I’m sure most geeks know that Shakespeare translations have been available in Klingon for years.  I’m not sure I’ve ever heard about anyone trying to perform it in Klingon, however.  They’re just doing selections (Hamlet and Much Ado), but still, it could be interesting to watch.  I wonder if they’ll be dressed up in Klingon garb? By the way:

The company will speak the verse in both English and Klingon with the lines in iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter defines how it is written, not how it is spoken.  If they’re saying that the Klingon translation is also in iambic pentameter I’ll be impressed, but I also expect that it’ll be about as poetic as the typical syllable counting that goes on with most people that any 5-7-5 poem counts as a haiku.

How about a Rocky Horror Hamlet?  That’s what Chris Barton and the Westminster Theatre Company have put together, and it sounds pretty darned good. I would write more, but I can’t really do a better job than the reviewer, who calls it “both compelling and exciting, one of the best shows I have seen in a while. “  Go check it out.

Wow, the ideas are just flying fast and furious tonight.
Mark made me think of this one on the “Who Would You Be?” post when he mentions Miranda and Ferdinand getting back to Milan and breaking up once Miranda gets to see just how many people this brave new world really does have in it.
You’re in an elevator with a big time movie producer.  You’ve talked his ear off about what plays you think deserve a movie treatment, but he’s not interested. He wants something original. He ponders aloud whether the market would be there for a Shakespeare sequel.  Without missing a beat you pitch him …. what?
Tell us the play, and give us a concise summary of the sequel.
This has been done before.  I’m pretty sure I remember somebody did a play Fortinbras about the new ruler of Denmark who is now haunted by all the ghosts from the previous play.  (I’m not really counting the movie Hamlet 2.)  Somebody’s also got a book project in the works, not sure if there’s a movie, that follows up Macbeth and ties in the storyline of how Fleance (you know, Banquo’s son? who escaped?) returns to become king.

I’m posing this question because I saw it come through my search logs and felt like anchoring it in case anybody else comes around looking for it later. Definition is up to you, I’ll leave this one completely open.  Is it “To be or not to be”? Or is that more cliche than quintessential?

I wish I could think of these conversation starters during the day when everybody’s awake and not at 11pm on a Friday night when everybody’s gone for the weekend. Give your best example of Shakespeare using the same “bit” in multiple plays.  A “bit” is any sequence lengthy enough to be more than coincidence (“Ah me” or “by my troth”, for instance, don’t count). For instance, having heard it again in Much Ado that makes 3 different times I know Shakespeare used this joke: “Is that your daughter?” /  “Her mother told me she was.” Taming of the Shrew. The Tempest (where Prospero says it to his own daughter), and now Much Ado. Possibly more that I just haven’t spotted. This isn’t just “when does Shakespeare repeat a sequence,” but how often can you find where he does it? Can anybody find something that he repeats more than 3 times?