Category: Shakespeare Plays

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as one of the most influential playwrights in history, and his plays have been performed and studied for centuries. From the timeless tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to the hilarious antics of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s plays continue to captivate audiences around the world. Whether you’re a fan of tragedy, comedy, or romance, there’s a Shakespeare play for everyone. So why not revisit these timeless classics and discover the magic of Shakespeare for yourself?

Browse the entire text of Shakespeare’s plays right here on Shakespeare Geek.

Let’s Talk Cymbeline

~ duane ~ 10 Comments

[So, how was everybody’s summer? Sorry I haven’t been posting as much as I used to, many projects have pulled me in many directions that are not Shakespearean.  I shall try to return to a better pace now that the kids are back in school.]


Who’s excited about the new Cymbeline movie?  It’s getting primarily billed as Ethan Hawke’s project, and I know that when we hear Ethan Hawke we think Hamlet(2000), a movie I still haven’t been able to sit through.   But it appears young Mr. Hawke is quite the up and coming Shakespearean – not only did he tackle Macbeth, he documented his research for PBS’s Shakespeare Uncovered series.  And now Cymbeline.  Maybe he’s just doing it backwards?  Maybe he should have worked his way up to Hamlet? 🙂
Now let’s look at the supporting cast.  Ed Harris!  I love him in just the right supporting role.  Apollo 13 (“We’ve never lost an American in space, we’re sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.”)? The Truman Show (“Cue the sun.”)? The Rock (“You’ve been asked by an old friend.  You’re being ordered by a superior officer. Now you’re being given your last chance by a man with a gun.”)?  He always gets the best line in the movie, and nails it every time.
And how about John Leguizamo?  He’s got some Shakespeare under his belt, having playing Tybalt to Leo DiCaprio’s Romeo.  Whether you liked that movie or not, I think most people will agree that Leguizamo can bring the villain out whenever he needs to.
The funny thing is I know nothing about Cymbeline.  I know there’s a king, but that king is Ed Harris and is a relatively minor role.  So, rather than have me look it up on Wikipedia or Sparknotes, how about somebody tells us the story?  I’ll ask the same questions I skim for whenever I’m about to watch a play for the first time:
  • High level plot overview.  Everybody needs some plot.
  • Famous quotes or moments the play is known for?  I learned the importance of this when I saw As You Like It in the park.  The crowd was all noisy and buzzing, like crowds are, until Jaques boomed, “All the world’s a stage…” and it was like you could hear a pin drop.  As if the entire crowd in unison said, “Oh hey, I recognize that!” and started listening.
  • Important scenes / subject to interpretation that will make for interesting “Why did they do it that way?” discussion afterward.  Every production of every Shakespeare play is different, and that’s why we love them.  Once you’re an expert in any given play you can pick out every last detail – but when you’re seeing it for the first time you’re not going to have much to compare it against.  So we pick some scenes to stick in our memory.  For instance I once saw  a King Lear who actually bargained with the storm in his big scene, if you can believe it. I’ll never forget him cowering from the thunder while he gave his big speech as if he was complimenting nature on how big and powerful she was.
So who knows their Cymbeline?

Do You Recommend Shakespeare Movies?

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

Yesterday my boss told me that he’d watched the ending of Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus with his wife the previous night.  Apparently it was on one of the movie channels, or they were channel surfing or something, but the general gist was that he only saw the ending.

He then asked me whether he should take the time to watch the whole thing.

It’s a trickier question than you might first think.  I am careful in my Shakespeare recommendations.  I do not blindly say “ABSOLUTELY YES ALL MUST SEE ALL PLAYS AT ALL OPPORTUNITIES.”  On the contrary, I’m well aware that to the unitiated, sitting through a Shakespeare play can be a chore.

Here’s what I told him, first about Coriolanus and then about Shakespeare recommendations in general:

“Keep in mind that the ending is different from the source text, and this upset some people greatly.  If you don’t know the text that may not matter, but keep in mind that your expectations are now set for the movie, not for what Shakespeare wrote.  Having said that, I think the ending is the best part.  I love the way Coriolanus stands up to Aufidius at the end and hurls his ‘Boy!’ back in his face in legendary fashion.

“Whether you should watch the whole thing? That’s different.  See, I watch them to see different interpretations of my knowledge of the text.  I mean, I don’t know the text inside and out, but I do know enough to compare one version to another and the focus in on why they are different.  I have my scenes that I look for and pay close attention to.  Without that? For the casual movie goer who has no knowledge of the text?  Then I’m not really sure I recommend sitting through it. I think it will be difficult to follow.”

Is that sacrilege?  Even now writing it I feel bad, like I should go seek out the boss and say “I changed my mind.”

Note a couple things.  I’m not talking about live theatre.  I think the experience of live Shakespeare is a must see and I always recommend going.  But we’re talking about movies here, and I think that sitting on your couch with a remote control sitting through two hours of special effects and soundtrack and camera cuts is a different beast.

Second, I would not say the same about Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet.  I think that both those places are so deeply ingrained in popular culture that even if you’ve never read them, you’ve got a significant head start on what’s going on.  But Coriolanus?  That’s a different story.  If somebody hasn’t explained it to you up front (or, even better, while you’re watching it), I think it’s a harder sell.

Thoughts?  Somebody with no knowledge of play X asks whether he should watch a movie of play X.  What do you say?

The earth has music for those who listen.

~ duane ~ 9 Comments

Also “The earth has music for those who will listen,” “The earth has its music for those who listen,” and so on.

This one is easily mistaken as Shakespeare because the words remind us of “If music be the food of love play on” while the sentiment closely echoes Caliban’s “Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.”


However, this one is George Santayana:

“The earth has its music for those who will listen,
Its bright variations forever abound;
With all the wonders that God has bequeathed us,
There is nothing that thrills like the magic of sound.”

Thanks to “That’s Not Shakespeare,” who looks to be as upset about misattributed Shakespeare as I am 🙂

UPDATED September 8, 2014: I was asked to provide a citation that this is Santayana. And you know what? I can’t. It’s quite possible that this quote has fallen victim to that same logic that gets us so many “Not by Shakespeare” quotes, where you find a couple of blogs saying something so it must be true.  I can’t speak for the entirety of Santayana’s work but I can safely say that it’s definitely not in Shakespeare’s work. If anybody can cite exactly where it occurs, we’d all be very grateful!

UPDATED August 2018:  Several commenters below point us to Reginald Holmes in his collection “Fireside Fancies”.  Have we finally solved it??

Explore more posts in the Not by Shakespeare category.

Romeo and Juliet, by Dire Straits

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

(Spotted first by @FolgerLibrary!)

American Songwriter gives dddus the chance this morning to talk about one of the great moments in “Shakespeare put to music” — Dire Straits’ Romeo and Juliet.  Acknowledging that “Knopfler just used those iconic names as a jumping-off point for a portrait of a modern romance,” the author of the piece goes on to examine (with ample Shakespeare references) just where the similarities lie.

What the piece does not do is ask the all important question that we ask ourselves whenever this song comes up.  Who had the best version?

First we have Dire Straits’ original, from Making Movies.

Next up is the version I think I’m most familiar with (well, besides the original) — Indigo Girls.  I don’t think they’ve got an official music video for the song, so the best I could find was this live clip.

Now here’s the version that everybody else but me seems more familiar with — The Killers.  I’ve got a bunch of their stuff in my regular playlists, but this one just never seemed to find its way to the list.

For a bonus, here’s a couple I never knew existed.  First, Edwin McCain (“I’ll Be”, “I Could Not Ask For More”, …)

And, finally, somebody named Dan Hardin?  I don’t know anything about him, but I spotted people talking about his version on the YouTube comments so I thought I’d give him a shout out.  Warning, the video’s awful.  But the singing is good.

Which version is your favorite?  Or do you have another version that you prefer, that I missed?  Let us know!

Is The New Romeo & Juliet Movie Going To Be As Bad As It Looks?

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

There’s a new trailer up for the Hailee Steinfeld Romeo & Juliet movie, and I was very excited to see it.  I’m of the believe that that DiCaprio Romeo + Juliet movie may not have been high art, but was an important step in bringing Shakespeare to young “MTV” audiences.  So when I saw the trailer posted by MTV News I had high hopes.

There’s a soundtrack, and it’s a cool trailer, I’ll give it that.

But … oh, oh god.  It’s not Shakespeare. They just went ahead and wrote their own dialogue.

Let’s play a game.  Watch the trailer, and mark two points – the first time you hear dialogue that is so very clearly NOT Shakespeare that you can’t stand it … and the point at which you hear so much of it you can’t watch anymore.

For me the first time is the bit at the ball where somebody says, “The Capulets and Montagues are mortal enemies!”

REALLY?  What genius script writer felt the need to add that little bit of exposition?  Show me don’t tell me, isn’t that what they teach in writing 101?

As for the second, my finger was hovering over the STOP (for the love of god, STOP!) button when Tybalt shows up, uttering such Shakespearean classics as, “Don’t let that name be spoken in this house!”  and my favorite, which I knew was coming from an earlier trailer, “Come settle with me, boy!”

But out of my love for Shakespeare and for you my loyal geeks, I had my coworkers tie me to down to the armrests of my chair and forced myself to watch through to the end.

The trailer ends with Hailee doing a voiceover of the “Give me my Romeo” speech that just sticks a fork in the entire thing, because it’s just plain bad.  It sounds like somebody handed her a complete works (perhaps the No Sweat version) and told her, “Read this.”

Am I overreacting?  Will we be talking about this one 20 years later like we do with Luhrman’s version?  Maybe by then at least Hailee Steinfeld will be old enough that I won’t look at her like a babyfaced child when she flops herself down on the bed under Romeo. Ewww.