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 Guide to How Shakespeare’s Characters Kick the Bucket

Original link

Quote #030

“When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools"

Lear - 'King Lear', Act IV, scene 6

30 - King Lear

Thank goodness I held back some of the big hitters for towards the end of this Bardy Marathon. I just love this play. It somehow puts me in mind of the current Fantasy Epic on the small screen - 'Game of Thrones'. The play is also the background to one of my favourite Shakespeare related movies - 'The Dresser'. There are so many films linked to, inspired by or simply adpted from the works of Shakespeare that I'm considering a partner blog on just that subject.

May I also recommend to theatre lovers that they check out 'Lear' by Edward Bond as an alternative version. I have that play to thank for getting me into drama school. On the trawl of auditions for schools I had for a while used Edmund's "Thou Nature art my Goddess" speech but moved on to Feste from 'Twelfth Night'. However, having at last secured my place at a school I then had to audition again for a local government grant! For that we needed three pieces so I performed Feste, a piece from 'The Conquest of the South Pole' and finally a piece from Bond's 'Lear' as Lear himself. Couldn't tell you how they exactly went down but I won the grant so it can't have been all bad.

My undying memory of the Bard's version of the play stems from reading it for English A-level. In class we read the text aloud and I took the part of Edgar in the ‘Mad Tom’ scene. I have never been the best sight-reader so unfortunately managed to mispronounce the line “Pillicock sat on Pillicock Hill” as “Pillock sat on Pillock Hill”. My friends howled with laughter and my tutor took a lot of convincing that I hadn’t done it on purpose!

And Finally - Nearly half of the named cast in the production die (and another says he’s off to top himself at the end) but only three deaths occur on stage. Some might cite the similarity to Greek Tragedy but I think Billy-boy was simply fed up of ham-actors taking so long to finish a death scene! (Oh! Don’t they go on?)…

'King Lear' by Jean-Luc Godard

'King Lear' (1987)

So let me get this straight. 

This is a film by Jean-Luc Godard loosely based around the story of King Lear which stars Woody Allen and Peter Sellers (not to mention 80's Hughes-heartthrob Molly Ringwald). And I've never even heard of it before now! 

How is this even possible? ("Anyone...? Anyone..?")

My guess is that unfortunately it's either really, really bad or really, really up its own Art House! Or both!

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'Theatre of Blood' Trailer

Original trailer for Vincent Price's 1973 film 'Theatre of Blood'

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