I’m seeing a production of Timon of Athens in a couple days, I know next to nothing about it.
― JoeStork, Friday, 26 January 2018 19:46 (six years ago) link
basically: if you're having money troubles you shouldn't see it
― imago, Friday, 26 January 2018 19:49 (six years ago) link
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.
― JoeStork, Friday, 26 January 2018 19:53 (six years ago) link
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).
― call me by your name..or Finn (fionnland), Thursday, 1 February 2018 10:02 (six years ago) link
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.
― trishyb, Thursday, 1 February 2018 11:26 (six years ago) link
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.
― call me by your name..or Finn (fionnland), Thursday, 1 February 2018 12:20 (six years ago) link
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, 1 February 2018 14:09 (six years ago) link
Oof, Rylance as Iago. Have booked a couple of yard tickets. Thanks for the heads up.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Thursday, 1 February 2018 16:50 (six years ago) link
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.
― JoeStork, Thursday, 1 February 2018 17:34 (six years ago) link
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 conquestto get me to play Learone more timeand also a crowning momentJust one more performance madamthen never againI’ve sworn itnever againjust one more performanceThirty years I’ve shunned the stagethirty years of nothingI have renounced all classic literatureexcept LearNow just one more time I’ll play Learin Ensor’s maskMy nerves are frayedit’s this appalling climate you see
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 11 February 2018 22:25 (six years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 14 March 2018 00:01 (six years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 15 March 2018 00:01 (six years ago) link
― 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
― Moo Vaughn, Thursday, 15 March 2018 00:04 (six years ago) link
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
― Moo Vaughn, Thursday, 15 March 2018 00:08 (six years ago) link
Whoa @ 4 whole Cymbeline voters!
― MarmiteGrrrl (Leee), Thursday, 15 March 2018 00:18 (six years ago) link
that play is trash xp
― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Thursday, 15 March 2018 00:29 (six years ago) link
manahatta I mean
― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Thursday, 15 March 2018 00:30 (six years ago) link
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
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 15 March 2018 23:02 (six years ago) link
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?
― I leprecan't even. (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 15 March 2018 23:09 (six years ago) link
hamlet again
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 15 March 2018 23:17 (six years ago) link
(nah it's macbeth obv.)
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 15 March 2018 23:18 (six years ago) link
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.
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 14 March 2019 07:15 (five years ago) link
exhilarating to see such a character go undoomed. even iago ends in silence.
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 14 March 2019 07:18 (five years ago) link
jaques, tho, is my boy
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 14 March 2019 07:19 (five years ago) link
I'd want to see this there - https://www.osfashland.org/productions/2018-plays/manahatta.aspx― Moo Vaughn, Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:04 PM Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkI'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― Moo Vaughn, Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:08 PM Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkWhoa @ 4 whole Cymbeline voters!― MarmiteGrrrl (Leee), Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:18 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalinkthat play is trash xp― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:29 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalinkmanahatta I mean― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:30 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Moo Vaughn, Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:04 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Moo Vaughn, Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:08 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― MarmiteGrrrl (Leee), Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:18 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:29 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:30 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lol
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 14 March 2019 07:22 (five years ago) link
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.
feel u, but macbeth's two-dimensionality seems both deliberate and aggressive after the swelling tesseracts of AYLI/hamlet/lear
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 14 March 2019 07:30 (five years ago) link
in the end it's one-dimensional: a collapsed point
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 14 March 2019 07:32 (five years ago) link
yeah Macbeth knows where it’s going and doesn’t really make any bones about it and to me that’s one of its strengths
― Clay, Thursday, 14 March 2019 07:45 (five years ago) link
Apparently Manahatta is good now
― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Thursday, 14 March 2019 11:18 (five years ago) link
The sheer tragic focus of Macbeth, the dark hand of fate and all that, is pretty ruthless. Just utterly doom-laden.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 14 March 2019 12:04 (five years ago) link
I saw a National Theatre production of Macbeth recently. It was pretty ordinary, partly through some weird casting choices (Malcolm was as camp as a row of pink tents - to the point where it almost seemed pantomimic; Macbeth was lacklustre, at best), but mostly because of the vague 'post apocalyptic' setting, which really lacked any sense of focus.
I really like that idea that Macbeth is actually single-minded and bone sharp as opposed to two dimensional. I'm teaching it again at the moment and it's Act V and the pathos of Macbeth's weariness at his mistakes that's really hitting me.
― Good cop, Babcock (Chinaski), Thursday, 14 March 2019 12:09 (five years ago) link
the vague 'post apocalyptic' setting, which really lacked any sense of focus.
ha before posting last night i was having a weird vision of a postapocalyptic as you like it-- fleeing a tyrant-run city to an improvised community in a forest everyone conveniently keeps calling a "desert". pastoral doesn't have to mean lush imo. postapocalyptic macbeth is of course a lil on the nose.
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 14 March 2019 22:13 (five years ago) link
saw As You Like It for the first legitimate time last night, my previous exposure being to a version performed by middle schoolers when I was like 10 and which I remembered nothing of. All superlatives about Rosalind are probably correct. Lots of emotional juice wrung out of the surprisingly-briefly-appearing and superficially ridiculous Jacques. All the comedic episodes of the Forest are gentle delights. Production I saw set lots of poetical interludes to music which was great, music in Shakespeare is great.
― don't mock my smock or i'll clean your clock (silby), Friday, 10 May 2019 16:27 (four years ago) link
The songs are in the original -- well, their lyrics, anyway.
― adam the (abanana), Friday, 10 May 2019 16:59 (four years ago) link
Most of Shakespeare really needs a lutenist along with the actors. Few productions can afford the extra expense.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 10 May 2019 17:53 (four years ago) link
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/who-is-shakespeare-emilia-bassano/588076/
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Friday, 10 May 2019 21:37 (four years ago) link
his contemporaries, who knew Shakespeare, who socialized and worked with him, had no trouble believing he wrote the works attributed to him. they never seem to have questioned his authorship. there are no sly hints, no furtive winks, no challenges, no puzzled doubts in evidence.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 10 May 2019 21:50 (four years ago) link
also worth noting how much Elizabethan authors, because they were officially heavily censored, loved to bury clues in their writing, using puns, acrostics, double meanings, and other kinds of wordplay. I didn't read the article in full, but to be convinced, I'd expect at least several instances of Emilia Bassano inserting puns or hidden clues to her authorship into the plays or poems.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 10 May 2019 22:08 (four years ago) link
i support this. we need a couple hundred years of assuming shakespeare is a woman so that the jobbing journalists of the future can pitch "reviewing the plays, i was shocked to find that othello is written with incredible, even subversive empathy for male experience-- perhaps shakespeare was a man?" pieces. also maybe people will get into shakespeare
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 11 May 2019 01:33 (four years ago) link
i'm playing hamlet this summer lol
Don't rush your lines! Speak them feelingly.
― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, 11 May 2019 02:01 (four years ago) link
you should see me saw the air w my hand
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 11 May 2019 03:26 (four years ago) link
vanity unexpectedly demanding this post: (not really)
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 11 May 2019 03:35 (four years ago) link
http://i67.tinypic.com/2coiekp.jpg
― difficult listening hour, Wednesday, 22 May 2019 18:52 (four years ago) link
Branagh's new film is a hit job from a man who loathes Shakespeare.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 May 2019 19:06 (four years ago) link
1. recommendation for an edition of WS's complete works ? i'm in USA and it seems as if THE NORTON SHAKESPEARE is a safe bet ?
2. any thoughts on isaac asimov's two volumes on shakespeare ? i've never thought much of asimov, rightly or wrongly, but peeking at a .pdf that's available online, seems like it might be fun ? i haven't read much shakespeare crticism / commentary outside the BIG THREE (empson, hazlitt, and dr. johnson)
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 11 August 2020 00:57 (three years ago) link
I bought the newest Oxford edition like a year ago, seems pretty rad (lots of additional online content) except that there's two additional weighty volumes of commentary I didn't buy and now I feel like I'm missing out on something (or will be when I start digging in).
― Ask yoreself: are you're standards too high? (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 11 August 2020 01:01 (three years ago) link
tbc that's the 2005 second ed. yeah ?
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 11 August 2020 01:10 (three years ago) link
It's the New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition (2018).I have/had a copy of the Riverside Shakespeare (edited by my old Shakesbeard prof) which was solid but which has apparently evaporated into mist or something since my undergrad days.
― Ask yoreself: are you're standards too high? (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 11 August 2020 01:46 (three years ago) link
I've been watching this series of John Barton masterclasses. There's something kinda fusty about them (like Barton's cardigans) but I've found them captivating tbh. For all his obvious learning, Barton keeps things relatively simple. And what a line-up of actors: David Suchet, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-MPmoQ_s18
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 7 April 2022 19:47 (two years ago) link