20 - King Henry VI Part 2

Be prepared for a Battle Royal! Last man standing will take the kingdom!

I found this second part to be far superior to all the running around France in part one! So here's hoping that part three continues the trend rather than doing a Star Wars!

Which of course sets my mind off at a tangent by first imagining 'A Star Wars of the Roses' (with Ewoks!) and secondly by thinking of loads of Shakespeare / Star Wars mash-up quotes:

"To be or not to be, the question that is! Yes!"

"This isn't the changling boy you're looking for"

"Spys! Bothans! Countrymen! Lend me your stolen Death Star plans!"

"The game's afoot - but let the wookiee win!"

"Now is the Winter of the planet Hoth made glorious Summer by the twin suns of Tatooine!"

JULIET - "My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite."

ROMEO - "I know"

PETRUCHIO - Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon! 

KATHARINA - That's no moon! It's a space station.

PETRUCHIO - I say it is the moo... No you're right! (Shit!)

And Finally – Warwick goes all Columbo on viewing Gloucester's dead body, piecing together that he didn't die of natural causes but was rather done in! It's CSI Bury St. Edmund's!

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The 'Brilliant Bard Channel'

When I started this 'Challenge' (which far more of a pleasure than a hardship) I was mindful that everyone was talking about Dickens while I was going on about Shakespeare. So I am very glad that everyone else has now caught up with me! Particularly the BBC. Their Cultural Olympiad inspired season 'Shakespeare Uncovered' is a marvellous companion for my Journey.

I was already dipping into the excellent back catalogue of BBC Shakespeare productions which I remember watching in the 70's-80's. But Now there is so much more on offer on both radio and TV that I can hardly keep up. Highlights in the documentary stakes have been 'Simon Shama's Shakespeare' and the titular 'Shakespeare Uncovered' programmes. It was worth watching the Joely Richardson episode alone to see the amazing shots of snow falling in the Globe Theatre. There have also been screenings of some of the better film adaptations, but best of all new re-workings by the BBC themselves.

Unfortunately I'm more than a little anal and have told myself not to watch a performance of a play until I've re-read it. Hence I missed the RSC's Julius Caesar with an African setting and Kenneth Branagh's film of 'As You Like It' as this hit the screen a little too soon. But with with the relevant Histories under my sword-belt I am revelling in the 'The Hollow Crown' series which runs through the plays 'Richard II' to 'Henry V' with a stellar cast. 

The first play, Richard II, had a phenomenal performance from Ben Whishaw in the title role and Rory Kinnear as Bolingbroke and not forgetting a stand-out 'John of Gaunt' portrayed by Sir Patrick Stewart. Now I can't wait to the watch the rest of the series and in particular to see another Shakespearean stalwart Simon Russell Beale, in the part of Falstaff, along with Tom Hiddleston playing Hal / Henry V (who as Loki stole the show in The Avengers movie). Here's just hoping the French don't have a Hulk! ("Puny Plantagenet!")


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Knights - by xkcd

  

www.xkcd.com

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A Town Called Shakespeare!

 

On a dusty road, in the 'Bootheel' of New Mexico you'll find a small town called Shakespeare. And, rather fittingly, it's a 'Ghost Town'! Originally a stop on the stagecoach route it had a brief life when a mine opened up nearby. But when the mine closed in 1929 so did the town.

Wouldn't it be great to perform one of the Bard's plays there? But which one? Which play would suit a Western / Ghost Town setting? Personally I do The Tempest... 

Prospero, originally the mayor of the large town on Milan is now a hermit living in a ghost-town, speaking to the Native American spirits that inhabit the land. Rather than a tempest at sea a dust-storm deposits the travellers from Milan within the realm and at the mercy of the deposed mayor and his daughter. Now read on... 

Shakespeare, New Mexico

Shakespeare Ghost Town

GhostTowns.com

Quote #019

"The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly"

Touchstone - 'As You Like It', Act I Scene 2

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19 - As You Like It

Now this is just what was needed to mark the halfway point in my Bard loving challenge - an affable tale of love and wrestling!

Back in the Nineties I saw a production by the ‘Check by Jowl’ company which used an an all male cast. It  began with the whole cast on stage, dressed simply in white shirt and black trousers, while Jacques gave the start of the "All the worlds a stage" speech. At the mention of "all the men and women" the cast split so that all the male characters moved to one side and the two due to play the female leads moved to the other. 

Adrian Lester (centre) and Tom Hollander (right)

It was only when thinking again of this production that I remembered that these two were Tom Hollander (of 'Rev' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' fame) as Celia and Adrian Lester (from among other things TV's 'Hustle') as Rosalind. The first gave a wonderful performance as a woman and the latter expertly played a woman playing a man who's in love with a man, whom she tells to love her as if she were the woman he loved, which she in fact is, even though she’s a man (which of course she isn’t!!!)

People often think of the melancholic Jacques as having the best lines in the play but my favourite character is Touchstone - but then I’m a sucker for a good fool. His talk of wit, wisdom, women and the world is well worth a reread of the play in itself. He reminds me slightly of the rakish 'Top-Banana' Raymond Paine from the movie 'The Night They Raided Minsky's'. 

Raymond (played by Jason Robards) is another comedian full of wit who uses his power of words to control those more weak willed than himself. In one incredible scene he manages to seduce a woman in a restaurant, snake his way out of a beating when her husband shows up then finally leave them with eyes only for each other and all without anyone but Raymond speaking a single word!

And Finally – Given the amount of songs this must also have been Shaky’s first attempt at a musical, long before the conception of ‘Kiss me Kate’, ‘West Side Story’ or ‘Dirty Dick’! (Only lovers of forgotten movie ‘The Tall Guy’ will know about that last one and it’s show stopping tune “I’ve Got a Hunch I’m Going to be King!”)

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'Romeo and Juliet' by Dire Straits