Month: February 2014

They’ve still got openings for extras in the upcoming film Bill, described by writer Laurence Rickard as “a tale of murderous kings” and “a plot to blow up Queen Elizabeth”, that explores how Shakespeare went from unknown lute player to famous playwright.  “The joy of the lost years is we can tell a fun story without trampling on the facts. It gives us licence to take William Shakespeare on a truly ridiculous caper, yet end with him becoming the man the world knows.”

I wonder if I’ll ever see this one come up again or it’ll just sort of disappear into obscurity.

Show of hands, who recognizes the magician duo Penn & Teller?

Ok, who knew that Teller is a Shakespeare scholar who has already directed Macbeth?

I just found out that he’s doing The Tempest this summer. I wonder if it will be filmed like the Macbeth was?  I’ll have to keep an eye on the calendar and see if I can’t get to this one.

The fascinating thing about Teller’s stage productions, if you hadn’t guessed, is that they include actual magic into the production. Which would explain why he started with Macbeth, of course, and why he’s tackling The Tempest next.

What other Shakespeare play should be on his hit list?  Something with more ghosts?  Or maybe something with fairies?  He obviously likes to work with the dark stuff (the article quotes him as going for a “dark kind of sideshow” vibe with his conjoined twin Caliban).  Has anybody done a dark Midsummer?