William Shakespeare's Star Wars

[The Wormhole]

Just saw something online about this new book which is out now. William Shakespeare's Star Wars which basically retells Episode IV A New Hope as though it were a Shakespeare play, with everyone, even R2-D2 delivering Shakespeare monologues.

I must say, it certainly sounds like an interesting idea. Anyone have this yet and like to share their opinions?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Anyone have this yet and like to share their opinions?

While I won't have a copy to call my own until next week, a preview copy has been floating around the office for about a month and I've read some, but not all, of it.

I think it's okay. The play is a mash of authentic Shakespearean lines (with a Star Wars gloss of names and places) and cod early-modern English -- or, rather, what the general public thinks early-modern English was like. I think William Henry Ireland's two forged Shakespeare plays (Vortigern and Rowena and Henry II) felt more authentically Shakespeare than what I read of Verily, A New Hope.

The presentation of the book, on the other hand, is fantastic. The woodcut artwork to dramatize familiar scenes is very effective.

It's a neat novelty, and if this were performed at a Shakespeare Festival I'd be interested in seeing it.

And Star Trek fans will forever wonder what the text was like in its original Klingon.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Exit, pursued by a wookiee.

 

[Gaith]

I must say, it certainly sounds like an interesting idea.

Doth it?

 

[Candlelight]

"Come here Obi Wan, I am for you!"

 

[publiusr]

Darth Iago on the Bantha with two backs

 

[Turtletrekker]

The inevitable sequel...

 

[Greylock Crescent]

I prefer Origami Yoda. (And its inevitable sequels.)

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'll wait for the stage production.

 

[Skywalker]

I wonder if he'll do the prequels.

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't know. The best part of that preview was the cover drawing of Shakespearean Yoda.

I wonder if he'll do the prequels.

I'll be very surprised if he does.

 

[publiusr]

So who is Falstaff--Dengar maybe?

 

[HIjol]

"...Mayhap, Gentle Uncle, for I was, in soothe, deserving of thy prescription for an expedient soujourn to Ye-Olde-Tosche-Station-by-the-Thames, as I fancied a goodly number of Powere Converterse...do not balk or knap, and away without tarry I shall fly...

...sorry I could NOT not...so sorry...

 

[Zulu Romeo]

LUKE: Villain, what hast Obi-Wan done?
VADER: That which was not told to you.
LUKE: He said thou hast undone my father.
VADER: No... *I* have done thy mother.

 

[HIjol]

LUKE: Villain, what hast Obi-Wan done?
VADER: That which was not told to you.
LUKE: He said thou hast undone my father.
VADER: No... *I* have done thy mother.

LUKE: Nay, Knave!...verily, you lie!...
VADER: Gaze Inwards, Bumpkin!...you will see the truth of it!
LUKE: Hold, I would cut off my arm if I but believed your
scurrilous lies--oh, umm...yes...indeed...seems
that eventuality has come to pass...
VADER: Ah, like the mother...a vigorous volley of verbosity...
(With apologies to "V")

Zion, I thought your answer was funny as hell!!!!!

 

[scotpens]

I must say, it certainly sounds like an interesting idea.

Doth it?

Yeth, it doth.