all filigree, Liam Tobin a bravado lump. There is at the beginning almost too much detail in their fine acting, as if to make up for a plot in which the divisions appear too pat, the sympathy too obviously partisan. McDermott has explained that he based the play on his own parents, whose marriage deteriorated during Covid. Yet a basis in truth does not guarantee the sound of authenticity. Though circumstances – the daily announcement of deaths, the doorstep clapping, the automatic reach for hand sanitiser – are all too recognisable, the opposing traits of the characters look rigged. Still, in an echo of one terrific work of pandemic art, poet Simon Armitage's lyric The Song Thrush and the Mountain Ash, the evening ends on an evocative image – both sad and tinged with promise. A woman stands alone at a window, separated from the outside world but looking towards it. Star ratings (out of five) Manhunt ★★★★Jab ★★ Manhunt is at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, London, until 3 May Jab is at the Park theatre, London, until Saturday 26 April
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Working Through the Riddles of Tokenized Securities
In the Ancient Greek tale of Oedipus, great rewards awaited travelers able to solve difficult riddles, but a powerful sphinx posed the riddles and devoured those who failed to solve them. Similarly, in ancient crypto times, circa 2017, blockchain technology stood to revolutionize finance and other fields. But two challenges stood in the way of this technology enjoying its full potential: (1) securities laws that don't easily map onto decentralized systems, and (2) a securities regulator hostile to digital assets, which often posed grave risks to those who tried to solve the first challenge. Today, the sphinx has resolved to be more helpful, but the riddles remain. The Securities and Exchange Commission's ('SEC') Crypto Task Force has stated that the agency's previous regime created 'an environment hostile to innovation' and has committed to working with industry participants to craft sensible regulations. While promising, significant challenges remain. U.S. securities laws are a mix of statutes passed by Congress and rules adopted by the SEC. The Task Force has signaled the SEC's willingness to make the latter more workable through new rules and exemptions. Statutes, however, present most of the challenges and only Congress, not the SEC, can change them. Below is a primer on the more common riddles currently facing developers of tokenized securities. For tokenized securities, the developer creates on-chain tokens that each represent a share of equity in a company or other security, or another asset that offers the right to cashflows. This tokenization can open up possibilities—such as instantaneous settlement, share fractionalization, and daily dividend payments—that make the product more efficient or functionally diverse than its TradFi counterpart. Even though the SEC may be more receptive to ideas for tokenized securities, it doesn't have the authority to change statutes. Tokenized securities projects, therefore, will still need to solve or avoid the riddles these statutes present. The Investment Company Act If a token gives its holder economic exposure to assets that the developer has pooled, that token project could be an investment company covered by the Investment Company Act, which regulates companies, like mutual funds, that invest in securities and let investors get exposure to those investments through shares that they issue. This riddle existed well before crypto, and most opted to navigate it by avoiding being classified as an investment company in the first place. That's because the requirements imposed by the Investment Company Act don't work well with business models that involve more than the buying and selling of securities. There are substantial restrictions on debt and equity raises, borrowing, and even business with affiliates. For those unable to avoid triggering these requirements, there are exemptions that may be available. Broker-Dealers Under the Securities Exchange Act Anyone who buys and sells securities for others or stands ready to buy and sell securities for their own account may be a broker or dealer. There is no bright line rule for qualifying as a broker-dealer, but the SEC and courts consider as indicia whether you provide liquidity, charge a fee related to the trade price, actively find investors, or play a role in holding customer funds or securities. While there's no practical way to trade digital assets as a broker-dealer currently, the SEC could use its existing authority to chart a realistic path for doing so. In the best case, that will take time and still come with some compliance obligations. Exchanges Under the Securities Exchange Act While it may not look like a traditional securities exchange, a platform using smart contracts to bring together orders for tokenized securities from multiple buyers and multiple sellers for matching and execution could qualify as one, depending on its structure. Currently, only broker-dealers can trade on exchanges, and exchanges can't hold customer accounts or custody customer securities. Even if the SEC is able to rework these rules, some requirements would no doubt persist. Security-Based Swaps Under the Securities Exchange Act If a tokenized security gives its holder exposure to the economic performance of one or more securities, it may have crossed over into the complicated world of security-based swaps. Generally, tokens that provide for the exchange of future payments based on the value of a security (or events relating to that security) without conveying ownership rights are likely to be swaps. Security-based swaps are under the joint jurisdiction of the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The requirements for them are many, with the most notable being rules prohibiting retail investors from purchasing swaps. AML and KYC Companies involved in trading or transferring tokenized securities also need to consider the applicability of anti-money laundering and know-your-customer laws. Compliance requirements depend on the role being played in the transactions but can include collecting and verifying the name, birthdate, and address of customers. Solving these riddles is not an end in itself. When designing any tokenized securities project, developers make choices based on the economics, the technology, and the regulatory framework. These areas are intertwined, as the technology can make the economics possible and decide where a project falls within the regulatory framework. But because these considerations are so interrelated, developers should analyze them holistically from the beginning. Leaving regulatory considerations for the end can turn into a game of Jenga where problematic parts are removed only to topple the benefits of and objectives for the economics and technology. The riddles posed today aren't merely obstacles to the many advantages of blockchain technology, but crucial parts of the answer. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Skadden or its clients. Sign in to access your portfolio
