fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2945 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2945 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Not a Harem Heaven, It's a Yandere Hell]

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[Game of Thrones]

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[In the Flesh]

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[Hudson Leick as Callisto in Xena, Warrior Princess]

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[Plebcomics]

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[Great British Bake Off]

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[Captain America: The First Avenger]

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[Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE!]

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[Queen]

Notes:

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Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ask me your questions about Shakespeare/theatre/musicals. Or ask about theatre relating to whatever topic (recs).

Or maybe you have questions about living in Los Angeles. I can answer those too.

Not sure you can answer this, but how come quite a few Shakespeare remakes in modern settings have kept the original dialogue? I had a lot of reasons for disliking Romeo + Juliet, but the fact that they were speaking early modern English definitely threw me off from the start...

The main reason is because the language is beautiful; secondarily, because it is famous. People go to Shakespeare plays/movies to hear Shakespeare's language! Many productions will actually adapt certain aspects of the language for modern audiences (regardless of the setting of the piece), but they will generally be small vocabulary things like substituting "corpse" for its antiquated synonym "corse."

How well an added modern setting integrates with the text is a delicate balance! To my mind, some of the things in Romeo + Juliet work (the swimming pool) and some things don't (calling guns "swords", siiiigh). For some productions, a modern setting can give a better answer to something that is vague in the text: for example, the notoriously difficult question of Lady Macbeth's characterization. If Lady M is played as a woman who has lost a child in the modern day, it has a context of deeper loss and isolation now than in a properly medieval setting, when infant mortality was high and extremely common.

However, if you actually want Shakespeare plots without Shakespeare's language, you might be interested in a miniseries called Shakespeare Retold. It adapts Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Taming of the Shrew, with varying degrees of success. I fully recommend the Macbeth one, but not so much the others (okay, maybe Much Ado).

Edited 2015-01-27 01:19 (UTC)

AYRT - Thanks! Yeah, what really creeped me out at the time was when they kept the line about Paris wanting to marry his daughter, and the father was like "but she's only thirteen." (I'm afraid I forget the proper line.) Just... squick squick squick. Didn't work.

Female characters are frequently stated to be between 13-16, partly because yes, girls that young were considered marriageable/adult, and partly because those roles would be played by boys of that age, so it was easier for them to play teen girls than older women. Basically nobody really casts them that young anymore, but you could consider it a contributing factor to the "idiotic young love" interpretation, if you like.

But the age of Shakespearean characters is frequently confusing! If you ever want to start an argument, ask a group of Shakespearean scholars how old Hamlet is!

Or the complicated situation of the Henry VI plays, which takes the king from his father's death (which was when he was 9months IRL, but he's roughly a preteen in the play) to his own death (at 49 as IRL). Should one actor play Henry in all 3 parts, or do you switch between 1 and 2? What age is he supposed to be at each important point, when this is frequently inaccurate WRT the historical figure? And what does that mean for his wife Margaret of Anjou, who is treated as being older and wiser than Henry, when in reality she was 8 years younger?

Okay, so, what, in your opinion is the best adaption of Macbeth? Are there good ones? I know there are a lot more versions of Hamlet, but Macbeth has always been my favorite Shakespeare play.

I like the Ian McKellan one (1979) a lot. It has this very successfully creepy/claustrophobic feel, and has fairly abstracted black box-style staging (this is a filmed theatrical performance)-- just a few chairs/props-- and when actors are not in a scene, they all sit around the edge of the stage, they don't exit. I like just about everything about it, except for the witches and the Porter, which are both only okay. But nobody does the witches right.* Roger Rees is a standout as Malcolm.

Quick thoughts:

-The John Finch one (1971), Polanski directed it. MEH. Dated looking effects (dagger scene, ketchup blood). Oh and tits!

-The Kenneth Branagh one (2013), theatrical performance screened for NT Live and not commercially available because NT Live is full of idiots. Interesting staging in a theatre that was once a church; so there's a performance area consists of the top alter area and a long aisle between the two banks of seating. And the aisle is full of mud. Surprisingly not good wrt the relationship of the Macbeths (Branagh and Alex Kingston). Hated their witches.*

-The Nicol Williamson one (1983). This is the one in the BBC full Shakespeare series. I have seen this and literally cannot remember a single distinguishing feature of it. Okay actually, I vaguely remember Jane Lapotaire's Lady M.

-The Patrick Stewart one (2010). Aka, STALIN-MACBETH. Modern-dress that is heavily influenced by 1930s style, but not exact enough for me to call it '30s (like the McKelland RIII). Very dark and bloody, with a creepy soundtrack. Kate Fleetwood is a very strong Lady M, which is great at first, then leave you confused with her character's decline.

-The animated one (1992). I don't know if you're familiar with this series of abridged, animated Shakespeare tales, but they're pretty fun and always have great voice casts. This one is Brian Cox and Zoe Wannamaker.

Some Macbeths I haven't seen:
-Sean Pertwee (1998), Sean Connery (1961), Antony Sher (2001; I want to see this one because of Harriet Walter as Lady M), Orson Welles (1948), and this year there will be a new one with Michael Fassbender.

*In case you haven't seen it, I'll also recommend the short Canadian tv series Slings & Arrows, about a Shakespeare festival. The second season is about a production of Macbeth, and there's a running gag of complaining about how the witches are never done right.

This is super helpful. Thanks! That's disappointing that the Branagh one isn't available and that they got the relationship wrong because I adore Branagh's Shakespeare adpations most of the time, and he and Kingston are among my favorite actors.

[ SECRET POST #2945 ]

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Re: Things you always wanted to ask about certain things

Re: Things you always wanted to ask about certain things

Re: Things you always wanted to ask about certain things

Re: Things you always wanted to ask about certain things

Re: Things you always wanted to ask about certain things