I know the Olympics have been over for awhile, but Bardfilm started it when he posted Timothy Spall as Churchill as Caliban and asked readers about the use of Churchill (and subsequent World War II implications) and what that does to the speech.  I’m just riding his coattails on this one.

(Side note — when we asked Shakespeare fans which rendition they thought was better, I heard nothing but Branagh.  When I asked an actor friend, who is not particularly a Shakespeare geek?  He said Spall, unquestionably.  He didn’t believe Branagh’s character.  And, I happen to agree completely.  When Bardfilm and I were discussing it I said, “Spall looked like he was trying to be Churchill.  Branagh looked like HOLY CRAP I’M RECITING SHAKESPEARE AT THE OLYMPICS!!” And I was perfectly fine with that. 🙂 )

Anyway, what I want to talk about is how the exact same speech was used to bookend the ceremonies, both as welcome and farewell.  As a reminder, here’s the text:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.Sometimes a thousand twangling instrumentsWill hum about mine ears, and sometime voicesThat, if I then had waked after long sleep,Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,The clouds methought would open and show richesReady to drop upon me that, when I waked,I cried to dream again.

When the show started and I knew that there was a Tempest quote coming (thanks to some spoilers ;)) I just hoped it wouldn’t be the same old “We are such stuff”, and I was not disappointed.  In fact, the speech does a good job of setting the tone, giving this whole sort of “You’re about to see wonderful magical things that you have never seen before….don’t be afraid, just enjoy…” vibe.  The emphasis in the welcome seems heavily on the “isle is full of noises” bit.  That work on multiple levels, from “Something magical is happening here” right down to the more literal “Look, our country is going to be very busy and noisy for the next couple of weeks, so just roll with it, it’s all good, and it’s just temporary.”

As a farewell, you now pay attention to the second half — it was temporary, it was a dream, and like any dream you have to wake up, and then it’s over.  And when it’s over what do you do?  You wish you could dream it again.    In this case is it sadness over the end of the London Olympics, or setting the stage for the next one?  In any other case, “I cried to dream again” is a desire for it not to end, to have the experience continue on indefinitely.  But with the Olympics we know something special — it comes around again.

The more I think about it, the more I like it.  I didn’t even see the closing ceremony (except for video of Spall’s speech, courtesy Bardfilm), so I have no real commentary on the Shakespeare headlines (yet).  But looking strictly at Caliban’s speech, it works just like a big dream sequence, opening up the door to wonders of what’s about to happen, and then closing it with the promise that those doors will open again.

Thoughts?

Bardfilm and I were discussing this the other day, and I saw it pop up in a different discussion so I figured we could talk about it here.

Conversation #1 —  Aufidius’ final insult to Coriolanus is to call him “boy”, and Coriolanus hurls it back at him ten-fold:

Boy! false hound!
If you have writ your annals true, ’tis there,
That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I
Flutter’d your Volscians in Corioli:
Alone I did it. Boy!

We were discussing this line, and Bardfilm brought up the idea about how the line would change if the lead were portrayed by a black actor. Same line, same in-play context, just change the skin color of the guy saying it.

Wait!  Hold that thought.

Conversation #2 — Over on the reddit forum on Shakespeare, we were discussing the moderation of a comment where somebody used the dreaded n-word (although the less offensive -a variation :)).  In discussion, a fellow moderator pointed out this bit in Much Ado About Nothing:

LEONATO
Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Claudio:
We here attend you. Are you yet determined
To-day to marry with my brother’s daughter?
CLAUDIO
I’ll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope.

The last time I missed a Commonwealth Shakespeare production on Boston Common was 2005 – and I’m still not happy about it.  (2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011).

So this year when we accidentally scheduled Coriolanus for the last weekend and the weather started getting rough, I feared the worst.  I’d told my wife, “It’s ok … 2005 was *Hamlet*.  This year it’s only Coriolanus.  I’ll understand if we miss it.”

Yeah, not really.  As always we had plans with another couple.  Our typical Shakespeare date is to get takeout from the local Chinese place, bring some wine, have a picnic.  But it was clear from  the early morning that the weather was not going to be nice to us, so at 10am my wife’s on the phone to me (I’m at work) trying to discuss reservations at a restaurant and when we should “call it” and just agree that there’s no Shakespeare.  My actual quote to her in that conversation was the following:  “Listen.  My entire evening tonight can be summed up as Shakespeare….or not.  If I don’t get my Shakespeare it doesn’t really matter to me at all what else we do.  3 out of the 4 people going out tonight are going to have an opinion on where and what we eat, so why would you ask the fourth guy to make the reservations?” 🙂

Once the show was cancelled I felt a little better, and off we went to dinner.

But I didn’t start this post to tell you about my dinner (Tuscan Kitchen in Salem, NH.  Not bad!  A little pricey for the atmosphere, but I’d go back.)  Unlike 2005, I did get the opportunity to head back into town to see the followup show – in this case, Sunday at 7pm.  Since babysitters were not as forthcoming on a Sunday night, my wife stayed home and I went in alone.

Very disappointed at first, as traffic got me there at about 6:45 – way too late to get a good seat.  I ended up far house right, with a someone obstructed view (which I did not realize until the action began and much of it took place on a balcony high stage left).  Worse, I’d left my sunglasses in the car and the sun was directly behind the stage, meaning that at least to start, I saw nothing.

So the show opens, and director Steven Maler introduces local radio host Kennedy.  Not really sure why, as she pretty much did nothing but introduce herself.  “They say Shakespeare invented the knock knock joke,” she tells the audience, to groans.  “Yes, I’m going there.  I’ve got a joke for you.  Ready? Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” asked the audience half heartedly.

“Wherefore means,” said Kennedy.

“Wherefore means who?” asked the audience.

“No, wherefore means why, how many times do we have to go over this?” she completed.

The audience didn’t love it.  The director said that he loved it.

I loved it.  Not because it was a good joke of course, but because I wrote it.  Someone must have googled “Shakespeare knock knock jokes”, and the list that Bardfilm and I put together pretty much owns that first page of results.  I don’t think that was the greatest joke in the list for them to have picked, but I’ll take it!  Of course, this major event in my life come on a night when I have no family and friends around me to bounce my excitement off of, so I turn to the random stranger next to me and say, “That’s my joke!  I wrote that joke!”  She looks at me like she hopes I’m not going to talk to her anymore.

With that, the show’s about to begin.  I’ll make my actual review a second post so this one doesn’t get too too long.  The sun set relatively quickly so I could actually see the stage.  I tweeted a picture, to give you an idea of where I was and what was going on with that obstructing branch.

To be continued!

[ Maple candy available at my desk. ]

For those not following on Twitter, a representative from Bellwether Pictures (Whedon’s production company) tweeted the following this morning:

Looks like some of you might have heard that a little film, #MuchAdoTheMovie, will be premiering at #TIFF12 Sept 6-16. More details soon.

TIFF is the Toronto International Film Festival. They are holding a press conference as we speak, when the full fall lineup will be announced (currently their site appears to only have summer listings).

UPDATED – More details, including a video, now available.  Strangely I do not hear Whedon’s name mentioned in the video but he’s clearly included in the writeup (along with a hint that his movie will likely be one of the biggest hits of the festival).