Right Welcome Back

Forsooth, I have been too long apart. I fear reprisals 

And chastisement at my lack of fealty to this blog.

I pray thee forgive my tardiness as I cry

Thrice welcome to the lovers of the Bard, Billy-Boy!

As a precursor to trying once again to tackle this blog on a more regular footing in 2015 I felt a round up of the past year was in order.

I was fortunate to see two full productions this year in two very different but equally stunning locations. The first back in July was the Globe on Tour's production of King Lear performed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford prior to starting a tour across America. Joseph Marcell's portrayal of Lear was not the strongest I've seen but the company as a whole had the feel of strolling players; simple and rustic and with a small cast doubling or even trebling up on roles. The outstanding performance for me was Bethan Cullinane as both Cordelia and the Fool.



The second bout of Bard was 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by the Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. The August night out was finished perfectly with a beautiful moonrise joining the cast. The show had a unique 1950's setting which incorporated some marvellous costumes; from the changeling as an Enid Blyton style school boy in a Red Indian headband and feather to the fairies as colour co-ordinated housewives. A particular favourite part of the play for me was the other possible entrainments at the wedding feast - muses, tipsy Bacchanals, centaurs and an Athenian eunuch - all putting in amusing appearances during the course of the production.

In other news I have been slowly increasing my collection of Arden Shakespeares (I discovered all three parts of Henry VI in an Oxfam just this Saturday) with the tally now standing at 21 'Got' and 16 'Need'.

My hopes for 2015 include being able to finally catch up on the many movie versions I've missed in the pass few years. I also look forward with much anticipation to the return of 'The Hollow Crown' to the BBC plus the Beeb's adaptation of Wolf Hall (not technically Billy-Boy but close enough). And I'm signed up for another mini-MOOC in March with Future Learn this time regarding 'Much Ado About Nothing'. 

So here's to another year of blatantly brilliant Bard-like brouhaha!

A Monologue for Three

The hilarious BriTANicK (Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher) give their rendition of Puck's parting soliloquy.

(Joss Whedon likes these guys so much he's appeared in some of their YouTube vids and gave them roles in his cinematic version of 'Much Ado About Nothing')

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"Who's Ken Branagh?"

Blackadder meets Shakespeare in this clip from 'Blackadder Goes Back and Forth'



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A Very Brechtian Bottom

When studying drama one theatrical concept which intrigued me was that of Bertolt Brecht and his theories on ‘alienation techniques’. 

Brecht felt that if people became too emotionally involved in a story then they were more likely to simply ride that wave of emotion and step away from it when the play ended. This cathartic experience allowed them to distance themselves from the the subject of the play, the actions of the characters and their consequences. Instead, he wanted the audience to learn something from watching a performance, remember it and even question it. 

So in the writing and staging of his plays Brecht employed various techniques in order to ‘alienate’ the spectator from the story. These included bright lights, loud noises, signs appearing before each scene explaining what was going to happen or actors directly speaking to the audience. Anything to essentially remove the surprise and to remind people that this was a play and not real life.

But was this 'Dialectical Theatre', or 'Epic Form' as it was sometimes called, an original idea? Brecht himself sites many theatrical styles as inspiration as far back as Greek Tragedy and its chorus. But I think someone got there before him. During my current re-reading of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ it suddenly stuck me that Shakespeare had already coined the theory centuries ahead of Brecht. 

At the start of Act 3, when the cast of mechanicals voice their concerns regarding the drawing swords and killing on stage as being something the ladies “cannot abide”, Bottom suggests: 

“I have a device to make all well.
Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to
say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that
Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more
better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not
Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
out of fear."

And in fact before their performance in Act 5 Quince introduces all the characters and gives us a blow by blow synopsis of the play before even a word is spoken. Not only that but Bottom also breaks the barrier between actor and audience still further by discussing the play directly with Theasus.

I'm not sure if Brecht would be pleased to know that a group Athenaian workmen had conceived alienation before him, but I’m positive Bottom would be proud to know that he was the first Thespian whose 'form' was considered 'epic’.

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Quote #022

"And those things do best please me

That befall prepost'rously."

Puck - 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' , Act III, Scene 2

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22 - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Alright, so hands up anyone who doesn’t know what happens in this play. Anyone? Thought not. This has to be one of the most well known, as well as well loved, plots in Shakespeare.

I've seen countless productions over the years but the one which sticks in the memory was back in the 80’s at a theatre which was a converted church. It’s the venue rather than the play which sticks in my mind as the theatre’s stage resembled that of The Globe. An internet search makes me think it was place called St George’s in Tufnell Park, which apparently stopped being a theatre in the 90’s and is only now being renovated and reverting once more to a church.

In addition to having a Bottom (and all the puns associated with it) the play also has a bum!

“The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,”

Somehow thought this was a modern word but it crops up once or twice in the Bard’s babble! In fact Pompey, in 'Measure for Measure' gives his full name as Pompey Bum. Maybe he's Bottom's Italian cousin!
 

And Finally – A story with a happy ending for all? I think not! Tatiana’s loss of the Changing Child and Oberon’s reason for stealing him is never sufficiently explained for my liking. Perhaps he plans to raise him as a vengeful spirit/human hybrid intent on destroying mankind and taking over the world! Or perhaps like the rest of us he just needs a small child to help him operate modern technology!

“Attend at once, most mortal lad
And sync for me, curse’d iPad”…

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Swifter Than the Moon's Sphere

The landing of the Mars probe last week reminded me of the Bard’s own contribution to our Solar System – the moons of Uranus.

The first moons ‘discovered’ were named by John Herschal, whose father first discovered the planet itself. Instead of using names from mythology Herschal named them after Shakespearean characters Oberon and Titania and the spirits Ariel and Umbriel from Alexander Pope’s ‘Rape of the Lock’.

In total Uranius has 27 moons and all are named for characters from either Pope or Shakespeare.

The Bardy-bunch are-

Cordelia

Ophelia

Bianca

Cressida

Desdemona

Juliet

Portia

Rosalind

Cupid

Perdita

Puck

Mab

Miranda

Titania

Oberon

Francisco

Caliban

Stephano

Trinculo

Sycorax

Margaret

Prospero

Setebos

Ferdinand

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The Fab Four do Shakespeare

When Beatles tackle Shakespeare it's called a  

 Beatles Bardle Battle!