http://www.playbill.com/news/article/108994.html As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not exactly thrilled that my local free Shakespeare in the Park is doing Midsummer, a play that I’ve seen almost as many times as I’ve seen Hamlet. Don’t get me wrong, all Shakespeare is good Shakespeare, and “free Shakespeare in the park” might darned well be 5 of the most beautiful words in the English language. But come on, the man wrote a good 38 plays or more, why do we have to keep doing the same ones over and over again? How about a nice Anthony and Cleopatra? Never actually seen that one live, and it’s one of the “big ones”. Anyway, the linked Playbill article shows all the casting information, in case anybody is up on their local theatre talent and recognizes any names.
Can You Be 42 and Play Romeo?
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/performing_arts/story/151113.html I like this article for not just commenting on the respective ages of Romeo (around 17) and Juliet (13) and how you have to cast those roles relative to the actors’ ages, but for going into a pretty cool history about how other famous actors have played the roles. Basil Rathbone? 42 when he played Romeo. Orson Welles was a 19yr old Tybalt, which the article comments “must have looked a little out of place.” Norma Shearer was a 34yr old Juliet, alongside John Barrymore’s 54yr old Mercutio. But who’s the goofball quoted near the end who says that some people might call Romeo and Juliet one of the “lesser” plays? It’s no King Lear, but it’s no Timon of Athens, either, people.
Meant To Be Performed, Not Read? Nonsense.
For the umpteenth time today I saw that old cliche about how Shakespeare’s works were intended to be performed, not read. I don’t, quite frankly, care a whit was Shakespeare intended. He’s long dead. So, newsflash. Every performance of Shakespeare does not imply that he intended it to be performed in that particular way. Do we think that he intended Oberon to speak in Klingon? Or Lady Macbeth to drag Macbeth across the stage by his ear? Or Hamlet to jump in a child’s wading pool, complete with goggles and swim fins? Yes, I’ve seen productions that included all those things. When you see a performance of Shakespeare you are separating yourself from the original (what Shakespeare did actually mean, to the best of our ability to figure it out) by a few dozen other people’s opinions – the director, the actors, the costume designers, the set builders, the production company… At any time, any of them could make a decision that would have Shakespeare spinning in his grave. You could see ten productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, each substantially different from the rest, and have no closer clue about what Shakespeare intended for you to take away from it. That is unless, of course, you read the play. Even then you’ll have no idea what Shakespeare meant, but at least you’ll be able to make up your own mind. Then, go see it.
Speaking of Amazing Anagrams
I’m always flattered when ShakespeareTeacher takes one of my posts and runs with it. I’ve been away for a few days so I didn’t even notice at first that he’d spotted my “Amazing Anagram” note and had a virtual field day with it! How in the world do you come up with such things???
Macbeth: Who Wrote It?
This weekend I was away on vacation and I read something about Macbeth being attributed to Thomas Middleton instead of Shakespeare. I know about many of the plays in questionable authorship, but I didn’t know that Macbeth was one of them. When I got home and caught up on my newsfeeds I found another article suggesting that Shakespeare stole Macbeth from a Scottish monk named Andrew de Wyntoun. The standard article follows, some historians show examples where the original looks similar to what Shakespeare wrote, and then a Shakespeare scholar presents the standard defense: “Yes, we know that Shakespeare borrowed things, he admitted it freely. The point is that when he rewrote it, his version was much better than the original.”