A Tempestuous Last Laugh

The Shakespeare Readers will next read The Tempest (complete text available online from MIT)

When: Sunday, March 18, 1-4 p.m.

Where: American University's Bender Library, Room 306 (parking in the lot at Nebraska and New Mexico avenues is free on Sundays)

Directions | Campus Map

RSVP: Cindy Wagner, hosaajoy 'at' gmail.com

Complete Shakespeare Readers schedule

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The winds of late February are roaring outside my window as I now consider The Tempest, Shakespeare's final comedy--composed in late 1610 for King James I.

Scholar Harold Bloom describes The Tempest (along with A Midsummer Night's Dream) as being the most visionary of Shakespeare's comedies but also "the worst interpreted and performed." (Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, page 662).

But as my mind gusts back to the one staging I have experienced, I can only agree to disagree. The late Sir John Wood's humanistic 1988 Prospero was powerful and poignant, the Royal Shakespeare Company's staging was athletic and breathtaking.

In The Guardian's obituary for Wood, Michael Coveney wrote:

Wood's Prospero, in The Tempest directed by Nicholas Hytner (making his RSC debut) in 1988, struck me as the best I had ever seen – and I had seen Gielgud in the role, twice. His Prospero was a demented stage manager on a theatrical island, suspended between smouldering rage at his usurpation and unbridled glee at his alternative ethereal power. He bound the entire play to his wrecked view of experience and had no qualms about playing up and down the vocal register – in the dark backward and abysm of time we did indeed plummet several throaty fathoms deep. The critic Irving Wardle said that Wood lit up the text like an electric storm, and simply had no rival as a source of nervous energy on a stage.

John Wood:1983 Photograph Allstar-Cinetext

In any case, it was a thrill for this Bardophile to experience that lit-up text.

My favorite line:

TRINCULO

Servant-monster! the folly of this island! They
say there's but five upon this isle: we are three
of them; if th' other two be brained like us, the
state totters.

Hee!

In Bard we trust,

Cindy

Romeo, Juliet, and the Punk Rampant

Next on the Shakespeare Readers schedule is "Romeo and Juliet," just in time for Valentine's Day.

But it is not of love or romance that I write today. I bring you a mystery... and an answer!

If your only exposure to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film version, then you have been deceived! The language in the film is not 100% Shakespearean. I give you the case of the "punk rampant."

... (with apologies: the video has been removed) ....

As I wrote in my blog three years ago, I did a little research and discovered that the phrase is actually from The Dutch Courtesan by John Marston, 1605:

Freevill (to Franceschina): Go; y'are grown a punk rampant!

Great phrase, though, and very apt for the likes of Mercutio and Tybalt, the restless punks whose passions are the real culprit in this tragedy. Romeo and Juliet themselves are passionate, but their blood burns for love, not aggression; for reconciliation of families, not revenge for perceived slights.

Actually, Mercutio (portrayed by John McEnery in the above clip) and Tybalt are two of my favorite characters in all of Shakespeare, no doubt because the actors who portray them are always so much more compelling than the various Romeos. (Okay, I'll give you Leonardo di Caprio, best Romeo ever.) Michael York's distinctive voice gave the Zeffirelli Tybalt a heavy helping of sexiness that rocketed the actor to superstardom.

And, incidentally, York co-wrote (with Adrian Brine) a nifty book full of advice and gossip, called A Shakespearean Actor Prepares. He writes:

Cast in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, as the cocky, libidinous Tybalt, I was originally introduced in the very act of proving my reputation as the King of Cats between the thighs of a Veronese maiden. This was perhaps too obvious an image and it was cut, but I still make my entrance a trifle more subtly, from the codpiece upwards!

It may also have been a bit too rampant for the movie ratings board and in 1968, I highly doubt my mother would have permitted this view of such a punk.

Shakespeare Readers, prepare to read Romeo and Juliet using an authorized edition (i.e., one that does not contain this errant phrase).

Folger Shakespeare Library edition (paperback)
Penguin edition (Kindle)

In Bard We Trust,
Cindy

RSVP for the February 12 reading at American University's Bender Library (1-4 p.m. in room 306) to hosaajoy 'at' gmail.com

Ungentlemanly in Verona

If you're heading out to see the Shakespeare Theatre's latest production of Two Gentlemen of Verona, first of all, lucky you! This modern-day adaptation (retaining the language) of Shakespeare's early romantic comedy is breathtakingly energetic.

A warning, though, it is violent. Not quite Stacy Keach King Lear violent, but heads are hit and blood is shed. So much so that my friend and I both were wishing the two gentlemen would wipe their faces before taking their bows at the end.

I confess that, during Sunday's IDR, I took great pleasure in watching these two really great-looking gentlemen: Andrew Veenstra as Valentine (who also served as the fight captain) and Nick Dillenburg as Proteus. Another familiar face was that of Euan Morton as the servant/dog lover Launce.

I last saw the handsome Veenstra in Shakespeare Theatre's production of The Heir Apparent, and the versatile Morton in Ford Theatre's production of Parade last fall.

Note, don't be confused by the rock opera version of Two Gentlemen, which is also scheduled for later this month at Sidney Harman Hall. The gentlemen of whom I write now are appearing at the Lansburgh.


Two Gentlemen of Verona (aka Two Gents) cast picture, courtesy of The Shakespeare Theatre

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
directed by P. J. Paparelli
set design by Walt Sangler
Costume design by Paul Spadone

Cast
Valentine: Andrew Veenstra
Speed: Adam Green
Proteus: Nick Dillenburg
Launce: Euan Morton
Crab (his dog): Olliver
Antonio: Christopher McHale
Panthino: Stephen Patrick Martin
Julia: Miriam Silverman
Lucetta: Inga Ballard
Duke of Milan: Brent Harris
Silvia: Natalie Mitchell
Thurio: Gene Gillette
Eglamour: Todd Scofield

View this post on my arts (and miscellaney) blog, Hosaa's Blog.

Twelfth Night, and other Epiphanies

When: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 1-4 p.m.

Where: American University's Bender Library, Room 306

Contact: (see below)

Next on the Shakespeare Readers' schedule is Twelfth Night (which I inexplicably want to spell with a ph, perhaps because it was written to celebrate the Eve of the Epiphany and all).

The Epiphany is the realization that the Christmas holiday is over and it's time to take down the Christmas lights. However, as modern times have lengthened the Christmas holiday forwards and backwards, we now celebrate at least through Super Bowl Sunday, which this season falls on February 5, 2012, certainly within the Twelfth Night reading-relevancy parameters.

But I digress.

Harold Bloom writes of Twelfth Night, or, What You Will that "everyone except the superb clown Feste is a zany." The duke, Orsino, is "loony," and heroines Viola and Olivia are "charming screwballs" (p. 205). And yet, he observes, "Wild with laughter, Twelfth Night is nevertheless almost always on the edge of violence" (p. 211).

But of course there are a lot of great lines to be read, like:

If music be the food of love, play on!

...

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

and

God give them wisdom that have it, and those that are fools, let them use their talents.

Let There Be Links:

* Shakespeare Readers complete 2011-2012 schedule is the first post of this Blog.

* Paperback and Kindle editions of Twelfth Night from Folger are available from Amazon.com.

* Complete text of the Arden edition is available from MIT's Shakespeare project.

* Harold Bloom's insightful text Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (in cloth or paperback) is available from Amazon.com.

* Tickets for the Super Bowl (to be held in Indianapolis) are available from StubHub. I understand it is also televised and will be streamed online for the first time, on February 5, a full month after the real Twelfth Night and two weeks after our reading. I hope you are as relieved as I am that we won't have a scheduling conflict!

* And apparently you can also stream at least one full-length film version of Twelfth Night on YouTube.

In Bard We Trust,

Cindy

To RSVP for this reading, please send me an e-mail at hosaajoy 'at' gmail.com

ETA, Please note that the readings for Richard III (April 8) and Taking of the Shrew (May 13) will be rescheduled ASAP to avoid conflicts with Easter Sunday and Mother's Day. Oops! Please check back later at Shakespeare Readers 2011-2012 Season.

Henry VIII

Whether your introduction to King Henry VIII was courtesy of Herman's Hermits ("I am 'enery the Eighth, I am, I am") or PBS's Masterpiece Theater (The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth), it seems that his history is the best known among the Kings of Shakespeare.

Playlist, Six Wives of Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon

For the Shakespeare Readers attending the December 11 reading at American University library, if you haven't already purchased a copy of the text, there are plenty of online resources. Your best bet would be to download a free copy to your Kindle from Project Gutenberg, or just read it online.

Truth in Shakespeare: The authorship of this late play is believed (by Wikipedia, among others) to be shared with John Fletcher (who apparently was not Anonymous). Among other deviations, the script of the Shakespeare-Fletcher Henry VIII contains significantly more stage directions than any solo work by the fair bard.

What Fletcher really wanted to do, it seems, was direct.

In Bard We Trust,

Cindy

Shakespeare Readers 2011-2012 Schedule

The Comedy Stylings of "Anonymous"

Okay, as promised, I went to see Anonymous today and can report that this film could not have been more hilarious if it had been animated.

With magical movie special effects, the name of William Shakespeare is erased from the parchment.

The Queen really loves plays, especially by guys like Ben Jonson, but noble people like Devere aren't supposed to be playwrights. Nevertheless, Devere hears the muse, like Jonson and Marlowe do (he also apparently hears sirens such as the Queen herself), and so write he must.

So he gets a "beard" to claim authorship on his manuscripts. He wants Jonson first, but Ben is too ethical to do it.

So the plays go on being anonymous for awhile until Shakespeare, the inarticulate drunken actor, seizes the chance to take the bow when the screaming groundlings call for the author.

Here we see William Shakespeare leaping into the mosh pit and crowd surfing over the groundlings' heads. Yay Willie!

Shakespeare's notoriety makes both Jonson and Devere a bit annoyed, so Jonson scowls his way through the rest of the movie, including accusing Shakespeare of killing Marlowe.

And Devere, in the rest of the movie, uncovers a series of unfortunate alternative historical scenarios, among which he fathers his own grandson by bedding his mother, the Queen.

Well, most of the movie was just plain confusing to me. My favorite parts were when actual plays were shown being performed. Shakespeare (the work) comes to life.

Anonymous actually opens and closes exactly the same way Branagh's Henry V does, with Derek Jacobi entering (in this case in modern dress) to Greek chorus a prologue (in this case suggesting that we've all been duped for these many centuries).

The film ended up taking itself so seriously that it was impossible for me to do so. Honestly, I need to go watch Shakespeare in Love again. It did a much more plausible job of tracing the origins of genius back to its proper source: the inexplicable depths of a human soul.

The "Beautiful" Two Gentlemen

Next on the Shakespeare Readers' schedule is Two Gentlemen of Verona, which scholar David Bevington has described as "the most neglected of Shakespeare's comedies in the theater." Luckily, it is coming soon to a theater near us, The Shakespeare Theatre's beautiful Lansburgh Theatre, January 7-March 4, 2012.

So if this "neglected" piece needs an introduction, a sweet place to start is the rendering of the story by Edith Nesbit in her collection of Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare.

Written a bit over a century ago and intended for an audience of 9- to 12-year-olds, the Beautiful Stories have a quaintness not typically found in the average plot summary. Of Valentine and Proteus, Nesbit warns us, "only one of them was really a gentleman, as you will discover later."

Valentine was happy in his name because it was that of the patron saint of lovers; it is hard for a Valentine to be fickle or mean. Proteus was unhappy in his name, because it was that of a famous shape-changer, and therefore it encouraged him to be a lover at one time and a traitor at another.

Two Gentlemen is also the source of one of Shakespeare's better known songs:

Who is Silvia? what is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her
That she might admired be.

So, get ready to use your voice!

In Bard We Trust.