Month: August 2006

Very cool, Amy over at ShakespeareHigh has started a podcast. I must have missed the memo, because she’s up to her fourth episode and I just found out about it ;). She’s going with the “Students Guide to Shakespeare 101” approach. Very tutorial, working through quiz time questions like “Did Shakespeare write in Olde English or Modern English?” Right now she’s running it as if the user is sitting down behind an online guide, so I hope for those of us who listen to podcasts away from the computer she breaks from that pattern eventually. One of the major benefits of podcasting is taking it with you so you can learn this stuff on the train, in the car, at the gym, etc… all places where you can’t click on the link when the narrator tells you to.

Good luck, Amy! You’ve got a new subscriber, and hopefully a bunch more :).

Technorati Tags: shakespeare, podcast

So I’m going back over Romeo and Juliet for a project I’m playing with, and I just noticed something that I’d never really thought of before. Act I, Scene iv, we see Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio getting ready for the party . This is where the famous Queen Mab speech comes in. I also think it’s interesting that Mercutio, for such a strong character, gets no real introduction, he’s just that fun guy that you party with. Mercutio’s first line in the entire play is “Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.” Makes me think of characters from Seinfeld or something.

Anyway. The thing I just noticed is this exchange:

Romeo: “I have a soul of led so stakes me to the ground I cannot move.”
Mercutio: “You are a lover, borrow Cupid’s wings, and soar with them above a common bound.”

That sound familiar to anybody? Act II, Scene ii.

Romeo: “With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out.”

While Romeo is busy wooing Juliet, he’s blatantly stealing lines that Mercutio gave him! That’s actually funny. Maybe that’s something that everybody else has seen before, but I don’t recall my 9th grade English teacher pointing it out. (I do remember her showing us the Zeffirelli(?) film and forgetting to mention there was nudity in it. Never saw anyone run for the Stop button so fast!)

If, just for a moment, you spin the play completely different, where Romeo and his friends really are just college boys looking to get some action after the party (basically what Benvolio and Mercutio wanted), you could have a blast with it. Imagine drunken Mercutio and Benvolio hiding in the bushes underneath the balcony loudly whispering things like, “Tell her Queen Mab hath been with you!” or “Show her your naked weapon!”

Maybe I’m just sleepy, I’m writing this on the morning train to keep myself occupied :).

Matthew Mehan of Mercator.net brings us this article entitled, Strangling Shakespeare. “Britain’s leading theatre company seems set on barbequeing the Bard of Avon,” the article starts, before going on to review the Royal Shakespeare Company’s recent production of Henry VI part II.

“I was in Stratford on Avon for only a day…although it was just long enough to start counting the number of times I heard Shakespeare roll in his grave.”

Sounds like he didn’t love it.

Technorati Tags: shakespeare , stratford, henry vi, review

I’m in a publishing mood lately. A couple of e-book projects of mine (both completely unrelated to Shakespeare) are now online and selling, which I’m pleased with. I’ve always wanted to get something to paper about Shakespeare, and the question has always been what would that be.

I have an idea for something I’d like to try, but I need people. The project I’m thinking of is more of a compilation / anthology then a traditional “dummy’s guide.” If any of my regular readers out there are interested in hearing more, or possibly participating, please drop me a line at [email protected].

Thanks!

D

So while it was still in town I did indeed get to see the Boston production of Taming of the Shrew, and when I get a moment I’ll have to write a review. I don’t have time for much these days, though, so I’ll have to relate a quick story about the couple we went with. I’d actually brought with me, as something of a joke, the Taming of the Shrew comic book. My wife was enjoying reading it, and passing it to our friends. One friend who shall remain nameless said that she’s very familiar with the show. Cool. I like finding new Shakespeare friends.

At intermission we’re talking about “What do you think of the show so far?” as people often do. Then everybody gives me the generic “I like it,” which I can’t stand, like saying anything other than that must make you a bad person. Actually it just makes you a person with no opinions. But, anyway. This one person says, “See, to me, this is a better play than Hamlet.”

*silence*

I swear to God, you should have seen me. I’ve never quite known what it is like to be speechless like I was. So many, many replies going through my brain, trying to filter them and decide which would be the least offensive. Meanwhile, she’s still talking. “The comedies like this are the ones that are really entertaining for the people. I can’t stand all those dark, depressing ones. Hamlet, Macbeth… ”

“Hamlet,” I say through gritted teeth, “Might be the greatest piece of literature in the English language. The world is a better place because of plays like Hamlet, not because of shallow nonsense like this. I watch Taming of the Shrew like I watch a generic Kate Hudson romantic comedy.” My wife quickly jumps in to change the subject before I begin raising my voice.

“Know what else I hate?” this woman continues, perhaps not realizing or caring how much she has fallen in my eyes. “The Tempest.”

“I’ve read The Tempest to my 3yr old as a bedtime fairy tale,” I tell her.

“And did she understand it?”

“She *asked* me for it. Repeatedly.”

Luckily the show started back up. Later in the car, we were talking about the fact that my daughter is named Katherine, and how yes of course I knew about the Shrew character, and no it is not a silly coincidence. My second daughter is named Elizabeth well aware of that Shakespearean connection, as well. But when my son was born we couldn’t find a good Shakespearean male name we liked. This then got into a conversation about how Shakespeare didn’t often use male names that are still in use today.

“Horatio?” this poor woman says.

Gritted teeth time again. “That….is a character in HAMLET!” I force myself to say.

Next year, I don’t think we’re going with anybody. 🙂

Technorati Tags: shakespeare, taming of the shrew, hamlet, performance, entertainment, boston

Technorati Tags: shakespeare, taming of the shrew, hamlet, performance, entertainment, boston