the play is the thing

[deird1]

Shakespeare should always be performed rather than read.


Saw some friends perform As You Like It this evening. I can guarantee you - if I'd tried sitting down and reading that play, I wouldn't have got more than two pages in. But watching it? Fantastic! It's so hilarious!

Especially when the actors get the fact that Shakespeare's comedies were more "low burlesque" than "high opera".* They're silly, and should be treated as such. Whereas when people think "Shakespeare=formal" and try treating it solemnly and giving the most serious and staid performances of their lives... it just doesn't work.




* I have an entirely different rant ready about how opera is more low burlesque than high opera - but that would go against the point I'm trying to make in this paragraph, so I'll leave it for now.

Comments

[bobthemole]

opera is more low burlesque than high opera

Agreed. Every time I watch an opera, I'm struck by how Bollywood the whole thing is.

[beer_good_foamy]

They're silly, and should be treated as such. Whereas when people think "Shakespeare=formal" and try treating it solemnly and giving the most serious and staid performances of their lives... it just doesn't work.

Oh yes. Hell, even his tragedies are half dick jokes and slapstick. I just watched Al Pacino's Looking For Richard the other day, which is all about him trying to stage Richard III and make it relatable to modern audiences who have been taught that Shakespeare is Important and High Art and Completely Incomprehensible, how to peel back the layers of words and get back to the story. Really quite interesting - and hilarious.

DIRECTOR: You said you were gonna find a scholar who'd speak directly into the camera and explain what really happened with Richard and Anne. And I am telling you that that is absolutely ridiculous. You know more about Richard III than any fucking scholar at Columbia or Harvard. You are making this documentary to show that actors truly are the possessors of a tradition, the proud inheritors of the understanding of Shakespeare. Then you turn around and say, "I'm gonna get a scholar to explain it"?
PACINO: No, but the point is this, Frederic. A person has an opinion. It's only an opinion. It's never a question of right or wrong. It's an opinion. And a scholar has a right to an opinion as any of us.
DIRECTOR: But why does HE get to speak directly to the camera?!?
*smash cut to Shakespeare scholar in wrinkly jacket and thick glasses in a room covered in books*
SCHOLAR: Uh... I don't really know why he needed to marry her, historically. I simply don't know.
DIRECTOR and PACINO: *looks of utter despair*

[next_to_normal]

Yes! I wrote a term paper on As You Like It once upon a time, and then I went to SEE it, and it was like, "OH NOW I GET WHY THAT'S FUNNY."

(Now that I'm more familiar with the style, though, I do enjoy reading them as well.)

[jl-in-the-lane.livejournal.com]

Now, isn't this interesting, because I was just thinking last night when I could 't sleep about this very thing and noting that this is why I'm a spoiler-whore / spoiler-slut -

WHICH IS IT? so then I ended up on this whole tangent (seriously, I thought through all of this before my brain got back to the other bit) because the one I'm most familiar with is 'spoiler-whore', but I'm sure it should really be 'spoiler-slut', right? unless you're saying that you're trading your purity for something you want.

... anyway, Shakespeare.
So, I'm frantically into seeing Shakespeare as it was written. i.e. to be performed live., so students can appreicate his brilliance at entertaining the crowd.
And I reckon teachers should publish Dickens weekly so the students can appreciate it in serial form and appreicate his mastery of keeping everyone desperate for the next issue.

Because what I'm REALLY INTO, I've decided,

rather than appreciating the Text in its Pure Form

is understanding story and how it's created, and a huge part of that is how the writers play the audience.

Paul Eddington, in his autobiography, was talking about timing and how you have to feel just how long it takes the audience to make the mental jump to predict what is about to happen, before fulfilling / averting their expectations.
I LOVE THIS.

I think that spoilers and interview comments and promos are an integral part of how the writers play the audience with their story, so for me it's a big part of seeing what happens.

(AND I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN OTHER PEOPLE DECIDE TO BE BIGSHOTS AND RELEASE THEIR OWN SPOILERS because then you're wrecking what the author has tried to do.)

and I believe I hypothesised teaching English and getting students to have an LJ-type thing and getting them to publish and comment on each other's work and seeing whether they liked one shots or serials or discussions and


... anyway, this is what my brain gets up to when it's busy Not Sleeping.

[jl-in-the-lane.livejournal.com]

Now, isn't this interesting, because I was just thinking last night when I could 't sleep about this very thing and noting that this is why I'm a spoiler-whore / spoiler-slut -

WHICH IS IT? so then I ended up on this whole tangent (seriously, I thought through all of this before my brain got back to the other bit) because the one I'm most familiar with is 'spoiler-whore', but I'm sure it should really be 'spoiler-slut', right? unless you're saying that you're trading your purity for something you want.

... anyway, Shakespeare.
So, I'm frantically into seeing Shakespeare as it was written. i.e. to be performed live., so students can appreicate his brilliance at entertaining the crowd.
And I reckon teachers should publish Dickens weekly so the students can appreciate it in serial form and appreicate his mastery of keeping everyone desperate for the next issue.

Because what I'm REALLY INTO, I've decided,

rather than appreciating the Text in its Pure Form

is understanding story and how it's created, and a huge part of that is how the writers play the audience.

Paul Eddington, in his autobiography, was talking about timing and how you have to feel just how long it takes the audience to make the mental jump to predict what is about to happen, before fulfilling / averting their expectations.
I LOVE THIS.

I think that spoilers and interview comments and promos are an integral part of how the writers play the audience with their story, so for me it's a big part of seeing what happens.

(AND I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN OTHER PEOPLE DECIDE TO BE BIGSHOTS AND RELEASE THEIR OWN SPOILERS because then you're wrecking what the author has tried to do.)

and I believe I hypothesised teaching English and getting students to have an LJ-type thing and getting them to publish and comment on each other's work and seeing whether they liked one shots or serials or discussions and


... anyway, this is what my brain gets up to when it's busy Not Sleeping.