The Bard Blender

Othello: Iago's Revenge Tragedy?

2010-08-10T03:06:03Z

The American Shakespeare Center is currently performing Othello. As always, one of the things I love about the ASC is their ability to pick up on obscure tidbits of Dialog and bring them to the forefront of a production. In particular, Iago's justification for his hatred of Othello. Iago mentions that he feels he was passed over for promotion. But he also mentions that there is a rumor that Othello has had an affair with his wife. Later, Iago says the same thing of Cassio.

Now, of course, I have a fundamental distrust of all dialogue. However, this speech is often regarded as a fabrication by Iago to justify his actions. Because of the standard distrust of Iago, I am more likely to want to trust him. The performance of Iago that I saw last week convinced me that my reading of this play is possible. The ASC's Iago put on his show for Rodrigo spouting how much he hated his commander, but when he talked about his wife's potential infidelity, it was not a show for anyone. Iago's disgust at the sight of Emilia seemed a subtler mirror of Othello's outrage at the sight of Desdemona once he suspects her promiscuity. Iago says he does not care whether his wife did the things she is accused of or not. For him, the fact that it has made its way into rumor is enough to condemn them all.

To me this feels that under this reading, the play Othello follows the structure of a revenge tragedy only focusing on someone other than the revenger. By purposing this I don't mean to undermine Othello's position of prominence in the play, but rather to purpose a new level of fatalism to the play. If Iago is feeding Othello with the same poison he himself is suffering from there is no evil mastermind, just fate toying with them all.

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Adaptation continues

2010-05-05T13:31:21Z

Glass Wave

This band, comprised of college professors, writes songs based on works of literature. One such is "Ophelia." I only caught a 30 second clip on their website but they look worth investigating. They also have songs about Echo and Narcissus as well as Helen of Troy. This could easily become my easy listening.

I feel that there is this unspoken (or perhaps spoken and I just haven't heard it) rule that says academics can't do creative work because it is their job to critique it. But I've been using my higher education to influence my creative projects, allowing me to say what I mean with precision. It makes me happy, even more so than the fact that they do songs about Shakespeare, that they are professors able to use their vast study in a creative capacity.

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New Book

2010-05-03T18:25:42Z

Contested Will

This is a review for a new book about the authorship issue. I've really always thought the authorship issue was more of a non-issue. In our "Death of the Author" age isn't it better not to worry about the man who wrote the work and instead just delve into the text? Since Shakespeare has come to stand it for so many things, perhaps it's better that we know so little about him. But when faced with proponents of the Oxfordian or Baconian camps, I find myself rising to challenge of asserting my Stratfordian views.

This book, however, seems to be more of an chronicling of the history of the authorship problem. This does intrigue me since I believe the last literature I read on the subject was by Mark Twain, (though it was good for a few laughs). This is definitely going on my summer reading list (along with the million other things I have picked up over the year).

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Act V

2010-01-20T01:26:05Z

So, it has been a while since I did one of these and since the were requested specifically by a subscriber, here we go:

You know you are obsessed with Shakespeare when...

you watch your favorite acts of what ever play you are watching over and over again.

This week, in an attempt to avoid my real work, I have been watching acts 4 and 5 of Much Ado about Nothing. This is chiefly the reason for the last post. At other times I have watched and re-watched ALL the particular death scenes from Hamlet.

The question I pose to you is this: What are your favorite scenes, the ones you can watch over and over without tiring of them? What plays are they from? Why do you like them?

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Much ado about NOTHING!

2010-01-18T21:50:01Z

I was rewatching Much Ado this evening and I got to thinking that I've never seen a single version that I really really liked. I have enjoyed different adaptations over the years and seen a good stage performance, but something always falls short. And, largely, I believe it is Claudio.

M once told me that Claudio is a two-dimensional character. He's not supposed to have depth. But I've never thought of him that way. For me there is one line that marks Claudio's depth. That is in the scene where he and the Prince find out that they have been duped. At hearing the confession of Don John's man, the prince says, “Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?” Claudio responds with “I have drunk poison whiles he utter'd it.” (V.i)

I have always thought this line was the most profound of all his lines. It shows the love he truly bared for Hero and it allies him with a lot of Shakespeare's other characters. He, who is already like Othello in his jealousy, could in this line join in his same self imposed fate. He could be Romeo in a moment, fleeing to the death bed of his beloved to join her fake death with a real one, except that Leonato sentences him to another marriage. He could be Horatio staring at the poisoned cup as though the last person alive trying to wrestle with his own since of justice. The mere mention of poison invokes all these comparisons.

None of that works, however, if the character doesn't get across the grief which has just flooded over this character. Branagh didn't even include the line in his adaptation of the play to film. That just doesn't make sense to me, because I feel that this line makes or break that character. If you don't feel that he truly is ready to take any punishment from Leonato, wishing with all his heart to undo what is done. You can't feel that he deserves to win Hero back in the end. That is a flat character.

Next time someone reveals that you've been lied to, in all earnestness quote Claudio's line. See if they don't do a double take. If the scene were ever to be done with the force of emotion that that one line warrants, I guarantee Benedick and Beatrice wouldn't be able to steal the show (as much).

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Shakespeare involved in new collaborative work.

2010-01-09T16:31:18Z

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski hit the internet this week and is already making a bunch as “The Knave abideth” (epilogue) and I laughed at “I still read Ben Jonson manually.” (IV.iii) He is a huge fan of the movie and likes a little Shakespeare now and again, while I'm the opposite.

Doom felt that there was a problem with making The Big Lebowski into an Elizabethan play. Namely, that the dude is supposed to be the representation of his generation. I argue that the specific universality of the story makes it perfectly in keeping with Shakespeare's plays. By specific universality, I mean the way in which it tells a very specific story that is grounded in a time and place, while the ideas expressed and themes reach a more universal understanding. I usually do not make the “universal truth of the human condition” kind of Shakespeare argument. However, the way people think about Shakespeare and I think it is also the way people think about The Big Lebowski.

Much of it, I feel is really well done. Large chunks of dialog are in Iambic Pentameter while the author manages to transfer many of the jokes in the movie to the play. My biggest concern, however, is for the seeming randomness of allusions to actual Shakespearean plays, which I can see were done for comedic effect rather than to draw actual parallels between the plays.

It is a creative endeavor, and quite amusing. I highly recommend it for a good hearty laugh.

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Captain Picard and The Doctor do Hamlet.

2010-01-03T05:07:24Z

I know that sounds like really bad crossover slash fiction but I promise it's not.

Actually, it is David Tennant, who is well known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor from "Doctor Who" but almost no one remembers from a BBC version of Casanova. This past year he was to play Hamlet for the RSC but injured his back and only performed eleven times. Shortly after this it was announced that this was being converted to a film version.

Patrick Stewart played opposite him as Claudius. (Yes, I really did get my geek on for this one.)

This has now arrived and aired the day after Christmas. Tonight, I watched it and was very surprised. It had the feel of a stage production in its simplistic sets, complete reliance on actors instead of effects, and somewhat ambiguous time and place. Yet, it did not fall into the trap of using stationary cameras. Giving it the best of both worlds.

Tennant's lightning-fast pace allowed the whole play to be done in 3 hours, but this didn't kill the pacing of the play.

I think the best part, however, was the way that each actor made their characters thier own. Hamlet is done so often that a lot of times when I think of a line I remember it the way this actor or that actor preformed it. This Hamlet was definitely David Tennant's Hamlet and no one else's. The Ophelia, Laertes and Horatio likewise didn't fall into the drudge of a stock character.

All in all, I liked it a lot.

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Kids and Shakespeare

2009-12-13T16:32:08Z

This is the sort of Shakespeare stuff I like to see. People teaching Shakespeare to toddlers. I found this today on Fark.com.

Obviously, the kid doesn't understand all of it. In fact, he can barely stay focused to the end. But he does get a lot of it. See how he responds to "That is the question." with "yeah," He was just taught a question and sees how it is a question.

I think kids can understand more about Shakespeare than we give them credit for. We dumb it down and then when we do get around to teaching them, we teach them that it's stuffy and antiquated rather than showing them how much fun it can be.

I don't think children will understand everything when they first see Shakespeare. I got more out of Hamlet in 10th grade than I did in 5th. But the same is true now. I understand more about Hamlet now than I did in 10th. The important thing is to expose kids to Shakespeare at a young age: Start taking kids to plays at the ages of 10 or so, read sonnets for Valentines day.

Just make Shakespeare fun for students and they wont shy away from it they way they do now.

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Making up for lost time.

2009-10-26T21:47:03Z

Due to trip and sickness, I haven't posted these in two weeks. So, I thought I would try to post something a little extra today,

You know you are obsessed with Shakespeare when...

you see four Shakespearean plays in one week and when it over you still want more.

despite the fact that you own more than one Complete Works, you find yourself feeling as though you need more.

you do something completely unrelated to Shakespeare but still feel the need to quote him.

The first two were realizations from my trip and the third is from Mr. "I hate Shakespeare," who while playing zombies this week quoted the Balcony speech from R&J to his girlfriend who was still human while he himself was a zombie. I thought that was really great (and obsession worthy -- I will win him around eventually).

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St. Crispn's Day

2009-10-25T13:19:40Z

On this St. Crispin's Day, I write a little blog post about Henry V:

This speech is very moving, very effective, but how sincere is it? I want Henry to be the Good guy as much as the next person (perhaps more in some cases), but how much are we really allowed to see that. In this speech, indeed in all of Henry's dialog in Henry V we are not given any indication that he is anything but sincere. However, I recently had the opportunity to see Henry IV Part I. There we see a very difference person in the form of Prince Hal. Hal is a young man only interested in drinking and hanging out with a fat, old knight named Falstaff. Hal confides in the audience during one of his soliloquies that he is infact only playing the part of a truant son in order to make himself look better when he finally reforms. This is our Henry V. This is the man who broke Falstaff's heart and he is the one who call all men present this "band of brothers." This is an uplifting speech for a battlefield of men certain of their doom. But when viewing all of the Henry IV/Henry V plays together is difficult to trust his motives.

Ultimately it is up to a director to decide how sinister Hal/Henry really is. In the production I saw, Hal (Played my Luke Eddy) seemed to truly be having fun while he had the chance free of responsibility and ready to step up to the plate when his father needed him. Indeed, several times throughout the later part of the play Henry IV would say something about his amazement at his son's feats and Hal responded with amazement at how low his father's opinion of him had fallen. This Hal could quite easily grow up to be a Henry V that would deliver this St. Crispin's Day speech and mean every word of it.

And frankly, I think that having a corrupt politician for a Henry would uncomfortable.

Anyway. For this Saint Cripsin's Day I have a few uses of this speech in modern media. The first is Due South, a Canadian Cop show from the mid 90's. About a minute in is where their version of the speech begins. (sorry I couldn't cut if for you). The second is a scene from the movie Renaissance Man, in which one of the character is told to recite Shakespeare and this is what he comes up with.

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A school for Shakespeare

2009-10-21T22:53:55Z

This is the promotional video for the Program that I went to look at last week. I was going to describe the program in depth but I think this video does an excellent job of summing up everything that i saw.

(On a side note I'm still trying to make up the sleep I lost on this trip.)

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Just thought I'd share.

2009-10-11T03:34:08Z

Doom was playing with Unix Fortune Function and told me he would tell me mine. he clicked a few times reading them each for me and then came upon this:

For years a secret shame destroyed my peace--
I'd not read Eliot, Auden or MacNiece.
But now I think a thought that brings me hope:
Neither had Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope.
-- Justin Richardson.

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Everything I know I stole from Ovid, Part iii

2009-10-10T14:37:25Z

This week I've been translating the story of Procne and Pilomela. These are two sisters. One of which marries a neighboring king and then after several years of marriage asked for her sister to visit. When the king goes to get the sister, he is struck by her beauty and rapes her. Having raped her he cuts out her tongue so she can't tell anyone of his crime.

Cutting out of the tongue, sound familiar? Well, if not you can cheat by remembering that in the last part of this series I promised to talk about Titus Andronicus. Titus' daughter, Lavinia, is raped and her tongue cut out. But Shakespeare does not leave it there because his characters also can read and write. So, he has her hands cut off as well.

Neither victim is long hindered by the mutilation. Philomela weaves a tapestry which depicts what happened and Lavinia uses a stick which she guides with his teeth to write the names of her attackers in the sand.

Both are ultimately avenged by their families, which involves feeding children to an evil mother or father depending on the story.

Initially, Philomela believes Tereus will kill her and welcomes death. However, ultimately she, along with her sister, flees in the form of a bird from Tereus. This is very different from Lavinia who is killed by her own father in order to preserve her chastity.

Ovid's story is interested in the sisters revenging themselves on Tereus, while shakespeare takes it a step further. For his characters revenge is not enough. Shakespeare is interested in a return to a functioning society, the lack there of is what has allowed the rape in the first place. In the end everyone involved with the murder, betrayal or disruption of society is killed and people untainted by these events step forward to take their place.

Later: this story also crops up in Cymbeline in some very disturbing ways.

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Well, I never thought that would happen

2009-10-10T03:56:52Z

Tonight I went to a production at the Ringling International Arts Festival of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Peter Brooks, the director, chose a selection of the sonnets that he felt went well together in order to set up a dialog. The production itself was very slow to start but picked up once the sonnets being used got more interesting. The female actor was sort of weak but sufficient for what was being done. However, the highlight of the event was the Male actor, Michael Pennington. Now for most people this would not be that big of a deal, but for me this was huge. Michael Pennington played Posthumous in the BBC's Cymbeline. This being one of my favorite plays and the only filmed production of it that in on IMDB (and therefore the only one I've ever found), I have seen this movie at least half a dozen times if not more. So, when he began to act and I heard and saw him, I knew right away that it was him. The performance he gave made the whole night worth it. I am so excited to have been able to see an actor whose work I have loved for so long on a stage performing Shakespeare right in front of me.

Ok, back from my fan girl crush. Since this blog is supposed to do something thought provoking I am going to shift gears and talk about the production as a critic for a while:

The concept behind the production, in my opinion, was underdeveloped. Shakespeare's sonnets were not written as a sequence (other Renaissance writers were doing sequences. Why not use one of those?) and putting them together, at least is this way was only mildly successful. The production used a minimalist stage setup which I felt was appropriate and left little distractions from the sonnets (except the guy playing the keyboard on the side of the stage between sonnets, he was pretty bad.) The most distracting thing was the sonnets themselves. It is very difficult to hold fourteen lines of iambic pentameter in your head when someone else is reading them out loudm making it hard to figure out what the sonnet is actually saying. Add to the the fact that each sonnet is a response to the one before it and it becomes extremely frustrating to remember where the characters were just at in there relationship.

Since I got the Tickets for free, it was a night well spent. Hell, I'd even probably pay to see that performance, but only after remembering that i am going to a dramatized reading -- not a play.

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I now interrupt the regularly scheduled programming.

2009-10-08T14:10:35Z

For a special report. This Just in: Jude Law Can't Do Hamlet! At least that is what most reviewers think. The Review of the play in the New York Times was almost a whole half page of bashing.

I first heard that Jude Law was doing Hamlet a little over a week ago (I think, I've always been bad with keeping track of the passage of time). At that time I looked up production pictures and thought it looked very interesting. The cast is in plain clothes, the stage is bare save for the brick wall that serves as a back drop, and there are even Snow flurries during the "To be or not to be" speech, making his debate all the more bleak. But even then as I saw small clips I thought, "He seems to be overdoing it a little. but it is Jude Law, perhaps he's making it work like that."

But apparently he's not. According the article I read in the New York Times and according to the link above, a lot of other critics as well, characterize his performance in athletic terms. Most people think his hamlet is completely over acted. The best thing that the reviewer could afford it was that Jude Law's mass appeal drew in an much younger audience. That alone is a big plus. But surely it's not that bad.

Ultimately, I don't know and I wont because I can't go up to New York to see it. But really, I don't think that his Hamlet can be so bad as to ruin the play. Critics often are overly critical and a high intensity hamlet is probably what he is intentionally going for.

I promise that later I will get back to Ovid. Don't worry.

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Everything I know I stole from Ovid, Part ii

2009-10-08T03:58:26Z

I retyped what I was going to type yesterday before my computer crashed... (bad Caliban... no island snacks for you!)

For my thesis I was have been reading a lot of domestic tragedies. One, which I read that I enjoyed a lot but which doesn't work for my thesis, is The Vow Breaker. The blot of which is that a Woman (Anne) vows to marry one man (Bateman) who is young but poor and her father convinces her to marry another man (German) who is old and rich. When Bateman discovers her betrayal, he is struck with grief and kills himself. After which she is haunted by his ghost. She ultimately is drive to her own death by the ghost so that she can be with her true husband (Bateman).

After the young Bateman kills himself his father finds the body. The father (Old Bateman) delivers a large amount of lines over his dead son's body. Most interesting for me at least is a reference to Niobe:

i'le weepe alone
Till Niobe like my teares convert to stone.

The story of Niobe is found is the 6th book of the Metamorphoses. She makes fun of the mother of Artemis and Apollo because She (Niobe) has more children. For this Artemis and Apollo kill her fourteen children leaving her to weep, until, unmoving, she becomes stone. So, the reference is clear. Its use here however is not. What here is "Niobe like"? Old Bateman has just lost his child, presumably the only one he has. In this respect he is the one like Niobe and like Niobe he plans to stay unchanging in his grief for his son. Yet, he says "my tears convert to stone." So in that sense, his tears are like Niobe. Yet, her tears did not turn to stone. She herself did and her tears continued to flow (which is how she became a mountain top with tears forming a river down the side of it. Either way his invocation of Niobe is problematic. He cannot become like Niobe because he is not in a play where he can actually turn to stone. The best he can do is (which he does) is stay by a portrait of his son, so that he is always mourning. Though in a way his tears do harden his heart and he become unwilling to accept a response of grief from Anne.

I feel like old Bateman's grief is likened to Niobe's. Yet he seems to make Niobe more noble by the comparison. Her children's deaths were her own fault. Bateman's death was for loss of love.

Tomorrow: Titus Andornicus

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Everything I know I stole from Ovid, Part i

2009-10-07T01:46:50Z

So, there was an awesome post that was supposed to go here but my computer crashed. So now part one will only be an introduction and I will continue with actual examples tomorrow.

In my Advanced Latin class we have been translating Ovid's Metamorphoses. While I am having a terrible time in there because of the difficulty, I am having a great time reading the stories which are referenced in the literature of the Renaissance. The Metamorphoses does several things: 1) it retells a lot of creation myths and stories of the gods and legendary figures all in one place. 2) it pokes fun at the Epic form by using it to tell these stories, which except by Ovid's use of poetic, are not epic. 3) SO MANY stories get referenced in other things.

Sorry about my computer freaking out. because of that, this is all you get tonight. Tomorrow look forward to The Vow Breaker.

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Spoof!

2009-10-06T01:14:45Z

Ok. It's Monday, and I'm giving myself a reward for finishing a response paper. So:

You know you are obsessed with Shakespeare when...

you see someone else's spoof for a fandom they obsess over and you wonder if you could do that with Shakespeare.

Today's example is the llama song. I stumbled across some else' Doctor Who spoof of this song and decided to make my own. At the moment, however, I don't have the means or the time to make a video (but be expecting it). Here are lyrics in all their goofy rhyming:

here's a Hamlet
there's a Hamlet
and another little Hamlet
Crazy Hamlet
Craby Hamlet
Hamlet Hamlet
Puck

Hamlet Hamlet
Laertes
Hamlet
tablet
brick
Ophela
Hamlet
Hamlet Hamlet
Denmark
Hamlet
Hamlet Hamlet
Puck

i was once a nutshell
i lived in the rocks
but i never saw how to
keep the kingdom off the stocks

Ghost was only two months dead
but it told a tale
and now listen, little child
to the deathly rail

did you ever see a Hamlet
kiss a Hamlet
on the Hamlet
Shakespeare's Hamlet
tastes of Hamlet
Hamlet Hamlet
Puck

half a knitwit
twice the halfwit
not at all wit
bad vibe
Hamlet
Hamlet in a jibe
alarum Halmet
Hamlet
Puck

is THIS how it's told now?
is it all so old?
is it made of lemon juice?
sparrow
mother-
aunt
now I was once a student

writing in a blog
time for me to retire now
and become a Puck

This was somewhat rushed so they may need tweaking. But metrically they work. ^_^

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Romeo x Juliet

2009-10-04T02:38:44Z

Romeo x Juliet takes the classic story of "star crossed lovers" and adapts in the way only anime can. The first change: The story takes place in Neo-Verona, a floating city-state in the sky. Second: all the Capulets (except Juliet and a few loyal followers) are dead and Lord Montague rules the city.

In some ways it is an interesting take on a very over done theme. Juliet for example, because Montague wants her dead to legitimize his rule, has spent the last decade of her life dressed as a boy whenever she is in public. This boy persona is called Odin. Odin also has an alternate persona called the "Crimson Whirlwind". This brings up a few identity issues but doesn't do much with them until Romeo meets all three version: first the whirlwind then Odin and finally Juliet. He is stunned after the first encounter and begins to question what love is from his first glimpse of her. He is drawn to every incarnation of her, which says something about the nature of love, and pulls out the fatedness of their love.

Shakespeare is a character in this world -- A foppish play-write who thinks Juliet and Romeo are such a romantic couple and that life is more dramatic than fiction. He weaves in and out of the plot helping juliet whenever possible. The most noticeable change is in the characters of Romeo and Juliet themselves. They are not the selfish oblivious teens that Shakespeare wrote. They have been transformed into very selfless and socially aware young adults, who save others through their deaths.

All in all, I enjoyed it -- well, the first 20 episodes at least. I felt like the ending detracts from the whole.

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Adaptation

2009-09-30T01:45:20Z

Last Spring the Asolo Repertory Theater performed A Winter's Tale. They set it in the 1950's and 60's, which visually worked quite well: the farmers of Bohemia were transformed into hippies, complete with and oldstyle VW bug, while in Sicilia, it was all business suits and ball gowns. I really enjoyed it. (Actually I liked it so much I went back with 2 more times with different friends.) After seeing it there was a discussion with refreshments, during which time the idea of adaptation came up. One elderly gentleman asserted that, like many he did not think highly of adaptation and cited West Side Story. (Now, I don't like West Side Story all that much, but that is an opinion not a critique on the genre.) I was reflecting on this the other day and decided to share my thoughts on the subject of adaptation.

In my opinion, adaption is a natural part of the performative process. A director adapts the text of a play any time he stages a play he is making choices about how actors should perform lines, what kinds of sets, props and costumes to use, or why emphasize one part or another. It is then only a stretch to change the setting and only a little further to try to push a certain message with a play, both of which happen all the time. (which is good. It makes the play more interesting when there is good directorial focus.) Adaptation into something completely new, like Shakespeare Retold or "O," is further into the spectrum but I think no less valid use of text. Shakespeare himself derived his plays from poems and stories, which is adaptation. Though even something more interesting and something I think most people miss is: Shakespearean plays were produced in contemporary garb during his day. So plays like Timon of Athens or Julius Caesar would have been performed in Elizabethan dress not ancient Greek or Roman. Therefore, to me it always seems strange when people criticize "plain clothes" productions. As long as they don't hinder the reception of a work (such as modern dress in a play about class because it is difficult to portray class clearly with today's styles.), why shouldn't performers use clothes contemporary to us today? They are much easier on the costuming department to come up with, that is why Shakespeare used them.

Therefore, the question shouldn't be: why adaptation? It should be: what is this adaptation doing? Adaptation can be such a fun thing. When it works, it's amazing. When it doesn't, we are left to wonder what the director is thinking. But that is what making theater an ongoing participation with text and not simply a regurgitation.

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Homework or Shakespeare

2009-09-28T04:47:50Z

So, now that it's Monday again. It's obsession time.

You know you are obsessed with Shakespeare when...

You hurry to get your homework done so that you can do more of your own research.

I love the work I'm doing for my thesis. Don't get me wrong. Eventually I may even post some thoughts on it here since is it all about Renaissance Drama. But as cool as this stuff is I am constantly distracted by my desire to read and watch and research more Shakespearean plays. In the past week aside from the half a dozen posts I made, I have also read about a half-dozen other Shakespeare blogs, watched 5 movies of Shakespearean plays and am undergoing the never-ending process to plan the road trip to the M.litt. Shakespeare program in VA.

The newest thing I've found was this post which discusses the character of Caliban (the namesake for my computer). There are many things that I find problematic about this article. The least of which that it does not recognize a possible plurality of readings except to say that the author can't not take Prospero's side. The thing that I got out of this post was a renewal of a desire that I already was playing with to see Caliban portrayed as beautiful -- a physically beautiful creature which could be taken in two different directions. One way of looking at it is that Prospero as emotionally (as well as physically) abusive to Caliban so that he is lead to believe that he is the hideous monster of the play. Another is that his internal hideousness is what is described. It has been a while since I have read the play but I believe that either of these interpretations would require some modification of the text. (can anyone say 'book'? ^_^ )

Well, since I have put off homework to write this I must now get back to work.

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Doubling

2009-09-27T23:32:42Z

I finished a reader response on The Late Lancashire Witches. So I'm rewarding myself with a post before getting back to my work.

Doubling, the act of one actor playing more than one part, has really intrigued me of late.

M told me a few weeks ago about a production of Cymbeline she once saw where Posthumous and Cloten were doubled. Not having seen it I can't tell for sure but I believe that this doubling would, being that there is no physical difference between the characters, serve to intensify the social differences between them. This also produces some interesting punning in regard to the body scene. Imogen says she knows this to be her lords leg. I wonder though if this would also say anything about class barriers and whether that was intended or not.

Friday night, during my Friday night Shakespeare movie night, we watched Pericles, Prince of Tyre. And about a third of the way in, I realized that there was an interesting chance to double. What if Antiochus and his daughter and Simonides and Taissa were doubled? Antiochus with his incestuous relationship to his daughter contrasts so completely the "good" Simonides that such a doubling would, similar to the Cymbeline doubling, accentuate the moral differences. However, it may have the reverse effect if done a certain way, because of the playful nature in Simonides, causing the audience to see him as similar to Antiochus. That could really be freaky.

Because of how easily these comparisons are, I wonder how many more doubles could be used to make thought provoking comparisons.

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Who is to Blame?

2009-09-25T15:47:14Z

The American Shakespeare Center asked Who is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet? and while this actually comes out of Doom's response to seeing the play, I find it an interesting proposal and thought I would share.

The Prince is to blame for all of the action in the play. Directly after the chaotic fighting in the first scene, He appears with all the Rhetoric of an official in control of his people: "If ever you disturb our streets again / Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace." Yet, by the end of the first act trouble is brewing, again. His own cousin, Mercutio, does not even listen to his decrees. Next time we even see this much absent Prince moe blood has already been spilled. So, here he has the chance to prove his seriousness and end this feud by making the penalties real, binding and swift. Yet, he here falls short:

Prin. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio;
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
Mon. Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's
friend,
His fault concludes but what the law should end,
The life of Tybalt.
Prin. And for that offence
Immediately we do exile him hence:

The feuding will continue with no end in sight because the Prince refuses to make thinks right. He makes himself weak, a prince that can be pushed around by the lords under his charge. This inability of Prince leads to the need for secrecy and schemeing on the part of the friar, who now feels the need to pick up where the prince has failed and bring the to families together which he attempts to do through Romeo and Juliet. It is because of the Prince and his lack of actual authority that sets up the situation in which Romeo and Juliet feel the need to end their lives. And even with their deaths they prove the Prince's inefficacy. For he uses their death as a replacement for his inaction in stopping this feud;

Capulet! Montague!

See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,

That heaven finds means to kill your joys with
love;

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New Much Ado

2009-09-23T20:00:16Z

The BBC experimented with writing modern screenplays of Shakespearean plays, turning Macbeth into a chef, Beatrice into an anchorwoman and so forth. For the most part this works. I watched the Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing this morning on youtube and since it's only twenty bucks a DVD of all four that they did, I think I'll add it to my collection. But one thing about the adaptations bothered me: Gender inequality.

Here I am specifically talking about Much Ado. Normally I do not have bouts of righteous feminist anger. This is partially because I take into consideration the historical mood of the time and recognize that most of what we see was progressive for it's time. But when you completely modernize a work you have to be mindful of modern conventions.

The Part that particularly got me was the eavesdropping scenes. For 'Ben' the dialog they over hear is all about how much 'Bee' loves him, to the point that they lead him to believe she may harm herself for love of him. This seems fine. They also comment, in passing, that he would make a joke out of any sign of affection for her. This too works with the story and is very similar to what Shakespeare's text states. But when it becomes 'Bee's' turn to over hear about 'Ben's' love, something goes wrong. It starts out with discussion of his attraction to her and the way they have noticed his reactions to her. All of which is fine until Margaret butts in about the persona which 'Bee' puts on in order to repel guys. The conversation then veers dangerously off course at this point and the message that 'Bee' gets to bring away is not that a man is head over heels for her but that if she doesn't drop the frigid bitch act she will soon be too old to get any man.

I must say this appalled me. These are recent productions (all done in 2005). I would have though that we would have moved past the independent woman as 'bitch' but apparently not. Also when I look back at the descriptions of how each one shows his or her love, I begin to see that the description of her love is something that is driving her crazy while his is only something that makes others pity him. I point this out not so much to criticize the adaptations. The adaptations on the whole were pretty good so far as adaptation goes. I point this out more to show that we are not so far past sexism as we like to think. It's strange that it takes Shakespeare to point this out to us.

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