Month: February 2014

Watching bits and pieces of Olivier’s Hamlet this afternoon, just like I said I was going to do. I happened upon the “Get thee to a nunnery” scene.  As I write this I hear “To be or not to be” in the background so I’m forced to assume that Olivier flipped these scenes?

Anyway, back to Ophelia. This is quite possibly my favorite scene of the play, at least as far as dissecting Hamlet’s madness. I once collected every video interpretation of this scene I could find, to see how differently it has been played.  (Unfortunately some of the links in that post have been removed, just so you know.)

What is Hamlet’s relationship to Ophelia at this moment? Is he thinking that she’s turned on him as well? That she’s just a pawn being manipulated by her father? Is he putting on a show for the men behind the curtain, or does he mean what he’s saying? How far do his feelings for his mother at this moment extend toward all women (“Frailty thy name is woman?”) and thus toward Ophelia?

My title comes from the last line of the scene, as Olivier delivers it.  Ophelia is on the floor (where he’s thrown her), weeping inconsolably.  He leans over, kisses her hair, and says “To a nunnery, go,” and exits.  It almost sounds like, “The world is full of horrible horrible people doing horrible things, and you above all others I’d want to protect from that.” That’s most certainly not said for the benefit of Claudius and Polonius, and it doesn’t sound like it’s coming from someone “who loved her not.”

I was thinking today about how often people accidentally lump Mercutio in with the Montagues, since he’s a friend of Romeo and doesn’t hold much love for Tybalt. That’s of course not true, otherwise his “A plague on both your houses!” would make no sense.

Casual audiences forget that Mercutio is actually a kinsman to the Prince himself. It’s pretty easy to forget, because … tell me again how it plays into the story?

I was trying to figure this out. Mercutio needs to be neither Montague nor Capulet, that’s clear. But Shakespeare could have just given him no affiliation. He doesn’t have to be related to the Prince, does he?

What about Romeo’s banishment? The Prince walks in to the bloodbath that was Tybalt/Mercutio/Romeo. He’s told that his kinsmen Mercutio is dead, murdered by Tybalt. Tybalt, likewise, is murdered by Romeo. Romeo’s gone.

The Prince, despite having promised execution for anybody that disturbs the streets again, decides on banishment for Romeo. How much do we think this decision has to do with the fact that it’s Mercutio we’re talking about? If Tybalt had murdered, say, Benvolio…then what? Does the Prince still call for banishment, or Romeo’s head?

This is the only place I can think of where the relationship between Mercutio and the Prince might have played into the story. Is there another one?

I don’t know why this article exists – it has neither header nor footer telling me, and the headline is merely “Shakespeare” – but the author provides a bullet list of nothing but a bunch of anecdotes about actors performing Shakespeare.

Some favorites:

• While working with Sir Donald Wolfit, Eric Porter ran into a problem at a school matinee performance of “Macbeth.” Wolfit disliked schoolchildren’s giggling during a performance, so he told the schoolchildren before the play started that there was absolutely no reason to laugh during “Macbeth.” However, Porter was playing the porter, who is a humorous character, and he said afterwards, “I had to stand on my head, practically, before I could raise a giggle!”
• While performing Shakespeare in the open air in Africa during the late 1960s, actress Judi Dench received a scare one night. She looked at the audience, saw the silhouette of a figure with horns, and thought, “The Devil’s here!” The horned figure turned out to be a goat that had wandered into the audience.
• Fred Astaire was not a reader. He once asked his son-in-law about the story of “Romeo and Juliet.” His son-in-law explained that it was like “West Side Story.”

No idea if they’re all true or what, I’m just fascinated by the random compilation that I stumbled across.

I had no idea about this one. The CW Network has a new series “Star-Crossed” which looks to be a sci-fi spin on Shakespeare?

At 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 17, The CW takes a new swing at the “Romeo and Juliet” idea with the sci-fi drama “Star-Crossed.” Aimee Teegarden (“Friday Night Lights”) and Matt Lanter (“90210”) star as Emery and Roman, a human teen and an alien teen who share a childhood bond … and perhaps more. When Emery was 6, an alien spaceship crash-landed in her small town. Not willing to assume that visitors from another world who suddenly show up are there to cure cancer and promote world peace, the indigenous human population battles the aliens, called Atrians.

It sounds, from the rest of the article, like only the lightest of connections. But, still.  Once upon a time this blog used to be about pointing to all kinds of different modern culture Shakespeare references, and if they’re trying to get an R&J vibe for their new show, that certainly counts.

What caught my attention enough to post this was the article’s mention that she quotes The Tempest in her acceptance speech:

And all those incredibly carnival of characters that march into battle on any film – I thank you all, it has been an amazing journey up to now. I’m going to finish with the words of a great writer. 

‘Our revels now are ended. These our actors. As I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision. The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself. 

‘Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; And, like this insubstantial pageant faded. Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.’

Something is missing from this article, though, which goes on to talk about past BAFTA winners, and what Dame Helen was wearing.  There’s not even one mention of the fact that she portrayed Prospero and delivered that speech on film even more recently than she portrayed the Queen!