I would kill to see Cake Boss do an episode like this – a cake full of Shakespeare’s most famous characters.

Of course, much like Cake Boss, making something out of cake technically means making it out of chocolate, sugar, rice krispy treats and then sitting the sculptures on top of said cake.  But, still!

Here’s your challenge, Shakespeare geeks!  The opening picture in the article shows the entire cake.  Then, each character is explained.  So before you scroll down to read the whole article, see how many characters you recognize.

I just love that somebody’s pursued by a bear.  I want to meet whoever made this cake.

UPDATE : It appears that Romeo is being pursued by a bear?  Although in fairness it could be a kangaroo. Also, who is the snowman looking royal dude on the lower level supposed to be, Hamlet’s father’s ghost?  The rest seem pretty recognizable. Note the arras with the blade sticking out of it.

I think you all know how I feel about that.  I have, on the fly, retold the tale of King Lear to my 5year old son – at his request.  I will never forget this moment:

Well, her father the king was not happy with this answer at all. He got so mad that he said she would not have any share of the kingdom, and he banished her. 

…at this point a choked little voice asks me, “But did he still love her?” And I am caught so by surprise that I don’t quite know what to do with myself. My little guy has been hanging on every word, and he’s an emphathetic little bugger. 

“Oh, he absolutely still loved her,” I told him, “He was just really really mad because he thought she was saying that she didn’t love him. He didn’t understand her answer. Are you sad?” 

He nods, unable to get any words out. 

I squeeze him a bit tighter and remind him that this story has a happy ending, remember? “We’re going to find out that she loved him most of all.”

The fact that I know that that’s only half true?  That she did love him most of all, but that the story doesn’t have a happy ending?  I’m lucky I didn’t get choked up like he did trying to pretend like it all works out.

I have always believed that you can expose children to elements of Shakespeare, literally, from birth.  Go ahead and name their stuffed animals Romeo and Juliet, or Beatrice and Benedick.  Throw around random quotes when you can.  Bring up plot points.  It will be a long long time before they “get” Shakespeare in an academic sense.  It’ll also be a long long time before they understand physics and gravity and parabolic arcs, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn how to catch a ball.

Once again Reddit’s bringing the interesting conversation, this time on an old Romeo and Juliet question:

Do you think that Friar Laurence is a criminal or a hero?

Somewhere along the line, someone (was it you, David Blixt?) told me that Friar Laurence is a really bad guy who used two stupid lovestruck kids as pawns in his scheme to be the hero who ends the feud. When I go look in the text, however, all I really find is that one line of his where he tells Romeo “For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.”

We’ve often discussed the fact that Romeo and Juliet, right up until Mercutio’s death, is a romantic comedy that suddenly goes very very badly.  Even the darkest plays have at least a couple of jokes thrown in (or do they?)  So let’s talk about that.  Among all the plays that are not supposed to be comedy, which one do you think is the funniest?

There’s multiple ways to look at this:

* Laughs where Shakespeare put them, and expected them.
* Laughs where a modern director found an opportunity to get a laugh.
* Laughs where the audience laughed, and probably wasn’t supposed to.

So let me rephrase it this way – which play do you think provides enough potential for the audience to walk away thinking, “Wow, I never expected to laugh that hard!”

I’ve seen a fair share of laughs in Othello, and Macbeth.  I didn’t laugh at Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus, but when I saw a production in Boston Common the lead character was so over the top snarky in his attitude toward everybody that I couldn’t help myself (although I also wanted to punch him).  I’ll be very surprised if King Lear makes this list.  Somebody remind me if there’s any funny bits in that one at all?