- "Caesar was Brutus's best friend. Caesar didn't want to die, but his best friend killed him. Brutus wants to die, but his friends won't kill him. What's Shakespeare saying about friendship?"
I've been writing a series of personal stories on my encounters with Shakespeare. The link here will take you to #5, but if you're interested just scroll down from here and start with Whither Shakespeare #1.
Do you have any personal encounters with Shakespeare? Reading, acting, directing, watching?
What's your favourite play?
Because I work in the theatre I have seen many Shakespeare plays. What I find interesting is that it's very hard to produce a bad Shakespeare play. The text always wins over bad actors. The plays are also very versatile; you can do absolutely anything with them. Turn them into opera or ballet. Turn tragedy into comedy and vice versa. Best movie adaptations IMHO were Akira Kurosawa's "Ran", based on King Lear and Peter Greenaway's "Prospero"s Books", based on The Tempest. My personal favorite was an adaptation by the Noord Nederlands Toneel (northern dutch theatre company) of Macbeth where the stage set was a gigantic puppet theatre in with live actors performed the roles of sock puppets complete with velcroed-on cardboard drinking glasses. Whenever a player had a short absence from the play he slumped across the bottom of the frame as if the hand that was puppeting him had been taken out. And at the end the whole set exploded and fell apart.
I just watched Joss Whedon's version of "Much Ado About Nothing" a few weeks ago. It was quite good. It's Probably the play of his which I have seen and read the most times. The cast and set were done up in a modern fashion. Because most the male characters are returning from a war and the dialog makes you think it was a pretty local type war I made them all into mobsters fighting a mob war in my head to get pass the disconnect of slick suited warriors. I especially enjoy one joke from the play. Benedict is listing all the qualities a women must have to win his heart and it's a pretty out of control list. After painting a totally idealized unobtainable vision for his the woman he could love eh says something along the lines of "and her hair, her hair can be whatever color god should choose." I remember laughing at that when I was a kid, still gets me today.
I actually haven't seen many. Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing are the only ones I've seen, I think. I guess I always just assumed that I would happen into Shakespeare without having to try, but evidently that isn't so. Hell, I used to work at a theater attached to school known for its strong theater program, but the only things I ended up seeing through that were some operas, which provided some interesting dreams. Anyway, let me ask a counter question: what play would you personally recommend to get someone hooked on Shakespeare?
Seen or read or both? Read them all. The phrases are exquisite. Last summer I saw a performance of Othello front row at the British National -- I've never seen anything so good. I would think, if you can find a quality troupe, that watching Othello is probably the closest you'll get to perfect theater. Interesting that everyone below mentions movies ... I disagree. There's never been a Shakespearean movie that compared to watching it live in my opinion.
The ones I mentioned I have both seen and read. I have also read Othello and The Tempest and parts of several others (generally soliloquies). I really get the sense that the audience is supposed to be very present for these plays, which makes sense as that was the norm for the time.Interesting that everyone below mentions movies ... I disagree. There's never been a Shakespearean movie that compared to watching it live in my opinion.
Rico - I can't stop thinking about Shakespeare. When I think of five more Shakespeare stories, another ten come to mind. If it's done well - if as flagamuffin says you have Beatrice sitting in your lap - you will be hooked. When I think of a play to get you hooked, I think of specific performances Al Pacino as Shylook in The Merchant of Venice Kevin Spacey as Richard III - although Richard III is hard to follow. I love your question and will think more on't...
No mention of Kenneth Branagh? I recall enjoying his adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. I took a Shakespeare course at a community college years ago and we read and then watched that. I recall a sweeping, overhead long camera shot at the beginning that was quite impressive. Worth checking out. Of the written works, Caesar is still a favorite and if it weren't so "played" out, Romeo and Juliet is kick ass. So much great work.
Al Pacino as Richard III is better than either of those, IMO.
Yes, I saw that too. Fantastic. Did you see Pacino's movie Looking for Richard which is about understanding Richard III - making it, feeling it and it has Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey. humanodon as I said, I'll get back to you, but today I'm off to the Met Live in HD. Verdi's opera Falstaff is playing, merely Shakespeare in a different format. It's actually The Merry Wives of Windsor -- no one's favourite play. Let's see what Verdi does with it. As for the question I never became hooked on Shakespeare in quite the same way. I've grown up with Shakespeare, as I'm trying to show in my posts -- Shakespeare is all around us. See any production and you will recognize quotations that are in our everyday speech. For example, at my recent Midsummer Night's Dream, I heard this oft-quoted, but unattributed line: "The course of true love never did run smooth." The stories and characters and plots are as integrated into western culture as Biblical stories, but without the didacticism (lessons) and morality.What play would you personally recommend to get someone hooked on Shakespeare?
-- here's a quick comment: I was hooked on The Met: Live in HD after seeing Mozart's The Magic Flute a few years ago -- one of the earliest Met productions that was sent streaming around the world.
Yes, that clip is from Looking for Richard. It's a great movie, especially for people like me who aren't that educated about Shakespeare or theater in general. It's really amazing to see all the planning, and dissecting of the script that takes place. I might like that aspect more than the actual performances.
I had the most fantastic time here at a performance of Much Ado. Seriously if you're ever in Virginia go the extra mile to see a play at Blackfriar's. They're not kidding with the bit about experiencing the plays under authentic stage conditions -- if you pay a bit more, which I did of course, you can sit on stage, in the wings but not really in the wings, more like actually on stage. So the audience sometimes can't decide between watching the actors or watching you. So that when Beatrice is trying to overhear a conversation, maybe she comes over and ducks behind your stool. No seatbacks in 1605! Also maybe hypothetically Beatrice is really beautiful and at some point the plot of Much Ado allows her the leeway to sit in your lap and kiss you during a Benedick speech? Like I said, go to Blackfriar's. EDIT: very uplifting story (and a damn good poem), by the way ... I had an English class like that my senior year. Was a good way to end the day.