Month: February 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6eaac536-11e4-11df-b6e3-00144feab49a.html We’ve talked about Shakespeare sequels here before.  So how about Macbeth?  Seriously.

“About five years ago there were a lot of productions of Macbeth,” Greig recalls. “And I remember thinking, ‘This is interesting because obviously it is to a certain extent a response to the fact that we’re at war.’ And yet Macbeth is a play about the toppling of a tyrant. It seemed to me that the interesting story was what happened after you toppled the tyrant.

The same could be said of all the tragedies – what of Fortinbras? Or Albany?  Surely none of the tragedies truly have a neat ending.

The more he worked on the story, the more vivid the 11th-century world became. The play focuses on Siward’s genuine impulse to help but it also envisages the aftermath of a war from the viewpoint of those who have been liberated.

Like all war-themed theatre these days, the parallels to Iraq and Afghanistan are deliberate and obvious.  Personally that turns me off,but I may be in the minority there.  I don’t read Shakespeare and ask what the political climate was when he wrote it, so I don’t want to sit through modern theatre wondering the same thing. Dunsinane opens on February 17, Hampstead Theatre, London,www.hampsteadtheatre.com

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98140-Would-Shakespeare-Have-Been-a-Good-Game-Designer I was hoping that the release of the new video game Dante’s Inferno would generate some discussion about classic literature as a source of modern videogames.  Yay! How about a videogame Macbeth? We’ve talked about Shakespeare and games many times before.  The massive online world of Arden didn’t really pan out.   There are, however, no end of Flash games, board games, cellphone games… so the canon is certain rich with material. I think part of the trick is to not let people think they’re learning.  Have you seen the Dante’s commercial?  It is this : Massive effing demon steals girl, takes her to the Underworld. Warrior hero, without a moment’s hesitation, dives in after them.  He’s then swarmed by some big muthafrickin monsters and demon hordes, trying to get to what I can only assume is his beloved.  There’s your plot.  How much of the actual Dante’s Inferno is in there, I have no idea.  But I don’t think most gamers care. Looking at today’s videogame console standards, what Shakespeare would make a good game?  Macbeth’s certainly a good choice – crazy warlord who think he’s immortal, and wants you dead.  The histories, particulary Henry V, would also seem to be a natural if a little obvious fit.  What else?  Anything more creative than that?  How about Julius Caesar?  Richard III?

How to Become A Videogame Tester!

We’ve done the “You know you’re a Shakespeare geek when” schtick from time to time, but after last night I thought I’d spin it around.  Confession time, you tell us when you’re feeling your most geeky. Last night I’m reading a “Magic Treehouse” book with my 7yr old daughter. It is no Lord of the Rings.  It’s a silly little book with short sentences and simple dialogue, about two kids who travel through time to the great areas of history and have adventures.  In this particular case they travel to 1600 England and meet William Shakespeare (turns out they actually get up on stage as fairies).  (To the book’s credit part of the plot involves the children rescuing a bear from the “bear gardens”, though it does not go into great detail about what bear-baiting was.) While progressing through this simple little book (we are half way through) all I could think was stuff like, “Well, which fairies are they going to play?” and “What do you mean Puck is being played by a big fat guy?” and, mostly, “Do the lines, do some lines, please dear god I hope they get to do some lines….”  Because I swear if I get to hear “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows” come out of my kid I may fall down in an ecstatic fit on the spot. … This morning before getting dressed for school the kids were all watching an old “Pink Panther” cartoon on the Boomerang channel.  What their fascination is with 30+yr old cartoons is beyond me.  But the Inspector was running away from a monster, and the chief yelled “Cowards face a thousand deaths, the valiant taste of death but once!” at his fleeing back. “Shakespeare,” I said. “What?” they said. “William Shakespeare said that first.  Julius Caesar.” I know they have no idea what I’m talking about, but I can’t help myself.  I don’t post nearly half the times I spot such references.  In Charlie Brown’s Valentine’s Day special there’s a segment where Snoopy sits atop his doghouse, typewriter at the ready, banging out love notes while Lucy criticizes.  At one point he writes something, tears off and hands it to her, and she reads, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”  Sitting in the dark family room on movie night I am the only one to throw my hands up in the air and yell “Woo!  Shakespeare!” … This morning at breakfast the 5 yr old said, out of the blue, “Daddy, I think you’re teaching us about Shakespeare.” “Ya think?” I asked. 😉

That’s right, you heard me. Hanks and Winfrey are teaming up to produce the movie version of Edgar Sawtelle, which is based on Hamlet:

"Edgar Sawtelle" is about a mute boy who runs away from home after the murder of his dog-breeding father and other subsequent misfortunes. He travels through the wilderness of Wisconsin and Canada followed by three pups from a litter he’d been raising himself until he decides to return home and face the man he suspects is the killer.

I’ve been looking at that book, wondering whether to pick it up, but I always skip it.  I’ve got a stack of books I’m not reading already, I don’t need to make it bigger.  This one will definitely go in the “see the movie instead” pile.

So the other day during a meeting we notice that the boss’s clock is not out of batteries, it is in fact broken.  “Did they have clocks when Shakespeare was writing?” he asks, knowing me to be a Shakespeare geek. “Funny you should say that,” says I, and tell him the story of the Julius Caesar anachronism, how Brutus hears the clock chime three times when, for ancient Rome, there wouldn’t have been such a clock. (*) We can debate whether that’s a mistake of whether Mr. Shakespeare knew what he was doing and just went with it, but it’s no fun to say “What’s your favorite anachronism”? What are some other “mistakes” Shakespeare might have made?  Little things that, once you draw attention to them, don’t make a whole lot of sense?