Maori Haka, and Parallel Universes

April 25, 2012February 7, 2017 ~ duane ~ 2 Comments

If you’ve not seen it yet, you first need to check out this video. It’s from the The Globe’s season opener, Troilus and Cressida performed entirely in New Zealand’s Maori language and opening with a “haka”, something that I can best describe as a “war dance,” popularized by the New Zealand men’s rugby team:

This is already awesome on a number of levels when you go into it thinking “Ok, the Shakespeare people are doing a Shakespeare play in a language other than English.” The idea that there’s going to be 37 (38?) of these, each entirely unique, makes me giddy in anticipation.

Now imagine, if you can, coming at it entirely from the other angle. Imagine you stumbled across this video with no context at all. You start watching, you think, “Ok, this looks interesting….” Then you realize that a story is being told. You try to figure out characters, and plot (* this is only the trailer, of course – pretend for the sake of argument that you could get video of the entire production). How long would it take you to realize “Hey….this story looks familiar! I think this in the Trojan War story! No, wait, is this Shakespeare? Is this Troilus and Cressida???”

That’s where my “parallel universe” comment in the subject comes from. You see something like this and it’s as if the essence of what drove Shakespeare’s stories exists independently somewhere, capable of driving what is fundamentally the same story, in an infinite number of ways. It is the same, and yet it is entirely different. You know what I’m trying to say? None of Shakespeare’s words are going to be found, yet it’s still Shakespeare. It is the very definition of universal.

Enough geekiness, on to some more practical questions. Can somebody with a better knowledge of the play identify some of the characters for us? Can someone (possibly with knowledge of the language) give us an idea of what’s happening during this clip?

Or for an equal amount of fun, can someone with *no* knowledge of the play and *no* knowledge of the language take a shot? That would sort of get back to my opening point. 🙂

Why I Do This : The Big Picture

April 23, 2012April 17, 2023 ~ duane ~ 3 Comments

Today’s supposed to be the day where we talk about what Shakespeare means to us. Honestly I find that a bit overly simplified. I talk about what Shakespeare means to be every day (feel free to flip through my 2000 posts over 6 years to convince yourself), and I’m in the midst of a marathon that demonstrates the lengths to which I’ll go. I can’t simply write a single post on that subject, much less squeeze it down into a single tweet.

What I can do, though, is talk about my “mission”. No, not my kids. I’ve talked about them enough. My kids are really and truly at the point where they make references to Shakespeare at will, and I love it. All of them. Somewhere amid the sea of posts you’ll see today you’ll find a reference to my 5yr old son recognizing portraits of Hamlet and Yorick in stained glass windows, and my two daughters, 7 and 9yr olds, both grabbing for books on Shakespeare’s sonnets when given the freedom to pick something from the gift shop. Heck, just the other night for dinner I’d broken out some decorative kids’ plates in the shape of animals – a cow, a horse, a donkey. My 9yr old got the donkey. “Look,” she said, “It’s Bottom.”

With the primary plan well underway, let’s talk about the secondary plan. Because there’s a whole bunch of the world out there that is not my kids. All I’ve done with them is plant a seed that may take generations to truly change the world. That’s only the beginning of what I hope to accomplish.

What happens to me now on a regular basis is that friends and coworkers come up to me and say, “I saw a Shakespeare thing the other day and thought of you.” Sometimes it is Shakespeare’s name specifically that they heard. Sometimes a movie reference, or a quote. It’s not important what they saw, because it’s always something different.

What’s important is that they *recognized* it. Before these people met me I’m quite positive that Shakespeare references were coming and going all around them, in one ear and out the other. You can’t help it. Chances are very good that the Saturday morning cartoons you grew up on were sneaking in the occasional Shakespeare reference on you. They’re ubiquitous.

And now, everybody that knows me can see them. Where they were previously blind, now they see. Not only does something in their brain click and say, “Hey! Shakespeare! I should tell Duane about that.” Know what happens next? They actually *listen*, because they want to know how to repeat it to me. That’s the next step. If you hear it, and you pay attention to it, maybe you actually remember it. And then you’ve learned something.

But guess what? It gets even better. Because when these friends and coworkers (some of whom I barely exchange anything but casual greetings with) come up to me with their found Shakespeare references, sometimes they want to discuss it. They want to discuss it. They want to discuss it. How many times can I say that to have the point sink in how cool that is? None of the people that I’m talking about are theatre people, or academics. They’re just regular folk who, because they happen to have stumbled into my social circle, have rejuvenated that long dormant high school knowledge of the Montagues and the Capulets, of To be or Not To Be. And in me they’ve found someone who will talk with them, ever so patiently, for as long as they want.

That’s the big picture. Every single time somebody comes up to me, in person or by mailing me a link, that starts with “Saw this Shakespeare thing and thought of you …” the plan is working.

What’s your mission? Why do you do this? Tell us.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we’ll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe. If you’ve not yet seen how you can show your support, now’s a great opportunity. If you’ve already done so, thanks very much!

Happy Birthday To … Me!

April 23, 2012April 25, 2023 ~ duane ~ Leave a comment

A week before we left for D.C., my wife asked what I wanted for my birthday (which is coming up a few days after Mr. Shakespeare’s). I smiled and said, “We’re about to visit the Folger Shakespeare Library. I’m pretty sure I’ll find something.”

Fast forward to actually standing in the middle of the Folger Gift Shop. What should I get, what should I get? Posters? Jewelry? Music? Something about the man, about a specific play, about the sonnets? One of everything, please.

Who are we kidding, I made a beeline straight to what I knew I had to have.

The First Folio of Shakespeare: The Norton Facsimile

Looking at that Amazon price I see that I just paid more than perhaps I should have, but what can ya do. I will forever be able to say that I got this one from the Folger itself. Should have gotten somebody to sign it. 😉

My girls both grabbed for books on the Sonnets, if you can believe that, and I had to talk them out of it. Not because I don’t think that’s good study material, but because neither of them was any sort of “Sonnets for Kids” translation. Both were heavy academic books, and I knew that they wouldn’t understand a bit of it. Instead we settled on some books from one of the Shakespeare for Kids series – one got a book on Shakespeare himself, the other got a translation of Midsummer. They’ve already read them, and switched. Multiple times.

The boy, on the other hand, went with a cool jester hat (see “Foolish Games” post). With bells. Wore it for the rest of our trip, and was a big hit wherever he went. Bonus, everybody kept saying “Where’d you get that hat?” and I kept saying, “The Folger Shakespeare Library!” When he was feeling particularly bold he’d then proclaim, “To be or not to be, that is the question!”

I would open up my prize and flip pages, but my wife promptly stole the book back and announced that I cannot have it until my actual birthday. Bummer! But, that gives me a whole other reason to post in a few days 🙂

Shakespeare’s Most Disturbing Deaths

April 23, 2012December 11, 2023 ~ duane ~ 4 Comments

I’m not sure what definition of “disturbing” the Huffington Post used, but the usual suspects are all here in their list of Shakespeare’s Most Disturbing Deaths.

Lavinia of course, and Cordelia. Dedemona. All disturbing in their own different ways.

Macbeth? Well, I suppose. We see Macduff walking around with his head later. That’s pretty disturbing.

Hamlet’s dad. Hamlet’s dad? He doesn’t even die in the course of the play! He makes the list because of the ghost’s *description* of how he died. Ummm…..that’s a bit of a cop out.

Cleopatra? After admitting that she dies happily (and voluntarily)? You put her on your list of disturbing deaths just because “we think it’d be a pretty bad way to go”? I call shenanigans.

What do you think? In their padding of a few questionable entries, did they miss any better, more disturbing deaths?

Shakespeare Under Water

April 23, 2012December 11, 2023 ~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Dr. Carl Atkins, a regular contributor to this site, sent me a link to this amusing article that he was sure I would not have seen. What kind of article do you get when you’re friends with a legit medical doctor who is also an author of Shakespeare books?

Why, an article from one of his medical journals, of course. About drownings in Shakespeare.

Starting with the story of 5yr old Jane Shaxspere (who may have been the inspiration for Ophelia?) the article moves on through Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Richard III, Merchant of Venice and even King John, all of which demonstrate their own variations on drowning, falling, submerging, and the fear of these things. Just how prevalent was drowning in Shakespeare’s day? Was it the sort of thing where you woke up in the morning and thought, “I hope I don’t drown today!”