scene individable, or POLL unlimited: works of william shakespeare

The thing about translations of Shakespeare is that people have been doing it for hundreds of years, and some of it has entered foreign languages as well. 'At være eller ikke at være, det er spørgsmålet'

that's what I said to my Lyft driver last week!

I wrote 'Frederikke B' as a hilarious linguistic zing, but then realised I was colonising the Danish language, but I'm posting it anyway

I went to high school with her.

I think errors is hilarious

for me the really mindblowing artist's farewell is when cleo issues her orders to the snake.

Totally, and there's something uncanny about the clown in that scene: "for, indeed, there is no goodness in worm."

"If thou and nature can so gently part, the stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, which hurts, and is desired."

i was watching attack of the clones the other day, and there's that unfortunate digression where threepio's head gets switched with the head of one of the useless battle droids, and he flails around a while ruining the otherwise pretty good battle of geonosis set piece, and then artoo restores him and he stumbles to his feet and says "i've had the most peculiar dream!" and i was suddenly like, wait a second

― difficult listening hour, Monday, January 22, 2018 3:25 AM (nineteen hours ago) Bookmark

Tom Stoppard did some uncredited (shockingly) script work on the prequels

performance vs. reading is always a tough one w/ shakespeare. lear is so crushingly dark at the end, feels like no performance could do justice to that. the whole thing feels, not epic exactly, but expansive, like it's somehow taken in the whole of human experience. the end of the play feels like the end of everything. the only thing i can think of that makes me feel similarly is moby dick, tho of course that's self-consciously epic.

there are a few roles in shakespeare that seem almost beyond performing. hamlet is one -- i've seen good productions but never saw a guy doing hamlet and thought, that's the guy i imagine when i read the play. always find myself thinking that the best performances were probably from the pre-film era.

I love the romantic atmosphere in Tempest, which is probably what I'll vote for -- though I'm a bit surprised that I'm the not the first to mention Cymbeline! It's kind of action-adventure with, IIRC, a female action(y) lead (Imogen!). If I'm misremembering, then she at least gets to do a lot of cool stuff.

Favorite stage performance was a college production of Coriolanus. Favorite film adaptation is a tie between Ran and Taymor's Titus. (Wish I could see her old stage Tempest -- the clips look amazing.)

(I guess I like violent spectacles.)

I have never seen a satisfying performance of Lear...the ending always destroys me even when the production is terrible, though.

Timon of Athens is missing :-(

Not that it'd win, like.

that's a pretty sad one! it has more of a processional, o.g. greek feel to its tragedy (as you'd imagine) and no women. good play though

How is it possible this has never been polled before?

Another good poll would be fave secondary characters. Yr Falstaffs and Calibans and Bottoms. (Falstaff may or may not count since he got promoted to lead of his own play.)

What's secondary tho

How is it possible this has never been polled before?

The Beatles don't appear in any of the plays

Lear for the text.

It's not my favourite Shakespeare performance though - the Kevin R McNally performance last year was the only Lear I've seen and it was pretty good but def. missing something. The Peter Brook film also leaves me a bit cold. I do love what Kurosawa did with the structure in Ran (1985) though.

Awfully fond of Othello too. Cannot bloody wait for the André Holland and Mark Rylance performance at the Globe in August.

Another good poll would be fave secondary characters. Yr Falstaffs and Calibans and Bottoms. (Falstaff may or may not count since he got promoted to lead of his own play.)

Never actually read or seen Falstaff's Wedding or anything similar, I'm guessing there's an Elizabethan Joey vibe going down?

Another spin-off poll we did a few years ago:

The 2000-year period of Shakespearean tragedy is one inbred clusterfuck all happening at the same time. Who becomes king?

my campaigning for Vincentio to the general silence of all = actually I kind of stand by that

MFM is amazing and up there with all the other best ones

Ugh I saw Measure for Measure a couple years ago and found it almost loathesome. Maybe worth a read instead.

MacDuff becomes king but only offstage after

MFM is surely loathsome - it is about how a dictator cements his power using underhand tactics, and redoubles his popularity into the bargain

The total rancidity of Measure for Measure is its main virtue imo.

exactly

in which shakespeare bodies politics ancient and modern

Currently teaching Macbeth again. I should probably whisper it but this is the first time it's felt, I don't know, a bit two dimensional. Maybe it's me.
I bloody love the Tempest, and on balance it probably has my favourite lines, but there's too much of the mistaken identity faff arseing around in between.
I've never read or seen Lear. I'm ashamed of this.
Of the minor plays, I think Pericles is my favourite.

I'd have to go for Hamlet, even if I think I might be on the cusp of falling away from it.

I’m seeing a production of Timon of Athens in a couple days, I know next to nothing about it.

basically: if you're having money troubles you shouldn't see it

Did anyone watch the show Slings and Arrows, set at a Canadian theatre modeled after the Stratford Festival? It’s kind of an uneven show but has a number of really fantastic moments that dig into what makes these plays work and the difficulty in staging them effectively. The second season revolves around a production of MacBeth, which the director admits he dislikes - a side character argues that it only shows you evil, and teaches you nothing about it. Which I wouldn’t necessarily agree with, but I should reread the play.

Belated post but The Globe's summer theater season tickets are available as of a couple days ago. The groundling tickets for a fiver cannot be beaten for value if you don't mind standing for three hours (I'm happy to do it at gigs for a better view so why not the theatre?).

Hamlet, The Two Noble Kinsmen and As You Like it booked for when I'm down in June. Haven't actually read the latter two yet, but will hopefully get round to it soon.

Othello in August is what I'm looking forward to the most though (Mark Rylance as Iago, oh boy).

Super-envious of Rylance as Iago. I saw the National's slightly-less-than-satisfactory production a few years ago, and while I didn't love the cramped staging, I did love Rory Kinnear as Iago.

I am seeing three Macbeths this year. Very excited for all of them.

Oh I saw Kinnear in Young Marx last year and he was superb! Isn't he playing the lead in one of your anticipated Macbeths? I'm guessing the National production.

We'll be in Ashland, Oregon this summer during their epic Shakespeare fest, but I forget which play might be going on on our exact date. Twelfth Night, maybe?

Oof, Rylance as Iago. Have booked a couple of yard tickets. Thanks for the heads up.

Timon of Athens was nicely performed but really weird, I get the sense WS wasn’t in a great place when he wrote (or co-wrote, I guess) this one. There’s a strange lack of drama to the entire thing, Timon doesn’t seem to be particularly important or notable even when he’s rich, and his character arc is just cheerful——>hate u all with nothing in between and no moment of greater understanding. Artimaeus’s endless shit-talking is pretty fun but i was a little puzzled as to why anyone invited him to their parties.

From this (as usual, v funny) Thomas Bernhard play:

http://shirtysleeves.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/an-alternative-translation-of-minetti.html

It was a real conquest
to get me to play Lear
one more time
and also a crowning moment
Just one more performance madam
then never again
I’ve sworn it
never again
just one more performance
Thirty years I’ve shunned the stage
thirty years of nothing
I have renounced all classic literature
except Lear
Now just one more time I’ll play Lear
in Ensor’s mask
My nerves are frayed
it’s this appalling climate you see

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

We'll be in Ashland, Oregon this summer during their epic Shakespeare fest, but I forget which play might be going on on our exact date. Twelfth Night, maybe?

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, February 1, 2018 2:09 PM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd want to see this there - https://www.osfashland.org/productions/2018-plays/manahatta.aspx

I'm not certain what my favorite is, but probably would have voted for As You Like It on the correct assumption it would get relatively little attention from others

Whoa @ 4 whole Cymbeline voters!

that play is trash xp

manahatta I mean

surprised to see the tempest so high and the dream so low

i think i voted hamlet, corny but that's where my head's at rn. v happy with the hamlet/macbeth tie, a deadlock

wish i'd thrown tony+cleo a vote tho jeez

No shame in Hamlet stanning.

My favorites are probably Measure for Measure, Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Hamlet.

I had a friend in college who lit into me about preferring Ham to Lear, saying "Hamlet is the 19th century man's play. Look to Lear. The problems of Lear are the problems we're concerned with in the 20th century."

It was 1990 then, so the play of the 21st century had yet to be determined.

Starlight Express, maybe?

hamlet again

(nah it's macbeth obv.)

Is Rosalind the most alluring woman in literature? Fine. She is.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, January 21, 2018 5:14 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm: she is a chameleonic demiurge of the kind shakes usually reserved for tragedies and AYLI was robbed here. harold bloom iirc likes to imagine falstaff escaping history to arden; likewise i wouldn't turn down rosalind/hamlet slash, fraught as it'd get.