Month: November 2005

CJAD 800 : News: Vaclav Havel, former Czech president, is planning to write a new play. Says he’s got it all in his head, and just has to write it down. The quote of the story comes here: “He has said earlier, however, he planned to write a play based on William Shakespeare’s King Lear, as well as an autobiography.” I’m trying to figure out if that means one play that combines the elements of King Lear and autobiography, or if he’s talking about two separate projects.

Technorati Tags: Shakespeare

I only just caught this link about Hugh Hefner’s Macbeth out of the corner of my eye when I finished the about.com Romeo and Juliet quiz. “Oh good lord,” I thought, visions of Caligula running through my head.

Turns out they’re referring to Roman Polanski’s 1971 “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, produced by Hefner. Haven’t seen it, or for that matter ever even heard of it, but it appears from the reviews that it was pretty good. And not just for Lady Macbeth’s nude sleepwalking, although you have to wonder if Hefner was at the production meetings saying “Darnit can I get at least some nudity in this thing?” No word on whether Francesca Annis, who played Lady Macbeth, was Hef’s girlfriend at the time. 🙂

“Romeo and Juliet”: The Quiz:

About.com’s got a new quiz up. I got 8 out of 10. I always falter when they start asking questions beyond the context of the play itself, like who wrote the ballet entitled Romeo and Juliet. (Yes that’s a question but no I’m not giving you the answer :))

Technorati Tags: Shakespeare

If Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be writing movies. So starts this great Swans.com commentary on the history of Shakespeare’s plays in film.
(Did you know that the very first Shakespeare-on-film was actually King John, a silent film in 1899?)

Some choice quotes tell you where the journalist’s heart lies: “Film directors continually talk about ‘opening up’ Shakespeare for the big screen. To me, this always brings to mind Jack the Ripper opening up the innards of his East End victims in order to slice out their entrails.” He picks a number of adaptations including Prospero’s Books, Brannagh’s fulltext Hamlet, and Iam McKellen’s Richard III and dissects their attempts — too literal from stage to screen? Too liberal?

My personal rule has always been that if you keep the text in tact, then you can visually present it however you want. I don’t have to like it, but you can still do it and get away with calling it Shakespeare. But once you get rid of the original text, then forget it, you’re doing your own thing.

Technorati Tags: Shakespeare

Beep. It’s from Hamlet. 2B? NT2B?=??? – Yahoo! News:

Dot Mobile has a plan to offer SMS-ified versions of the classics in order to keep kids interested. “bothLuvrs kill Emselves” sums up Romeo and Juliet, while “MadwyfSetsFyr2Haus” is the climax of Jane Eyre.

Kill me now.

Technorati Tags: Shakespeare