Month: January 2011

So for other unrelated reasons I found myself reading the bit in The Tempest where Ariel starts to drive a wedge between Stephano and Trinculo by shouting “Thou liest!” and making them accuse each other. Even just reading the script, that is a funny, funny scene:

TRINCULO

Why, what did I? I did nothing. I’ll go farther

off.

STEPHANO

Didst thou not say he lied?

ARIEL

Thou liest.

STEPHANO

Do I so? take thou that.

Beats TRINCULOAs you like this, give me the lie another time.

TRINCULO

I did not give the lie. Out o’ your

wits and bearing too? A pox o’ your bottle!

this can sack and drinking do. A murrain on

your monster, and the devil take your fingers!

CALIBAN

Ha, ha, ha!

STEPHANO

Now, forward with your tale. Prithee, stand farther

off.

CALIBAN

Beat him enough: after a little time

I’ll beat him too.

The way that Shakespeare actually writes in a laugh for Caliban? And how Caliban, no doubt cowering near Stephano, gets off the line about “beat him some more, and then I’ll beat him too!” They just end up looking like bumbling fools here, something out of the Three Stooges, with Stephano as Moe.
But…. earlier they were talking not just about stealing Prospero’s books, but about bashing his head in. This made me think of that particular scene in Taymor’s movie where Alfred Molina, as Stephano, and yes, Russell Brand as Trinculo did manage to give off a rather evil vibe, as if for a moment you really did think that you were looking at a couple of stone cold killers.
So I’m wondering, which is it? Are these three buffoons *ever* any threat to Prospero? Does Ariel take them seriously at all? When I tell this story to my kids I never say “Yeah they’re gonna kill Prospero”, I only ever say “they’re going to try and steal his books, because they think that’s where all the magic is.”
What do you think? Should there be a credible threat in this play, or is that story line all about comedy? I think that I’d rather play up the violence in Sebastian and Antonio, since they are the real enemy – show just how powerful Prospero is that he’s so easily manipulating these notorious bad guys.
(* I would include Trinculo in my title but I’ve been in a Jesus Christ Superstar mood lately and the line above maps nicely the “What then to do about Jesus of Nazareth?” song that’s been stuck in my head for days.)

This is old, but I have to admit I’d never seen it. Eddie Izzard doing his impression of Christopher Walken, doing Shakespeare.

It’s short, and his Walken isn’t very good, but still.

Challenge Extended – Can anybody find video of the actual Christopher Walken doing some Shakespeare? Doesn’t even have to be performance, can be something he whipped up during a talk show interview.

Some people try for a play a month, some try for a play a week or even a day. How about just one steady stream of all Shakespeare, all the time, until you’ve read it all?
Such is the task of the annual Fairbanks Bard-a-thon, where people are welcome to show up and start reading from whatever parts are available. In the early morning sessions they maybe see 10 people, while a popular session will have 50.
I’d actually written about this project previously, back in 2007. I don’t know how long it’s been around, but there is a reference in the article to someone who’s been coming for 10 years.
Here’s a question – the person that they interview says that the defining moment for her was when she got to read the part of God.
What play is *that*?

This morning, before brushing his teeth, my 4yr old looked in the mirror, threw his arms up in the air and shouted ” To BE! Or….NOT, to be. THAT is the question.” No idea where that came from, there was no prompting from me at all. I loved the delivery. Many times he’s come up to me and repeated it just like a 4yr old would repeat a joke over and over again not realizing it’s not funny anymore, just knowing that it got a reaction once therefore it must get a reaction every time. “Hey daddy to be or not to be that is the question!” This was different. Of course I immediately tried to teach him the next line, but “whether ’tis nobler” is right off the bat some pretty hard words for someone that can’t even read yet.
I’ll keep working on it. I may start calling him Edwin Booth.

Here’s a quick game for a weekend day. Surely we’ve all experienced a certain amount of rationalizing that goes with our Shakespeare, whether it came from casual conversation or directly from our teachers. What am I talking about? I heard an old stand by this morning about Juliet being 13 – namely, “Oh, well you see, that was the typical age for a girl back then to get married.”
Really? Back when, exactly? The late 1500’s when Shakespeare was writing? Or something more in the 14th century, based on Porto’s original? If the latter – then why did Porto have Juliet as 16 instead? (I think I have those facts right, this is off the top of my head). If Shakespeare was talking about his own time, what’s it mean then that at 18 he married a pregnant woman nearly 10 years older than him?
Or instead is it that we read Shakespeare, we think “Well, whatever he wrote has to make sense, therefore this love story about a 13yr old has to make sense…so we’ll tell ourselves how it makes sense.”
Then there’s the “second best bed” that he left to his wife. Surely you’ve heard people tell you that “Oh, well you see, this was commonly done – the *best* bed was the guest bed, of course, and the second best bed would have been their wedding bed.” Really? Has anyone ever seen independent confirmation of that, or is that just wishful thinking?
Then of course there’s the whole gay thing. Sonnets written to a dude? Of course they were, that’s how people talked back then! It was perfectly natural for one guy to write love poetry to another guy!
I’m curious, this fine Saturday morning … can we make a list of those? More importantly, can we decide once and for all which are right and which are just wishful thinking?