William Shakespeare

[Lief Erikson]

I just came back from a Shakespeare Festival. Watched two plays, "A Comedy of Errors" and "Macbeth". They were brilliant performances . I really, really enjoyed them.

Peracles is still my top favorite Shakespeare play though. Richard III runs a close second.

[Mercutio]

So we've seen "Love's Labors Lost." It was delightful...they do it on an outdoor "stage" at a private school in Wilmington. It started at 7:00 and was dark by the time they finished. Well acted, enjoyable, and the perfect setting--since most of the play takes place in a castle park.

[Lief Erikson]

I saw that play in the woods outside our library. That's the one where the man nails all those love sonnets to trees, and then goes to the "doctor", right?

[Mercutio]

no....are you thinking of "As You Like It"?

Love's Labours Lost is the one about the king and his three lords who swear off women for three years (in order to further their studies). But when the princess of France and her three ladies-in-waiting show up on "necessary business" (and therefore an exception to their oath)....

[Lief Erikson]

Oh yes! I think that I've seen that one too, though a long time ago. I saw it as a movie more recently.

I was indeed thinking of "As you Like It". Name goof .

Which is your favorite Shakespeare play?

[Mercutio]

I haven't seen enough to know...The only ones I'm familiar with (have read or seen) are Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, Love's Labours Lost, Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, Othello, As You Like It, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing.

I would like to see Twelfth Night.

[Lief Erikson]

There's a movie of "Twelfth Night" out that's very good. Trevor Nunn is the director. It's a favorite with our family; I recommend it.

[Smeagol_fan]

I love Shakespeare plays. Loved them, listened to them, and watched them since since I was five. There are too many for me to pick out a favorite (I do have a few least favorites, though).

[Elanor]

Originally Posted by Lief Erikson

There's a movie of "Twelfth Night" out that's very good. Trevor Nunn is the director. It's a favorite with our family; I recommend it.

I think this has to be my favorite movie ever. lol!

Great cast, perfect music, beautiful scenery (though not exactly accurate, but who cares?), wonderfully adapted. I think there has to be a balance in adapting Shakespeare between keeping the original lines, keeping the spirit of the play, and turning it into an enjoyable film. Most Shakespeare-based films lean much to far to one side or the other, but Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night is the best of all three.

It's one of those rare movies that you can watch over and over again, and you notice more each time. One time I watched it with my family and as soon as it was over my dad (at least I think it was him) said, "Let's watch it again!" I especially love the moment at the end when Ben Kingsley looks directly at the camera and says, "Every day!" It just makes me giggle every time.

[Mercutio]

We are studying Hamlet in English Lit class. I really liked reading it. We watched Kenneth Branagh's version (4+ hours long) and parts of Mel Gibson's. IMO Branagh's was better.

Branagh's:
The character of Hamlet seemed more like the Hamlet from the text, more fluctuating between states (and Gibson gets too bug-eyed too often ). Since it was word for word the original no important things were left out (like Fortinbras). The acting was generally excellent across the board. The opulent 19th century setting worked quite well. Gibson's rennaissance-esque was too dark (literally dark...lighting). I also liked Horatio a lot more in Branagh's than Gibson's. The two Ophelia's (Kate Winslet & Helena Bonham-Carter) were pretty similar.

For endings, Branagh's was a little too entertaining. Yes, the fencing was quite good. The whole swing down on a chandelier into the king and throw a sword like a dart.......no. At least Branagh kept Horatio wanting to kill himself, the messenger, and Fortinbras in the end, however.
In Gibson's, Laertes seemed much more hatred-full and Hamlet was more mad (I think good things). The film ended with Horatio's "May angels sing you to your sleep" (or something along those lines), and therefore left out some very important conclusions/themes. If you cut though, that's a wonderful place to end.

Overall, Gibson's would've been much more accessible to today's general audience (especially for people not familiar/friendly towards Shakespeare; in Branagh's they'd be asleep within 15 minutes). Shakespeare would probably approve of either version.

[King of The Istari]

I've read a few Shakespere plays, my favourite has to be Macbeth
I just like the idea of a reletivlly good person being minipulated into killing someone and then decending into madness... Nice and tragic gotta love it


"as I stood my watch upon the hill the wood began to move"
Macbeth, William Shakespere
Tolkien's insperation for the martch of the ents

PS. did anyone in the UK see the BBC shakespere Re Told things that have been on, for anyone who isn't in the UK, they took several plays including Macbeth and much ado about nothing and modernised them, so they follow the same storeyline but are set in the modern day with modern speech,
Macbeth was the best, it was converted so Macbeth became Joe Macbeth a head chef in a top restraunt the witches are bin men and Macbeth gets 3 michlin stars and owns the restraunt instead of thane of cawdor and then king.

[MangoPi]

Originally Posted by King of The Istari

PS. did anyone in the UK see the BBC shakespere Re Told things that have been on, for anyone who isn't in the UK, they took several plays including Macbeth and much ado about nothing and modernised them, so they follow the same storeyline but are set in the modern day with modern speech,

lol considering that that is what Shakespeare himself did with his plays, they would just be keeping with that old time Elizabethian tradition.

You know... except for all the cross dressing.

[Elanor's Angel]

Oh my gosh! My class is currently reading Romeo and Julliet...
my teacher has to explain parts of it I rather wish sho would'nt...
My table has come to a conclusion: Shakespeare is a very perverted old man! (Not old at the time exactly... but still...)
But the writing is beautiful....

[The Gaffer]

Sexual politics is one of the reasons why he is still so relevant.

And, yes, I'm sure he would approve of the modern treatments. I've recently seen Macbeth as a gangster type setting, in a disused car factory, with the protagonists driving cars onto the stage and stuff.

Would love to see a play done in the restored Globe, though, with the audience set out the way he would have dealt with (the proles standing right in front of the stage)

[Elfhelm]

I acted in As You Like It set in the Old West in a community theatre group. We used accents like the western movies, which is to say, southern accents. And we sang barbershop arrangements with the song words wedged in, like Take thou no scorn to wear the horns, set to Goodbye My Coney Island baby. It was fun, but personally I'm a purist.

[Elanor's Angel]

Yeah. My teacher compared the lingo then to slang now... It was actually really funny to see her do it...

[klatukatt]

We just studied Taming of the Shrew with a VERY feminist teacher, so that was fun.

I love putting BDSM in that show!

Othello at my theater was SOOOO GOOOD! ack!

Also, Desdemona (a Play about a Handkerchief) was so fun last summer! It's about the three women from Othello.

[Elanor's Angel]

Yeah, I sit at a table with only girls, so it's a little less aquard...

[Elfhelm]

Yay, I just got my tickets to Ashland! Twelfth Night and Merry Wives. It's going to be wonderful. I've been to their performances before and was never let down.

[Elanor's Angel]

Coolness! Today my class watched the first bit of an old R&J movie... aquardness ensued.... I mean, how many make-out scenes can you cram into the first 10-20 minutes of a movie!