So I’m bored tonight and looking for content.  I don’t type “Shakespeare” into the search engines because I’ve got monitors on those to bring the news to me.  I type in character names. I type in “Caliban” and get this! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ferentz-lafargue/a-tempest_b_294571.html Posted just this morning, a blogger on the Huffington Post compares current New York politics (and the whole “Obama’s people tell governor Paterson not to run”) to the Tempest:

In a sense, Cuomo is Ariel to Paterson’s Caliban. This of course suggests that Gillibrand is Miranda, and Schumer is Prospero in this New York State Democratic adaptation of The Tempest.

I don’t fully get it, I just got a kick out of the fact that it was posted just today and I happened to trip over it entirely by accident ;).

Using Shakespeare as the foundation for your game is not new.  Some work, some don’t. But it’s always a good idea, from where I sit.  And eventually somebody’s going to hit upon the formula that makes it work.  I think the trick, like “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Lion King”, is to make it map to Shakespeare without coming right out and saying it.  If you tell people “This is Shakespeare, you’ll like it” you won’t get as good a reaction as if you say “Did you like it?  Cool, because you know, it was based on Shakespeare.” With that in mind we have “Gamelet”:

Inspired by Hamlet, the new game is — in the words of its solo developer himself — a "twisted" adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play. Players control a "man from the future", who arrives in Hamlet’s time just as the Danish hero is about to seek revenge for the death of his parents and rescue his beloved Ophelia from her captors. Unfortunately, you crash land right on top of Hamlet, and must now assume his place in order to prevent the "history" of the world from radically changing.

Sounds like a cross between Hamlet 2 and Wizard of Oz.  Back when I was in school, dreaming of writing games for a living, Hamlet was my holy grail.  Specifically, I wanted to build an engine so rich in AI that all of the NPC (non player characters) would roam around and behave *like* their Shakespearean counterparts, without ever actually being told to. We shall see how it goes.  By my “map it without telling them it’s Shakespeare” rule, it won’t work.  Fingers crossed that I’m wrong!   http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=1970

Although the name sounds familiar, I don’t know much about this Lenny Henry fellow.  He’s a comedian?  He’s getting great reviews for his spin on Othello:

But appropriately to a tragedy that knows a thing or two about stealth, the director, Barrie Rutter, lets the text’s variable loyalties land where they will — led by an Othello who displays the “free” and life-enhancing nature spoken of by Iago, until suspicion sets in and Mr. Henry’s genial presence starts to cloud over.

I haven’t seen much of Othello, but my recollections do tend toward the … well, boring.  I’ve never really thought of him as a fun guy.  Perhaps I’ve been thinking about him wrong.  Maybe the more you show his good nature up front, the harder the fall as his paranoia takes over. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/arts/23iht-lon23.html

Sutter has even hinted that he plans a five-year run for the series, with each of the five seasons mirroring the corresponding act in Hamlet. Consider that gang leader Clay (Ron Perlman) killed his friend and business partner before marrying that dead man’s wife and raising the woman’s troubled, haunted son (Jackson "Jax" Teller, played by Charlie Hunnam), and you’ll see the clear connections to Claudius, Gertrude and their troubled son.

Why is it that I never learn about these shows until they’re well into their run? 🙁 In this case we’re talking about “Sons of Anarchy”, the FX series about a motorcycle gang….errr, “club”.

"When you look at the fifth act of Hamlet, nobody gets out of that mother alive."

Well put.  Nobody tell him about Horatio and Fortinbras, let it be a surprise. http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/09/18/set-visit-sons-of-anarchy-revs-up-season-two/

Finds like this send chills up my spine.  The Shakespeare geeks likely know, though others may not, that a certain Booth – Mr. Edwin Booth, to be precise – was a much heralded Shakespearean actor in the late 1800’s.  If the name sounds familiar, you are correct – he is the brother John Wilkes Booth, and hopefully we all know what he did. Would you have ever thought in a million years that you could hear what Edwin Booth sounded like?  Here’s a portion of his Othello, courtesy Michigan State:

  Of course the quality is terrible – it’s from a wax cylinder!  The fact that it exists at all is amazing.  You’re listening to a guy that was alive when Lincoln was  shot. How do you like his delivery, what you can make of it?  He seems a little … I dunno, spooky to me.  Bela Lugosi?  I’m trying to remember which of the horror movie actors was famous for that ghoulish sort of elongating of the vowels.  Like the narration on the old “Monster Mash” variety song. What a horrible comparison to make.  Sacrilege, I know. 🙂