Since I'm blathering on about Shakespeare... if you want some Shakespearian inspiration or education, I would recommend a few series.
Shakespeare Uncovered - Various actors and directors take you through a play, or series of plays, showing scenes from various productions and discussing the major themes. I'm just finishing up season 1, but there's a season 2 as well. It's good, it's well done--if you'll always wanted to get into Shakespeare, this is a great place to start.
Slings & Arrows - About a beleaguered Shakespeare festival in a small town, run by a has-been actor who's fighting against madness. All three seasons are brilliant. Great characters, funny, sweet, sad, a great critique of corporate culture--but ultimately they wanted to inspire people to enjoy Shakespeare, and it succeeds there too.
For each season you follow two plays, and the King Lear in season 3 is my favorite. The Lear is played by a character who's dying of cancer, who's at times an asshole, at times falling apart--the final production of the play (what we see of it) is super moving. And the whole thing is dirt cheap if you download from apple.
Shakespeare Retold - Modernisations of Shakespeare (or retellings like the one I'm doing, or 10 Things I Hate About You, etc.) are not really Shakespeare-Shakespeare. Cause if you aren't listening to the language, to those incredible speeches, those beautiful turns of phrase--then how much Shakespeare is left? He lifted the plots, after all. But they can still bring a new understanding to a play, or simply inspiration to seek out the originals. This is a great series for that.
Actually I'm due for a rewatch, and I never did watch Macbeth. (Starring James McAvoy!) I recall finding their Taming of the Shrew quite romantic.
BONUS - Two Elizabethan black guys see Othello for the first time!
1 comment:
I must look at that one day soon. Ta.
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