I’ve always wondered if people did these! I know it’s short notice, but Theatre All Around out of Manchester, NH is doing a Shakespeare flash mob later this week. They appear to be in desperate need of some bodies (as in, “if we can’t get enough people we can’t do it at all”), so if you’re in the neighborhood, get in contact and see if you can help them out! You can be “on book” so no need to worry about memorizing on short notice. You just need to be a willing body.
Month: August 2011
She Didn’t Call You Because…
Flying solo this time, I spotted the #shedidntcallbecause tag on Twitter and the rest, as they say, is history.
She Didn’t Call You Because…
- …you stabbed her dad. She’s out picking flowers to make herself feel better.
- …Friar Laurence buried her alive, and she’s got no cell reception in the tomb.
- …yo, seriously, her dad is crazy. Thinks he’s a wizard. Said he’d chain you up and turn you into a slave if she talked to you again.
- …she’s washing the blood off her hands and dropped the phone in the sink.
- …you wrongly accused her of getting pregnant by your best friend, and she had to go into hiding for 16 years.
- …she said to tell you she was going to go play with her pet snake.
- …you called her a whore and broke up with her. On your wedding day. Who does that?
- …all you were offering was mac and cheese, and Titus invited her over for pie.
- …you may have put the roofie in her drink, but she went home with some other ass.
- …you’ve got a pillow over her face.
Starring Mrs. Peacock as Gertrude
Seriously, folks, if you’re not following the fun on Twitter, you miss out on cool stuff like this.
You know it’s going to be a fun (and unproductive!) day when you arrive at work, fire up the computer, and see that BardFilm (aka KJ) has started in on a new Twitter hashtag game he calls, “Shakespeare described in Clue Terminology.” If you’ve never played Clue this game will probably make no sense to you, but basically it involved guessing the solution to a mystery in the form of <character> in <the location> with <the weapon>.
Here are some of the best. I wish I could get a cut-and-paste out of Twitter in a useable way so I could credit everybody with every line, but that would truthfully take me an hour to format properly. Instead I’ve left them all anonymous – including KJ’s and my contributions – so it’s fair. If you click that link up there you may still see some traffic on Twitter, but it does scroll off after a while which is the main reason I want to get the results documented.
- It was Iago on the Island of Cyprus with the Handkerchief.
- Claudius in the Orchard with the Vial of Ear Poison Thingie.
- Titus in the kitchen with the pie.
- It was Richard III in the Winter of Discontent with the EVERYTHING.
- Claudio at the Wedding with the Accusation of Infidelity.
- Ophelia in the river with the flowers. (too soon?)
- Gertrude on the Riverbank with the Alibi!
- It was Juliet in the tomb with a happy dagger
- Friar Laurence in the tomb with the poorly executed plan. He gets credit for a two-fer.
- Timon in the Cave with the Misogyny.
- Claudius in the duel with the Laertes. (Think about it. 🙂 )
- Oberon with the Love Juice in the Bower. [Sounds naughty, but isn’t.]
- Shylock in the Courtroom with the Scales.
- Caesar, in the senate, with the failure to heed soothsayers.
- Antony at the Base of the Tower with the Ill-advised Credulity.
- Brutus in the End with the Ides.
- Henry in the Field with the Agincourt.
- Helena, in the bed, with the questionable morality.
- Richard on the battlefield without a horse
- Oliver in the Forest of Arden with the Deus Ex Machina.
- Cornwall in Gloucester’s Castle with the Regan.
- Cordelia, in the Beginning, with the Nothing.
- It was Romeo at the Party with the Best Pick-Up Lines Ever.
- It was the Oxfordians in the Conspiracy with the Stupidity.
- It was Oxford in the Anonymity with the Education.
- Cassius, in his tent, with the Pindarus
- Iago in Othello’s ears with words
- It was Paulina in the Winter’s Tale with the Sixteen-Years-of-Deception.
- Falstaff in the Pub. That’s all.
Underrated?
Twitter brought us an interesting discussion today over what the most “under rated” Shakespeare play is. For those that weren’t following, here’s the summary:
wattsdirector
Graham James Watts writes, “It’s gotta be “Timon of Athens” – such a great play for modern times.”
MissLFGS says “most underrated has to be Merchant of Venice – Shylock is amazing and his equality speech still so relevant.”
bardfilm takes a stand: “Hamlet. Yup, it’s SO good that it’s STILL underrated.”
minisquiggs would say, “Coriolanus. In my opinion, it’s much better than Caesar, but is rarely read.”
ibc4 can’t decide: “Cymbeline. Measure For Measure. Two of my favourite “lesser lights” that should get more attention.”
HKeight88 wants “someone who can figure out Titus Andronicus… more work needed!”
cherrywinter2 (who, by the way, posed the original question!) would like Coriolanus to get “more notice”, for Volumnia.
LynneyP votes for Cymbeline
TyUnglebower votes for Richard II.
For the curious, my own answer to the question was Richard II. Although I did offer the caveat that I think that every play that doesn’t get all the attention should get more attention :). Something about R2 makes me think that people see it first as a history, second as a sort of “lesser Richard” (what with R3 being such a big deal), when in actuality it’s this poetic masterpiece that you only get exposed to in school if you’re very very lucky.
Vhat in Ze Name of Mars?
Quick question. All’s Well That Ends Well takes place in and around France, right?
So why does everybody keep invoking Roman gods? Diana and Mars are mentioned frequently. Was this story still supposed to be taking place in a time where Christianity hadn’t kicked in yet?
I know that Lear had this problem of mixing up his gods, but wasn’t his story a fairly ancient one?