Brush up your Shakespeare

[selenak]

The Shakespeare Meme, gathered from londonkds.

Read and seen on stage

Comedy of Errors
Hamlet (also various film versions)
Henry V (also 2 film versions)
Julius Caesar (plus film version)
King Lear (lots of tv and film versions as well - did a seminar about this play)
Macbeth (ditto)
Merchant of Venice (ditto)
Midsummer Nights Dream (ditto)
Richard II
Richard III (plus the Olivier and McKellan film versions)
Romeo and Juliet (plus two of the film versions)
The Taming of the Shrew (plus two film versions, one adaption)
The Tempest (plus excentric adaptions)
Twelfth Night (plus various tv incarnations)
The Two Noble Kinsmen
Winter's Tale
Titus Andronicus (plus Julie Taymour film)
Othello (plus two film versions)

Read, but seen as film or tv only

Antony and Cleopatra
As You Like It
Henry IV Part 1
Henry IV Part 2 (have to add that I saw these two in their Wellesian form, i.e. Chimes of Midnight)
Love's Labour's Lost
Much Ado About Nothing
Alls Well That Ends Well

Read, but not seen in any incarnation

Henry VI Part 1
Henry VI Part 2
Henry VI Part 3
Henry VIII
King John
Timon of Athens

Neither read nor seen

Pericles
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Cymbeline
Coriolanus
Merry Wives of Windsor

***
...though I did read the "new" last act of Cymbeline which George Bernard Shaw wrote, and know the Fear no more the heat o' sun incantation.

In other news: check out a timely Christmas tale! What she said. Err.

Comments

the last act of Cymbeline

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

my but that thing defines "unintentionally hilarious"

there was an ad for a pizza chain a few years ago in the US, which purported to show all the "good things" that would happen to you if you bought the pizza. it was deliberately ridiculous, and ends with the pizza delivery guy being the customers long lost twin. customer says, bewildered, "I have a brother?" when we read Cymbeline in my Shakespeare seminar, I dubbed the last act, "I have a brother?!!!!"

I always imagined Shakespeare fans sitting around at the tavern after the premiere of Cymbeline as the equivalent of an Internet fandom bitching about how their show had jumped the shark. Though there really is some great stuff in that play, particularly the exploration of misogyny in through Cloten & Posthumus. It really digs into some stuff that's only subtext in the earlier plays. and I heart Imogen, I truly do.

what's Shaw's last act like?

Re: the last act of Cymbeline

[selenak.livejournal.com]

what's Shaw's last act like?

Shavian.*g* Some tasty excerpts:

Imogen: And this, you think, signors, makes good to me
All you have done, you and my husband there!

Iachimo: It remedies what can be remedied.
We are a pitiable pair. For all that
You may go further and fare worse; for men
Will do such things to women.

Imogen: You at least
Have grace to know yourself for what you are.
My husband thinks that all is settled now
And this a happy ending!

And:
Guiderius: We three are fullgrown men and perfect strangers.
Can I change fathers as I'd change a shirt?
Cymbeline: Unnatural whelp! What doth thy brother say?
Arviragus: I, royal sir? Well, we have reached an age
When father's helps are felt as hindrances.
I am tired of being preached at.

And:
Guiderius: Enough of this. Fidele: is it true
Though art a woman, and this man thy husband?
Imogen: I am a woman, and this man my husband.
He would have slain me.
Posthumus: Do not harp on that.
Cymbeline:: God's patience, man, take your wife home to bed.
You're man and wife: nothing can alter that.
Are there more plots to unravel? Each one here,
It seems, is smeone else. (to Imogen) Go change your dress
For one becoming to your sex and rank.
Have you no shame?
Imogen: None.
Cymbeline: How? None!
Imogen: All is lost,
Shame, husband, happiness, and faith in Man.
He is not even sorry.
Posthumus: I'm too happy.
Iachimo: Lady: a word. when you arrived just now
I, as you saw, was hot on killing him.
Let him bear witness that I drew on him
To avenge your death.
Imogen: Oh, do not make me laugh.
Laughter dissolves too many just resentments,
Pardons too many sins.
Iachimo: And saves the world
A many thousand murders. Let me plead for him.
He has his faults; but he must suffer yours.
You are, I swear, a very worthy lady;
But still, not quite an angel.

Re: the last act of Cymbeline

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

my God, that's brilliant. I'll have to look for that at the library tomorrow when I'm picking up my copies of Holinshed & Monmouth.

Shaw isn't taught much in the US, I don't know why. Maybe because we're wary about taking comedy seriously. I don't feel like he's even performed much, aside from Pygmalion, although I once saw a transcendent performance of Misalliances at the University of Virginia. It was about a month after 9/11, we were all thought we were going to get anthrax and were generally jumpy as hell. Going to that play, and watching His Girl Friday around the same time, were the happiest that I remember being for a few months there. I'll always believe in the power of comedy because of experiences like that.

Shaw PS

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I found the whole thing online, and, God the introduction is hilarious:

the characters lost all their vitality and individuality, and had nothing to do but identify themselves by moles on their necks, or explain why they were not dead.

somehow I feel like you could have a good conversation with Shaw about fanfic.

Re: Shaw PS

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely. He'd so understand. And you know, he should be read and taught far more. Love the plays, love the forewords, love that razor-sharp mind and wit in general.