Happy Shakespeare Day!

[UncleRogi]

"Caesar, beware the Ides of March..."

What would be your favorite Shakespeare play?

I will always go with "Macbeth", simply because I enjoy the darkness portrayed. I also
appreciate that a lot of professional actors won't call the play by name, just call it
"the Scottish one"... Apparently there is a curse associated with it.

 

[Marynator]

I have always been partial to "Julius Caesar". I love the monologues, and also the themes. General Chang also seemed to favor this one!

I'll never forget how my OAC English teacher destroyed "Romeo & Juliet" for everyone with a brutal deconstruction of how it is not a love story at all.

 

[UncleRogi]

I have always been partial to "Julius Caesar". I love the monologues, and also the themes. General Chang also seemed to favor this one!

I'll never forget how my OAC English teacher destroyed "Romeo & Juliet" for everyone with a brutal deconstruction of how it is not a love story at all.

I will agree with that. To me, it's more about the consequences of civil war.

But that's just my take.

 

[Marynator]

I felt that it had a lot to do with ambition, pride, and loyalty.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I absolutely love it when Shakespeare's works are set in the modern age, but keeping the original dialogue...such as the '96 Romeo + Juliet in California, the 2000 Hamlet in New York City (the "Denmark Corporation"...classic! ), and the apparently-in-development-hell The Merchant of Vegas with Sirs Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen.

What's the latest on that last one, by the way? Are they even still working on it? I haven't heard anything about it in awhile now. I'd hate to think that it got abandoned...

 

[Timewalker]

"Caesar, beware the Ides of March..."

What would be your favorite Shakespeare play?

I will always go with "Macbeth", simply because I enjoy the darkness portrayed. I also
appreciate that a lot of professional actors won't call the play by name, just call it
"the Scottish one"... Apparently there is a curse associated with it.

It's best to respect theatrical superstitions. The one about not whistling in the dressing room caused some trouble on a production of Camelot back when I worked in musical theatre. The costume mistress should have known better... but she did it anyway, and next thing we knew, she'd tripped over a piece of scenery and mucked up her ankle to the point where she couldn't walk on it, one of the knights had an accident, and two members of the chorus came down with some digestive ailment.


Anyway... Shakespeare. I love the Zeferelli version of Romeo and Juliet.

Other favorites include Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing (the Kenneth Branagh movies), and Twelfth Night (the first Shakespeare play I ever saw performed live).

Mel Gibson did a decent Hamlet. If anyone here remembers the old Gilligan's Island show, there was an episode where the castaways did a condensed musical version of Hamlet... using the music of "Carmen."

As for Julius Caesar, my favorite version of it is this one:

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This is a condensed version of a longer Wayne & Shuster skit (they were Canadian comedians who had their own show; they did other Shakespeare spoofs as well).

 

[UncleRogi]

I absolutely love it when Shakespeare's works are set in the modern age, but keeping the original dialogue...such as the '96 Romeo + Juliet in California, the 2000 Hamlet in New York City (the "Denmark Corporation"...classic! ), and the apparently-in-development-hell The Merchant of Vegas with Sirs Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen.

What's the latest on that last one, by the way? Are they even still working on it? I haven't heard anything about it in awhile now. I'd hate to think that it got abandoned...

Now that is something I want to see!

 

[UncleRogi]

"Twelfth Night, or As You like It"

Ole Bill knew what he was doing.

This would be my second choice.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I'm rather fond of his sonetts and his comedies (there's a splendid recording of the Globe Theatre's version of The Merry Wives of Windsor). The tragedies aren't my cup of tea - life is bad enough off-stage; I don't really need the same stuff (jealousy, murder, war, greed, revenge, misunderstanding or utter stupidity) on-stage as well.

 

[Galileo7]

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[auntiehill]

Hamlet, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, etc. The Henry plays have grown on me in my old age--there's nothing like a rousing speech to lift the spirits.

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[Galileo7]

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[danellis]

Why's today Shakespeare Day? Sure it should be 23rd April?

dJE

 

[UncleRogi]

Why's today Shakespeare Day? Sure it should be 23rd April?

dJE

Ides of March?

 

[Timewalker]

What danellis means is that April 23 is Shakespeare's birthday.

The Ides of March is part of Julius Caesar, but not a Shakespearian invention.

 

[UncleRogi]

What danellis means is that April 23 is Shakespeare's birthday.

The Ides of March is part of Julius Caesar, but not a Shakespearian invention.

It's something our Theatre group used to do back in high school. The thing we used to
laugh about is how Caesar got stabbed 32 times, but no one saw anything...including
the Senators covered in blood, not to mention Cassius and Brutus.

 

[Timewalker]

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The first video is geoblocked. No Canadians allowed.