November
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, SHK 7.0814. Monday, 11 November 1996. From: Jimmy Jung <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 1:35pm Subject: Romeo and Juliet ROCK I think if you are really believe that Shakespeare has meaning in our time, then you ought to go see this flick, then again waiting for the video might be okay too. Since I already shared my pre-release enthusiasm with yall, I guess I also ought to share the quieter aftermath. Some of the reviews have compared the movie to "Die Hard" and trust me, the first 20 minutes will spin your head in a confusing mishmash of gun play, camera cuts, explosions, and dialogue. Familiarity with the text may even be a disadvantage. I kept hearing lines that I knew, but they were buried under the burst of 9mm weapon fire. But you gotta respect the attempt to make R&J a "here and now" story, and this attempt does not dissuade me from my excitement about trying to yank a "classic" story abruptly into the 1990's? How successful was this version? Mediocre at best. Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect for me was the contrast between the language and the scene. This version keeps all the "thou's," "thy's" and "swords." Normally, I'm a purest for the text; but when Tybalt points a gun the size of Dirty Harry's at you and then says something about his sword, I get confused. I think just a little bit of tailoring might have made a more comfortable fit into this MTV mold. On the plus side, the leads were great. Everytime I see the play, I walk away thinking Romeo's a dork. However, DiCaprio manages to pine for Rosalind, fall in love at first sight, climb a wall, get married, kill a guy and himself, with the clarity of passion that the part calls for. DiCaprio and Dane also do the best job with the language. They have to say a lot of odd things for a movie in the 90s and their delivery is the only part that seems to pull you into to their love expressed as poetry. (Everyone else's seems to distract). Do they annunciate correctly for a Shakespearean play? I haven't a clue. When I saw the trailer, you see Romeo on his knees screaming "Juliet." and I remember laughing and thinking "Brando yelling 'Stella,' or Stallone yelling 'Adrian'; yea, that's what Shakespeare had in mind." But hey, it works. The Saturday crowd at 9PM was more youthful than I expected and as I was walking out of the theater I did here one guy say, "any idea what we just saw?" On the other hand I also saw a young lady say, "wow, that was beautiful." and I suppose, more than anything, I want to know what the senior high crowd thought, if you hear anything, let me know. jimmy
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, SHK 7.0813. Monday, 11 November 1996. (1) From: Jesus Cora <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 17:14:39 UTC+0100 Subj: SHK 7.0802 Re: Stratford upon Avon (2) From: Scott Shepherd <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. >(Scott Shepherd) Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 13:59:30 -0500 Subj: Re: SHK 7.0807 Re: Cleopatra's Charms (3) From: Michael Mullin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 16:46:41 -0500 Subj: Re: SHK 7.0806 Qs: Web Sites (1)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jesus Cora <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 17:14:39 UTC+0100 Subject: Re: Stratford upon Avon Comment: SHK 7.0802 Re: Stratford upon Avon >For a stay of several weeks in Stratford upon Avon to use the resources of the >Shakespeare Centre, does anyone have suggestions on lodgings, food, approximate >budget? I would suggest staying at a place called Grosvenor House. It is centrally located, quite reasonable in price, and is very nice. Unfortunately, I have neither phone number nor exact price available at the moment. Dear SHAKSPEReans, Those of you who would like to go to Stratford can know what the RSC has on offer beforehand if you join their mailing list. It costs about 10 pounds sterling and they send you their season programs both at their theatres at Stratford and London (and info. on tours abroad). I find it quite useful. I haven't got the contact address with me right now. I'll post it in the near future. All the best. (2)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Scott Shepherd <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. >(Scott Shepherd) Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 13:59:30 -0500 Subject: 7.0807 Re: Cleopatra's Charms Comment: Re: SHK 7.0807 Re: Cleopatra's Charms In Harry Hill's "as verse" Enobarbus, linebreak equals thoughtbreak equals pause. New line equals afterthought. It's easy to imagine how tedious this might become in a long heavily enjambed speech like say the dagger hallucination in Macbeth (see below). William Shatner comes to mind. Or Fiona Shaw's incessantly hesitant Richard 2 last year. Some who lament the misunderstanding of verse differently misunderstand, endorsing an alleged proper speaking of it and thinking I think that verse when it's happening should be recognizable as verse whereas isn't it more effective if it operates obscurely--not tearing a passion into tensyllable tatters but imparting a rhythm and impetus more felt by the listener than acknowledged? Shakespeare got older and in most opinions better by abandoning endstops and obvious rhyme, making meter a more and more occult ingredient of his whole dramatic effect, eg: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half world Nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep, witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd Murder, Alarum'd by his sentinel the wolf Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides towards his design Moves like a ghost. (3)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Mullin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 16:46:41 -0500 Subject: 7.0806 Qs: Web Sites Comment: Re: SHK 7.0806 Qs: Web Sites The Shakespeare Globe USA website continues to grow. We too are looking for more internet links and would be grateful for any suggestions. Please open location: http://ampere.scale.uiuc.edu/shakespeare Michael Mullin
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, SHK 7.0812. Monday, 11 November 1996. From: Yashdip Bains <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 11:58:41 -0500 (EST) Subject: Book Announcement My book, "The Contention and The True Tragedy: Shakespeare's First Versions of Henry VI, Parts 2 and 3," is available now in hardback from Public Relations Officer, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Rashtrapati Nivas, Simla 171 005, India (Price: $14.00, including postage by air). I argue that Shakespeare wrote "The Contention" and "The True Tragedy" first and later revised and changed them into the second and third parts of a trilogy about King Henry VI. I suggest that "The Contention" and "The True Tragedy" are authentic texts from Shakespeare's early career in the theatre, and the multiple scripts give us unusual insights into his evolution as a playwright. Also still available from the same publisher is my earlier study, "Making Sense of the First Quartos of Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Hamlet" ($8.00, including postage by air).
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, SHK 7.0811. Monday, 11 November 1996. From: Stephen Neville <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 09:04:29 -0500 Subject: Shakespeare CD-ROMs/RSC Midsummer Night's Dream Christmas is coming and I am asking for a Complete Works of Shakespeare on CD-Rom. Could some-one advise me as to what is on offer, and the merits of one version in preference to another? I went to the RSC's production of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ at Stratford on Avon on November 9th. It was wonderful. It is now going on tour. SHAKSPERIANS might like to note the following dates : 1996 - Great Britain 12-16 November Theatre Royal, Newcastle 19-23 November New Theatre, Cardiff 26-30 November Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 3-7 December Theatre Royal, Bath 10-14 December Theatre Royal, Plymouth 1997 17 January - 8 February Ginza Saison Theatre, Tokyo, Japan 15-18 February The Academy of Performing Arts, Hong Kong 26 February - 8 March His Majesty's Theatre, Perth, Australia 13-15 March Festival Theatre, Adelaide, Australia 19 March - 5 April The Playhouse, Melbourne, Australia 9-12 April State Opera House, Wellington, New Zealand 16-20 April Aoeta Centre, Auckland, New Zealand 24 April - 17 May Capitol Theatre, Sydney, Australia 21-25 May Gold Coast Arts Centre, Australia Regards Stephen NevilleThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, SHK 7.0810. Monday, 11 November 1996. (1) From: Michael Friedman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 16:52:53 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 7.0806 Qs: Lear (2) From: Ellen Summers <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 17:12:59 -0500 (EST) Subj: RE: SHK 7.0806 Qs: Lear (1)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Friedman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 16:52:53 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 7.0806 Qs: Lear Comment: Re: SHK 7.0806 Qs: Lear Larry, I'm sure that other members of this list will point it out, but the text itself supports Bevington's editorial stage direction at 3.7.69 (in my Signet edition): "Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot." I'm not sure what it is about this action that strikes you and your students as absurd. The last time I saw it performed in accordance with the text, Gloucester was bound to a chair with his back to the audience. At Cornwall's line, two servants tipped the chair over backward so that Gloucester's head was resting on the floor, and Cornwall ground the eye out as Bevington describes. Surely, however, there are other ways in which the sequence could be performed. Michael Friedman University of Scranton (2)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ellen Summers <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 11 Nov 1996 17:12:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: 7.0806 Qs: Lear Comment: RE: SHK 7.0806 Qs: Lear To Larry Dessner, on staging the blinding of Gloucester: Cornwall may find it easier to put his foot against Gloucester's eye if Gloucester's head is lowered until it is nearly touching the floor. This may be easily accomplished on stage if Gloucester, tied to the chair in which he is seated, is pulled down by the chair's back by Cornwall, who then may find it convenient to lift his boot up to Gloucester's eye. If I remember correctly, Peter Brook's Cornwall wore enormous spurs on his boots, making this moment even more extravagantly cruel. The English professor in me wants to add that such a mode of staging helps to crystallize the motifs of inversion and of atomization of parts of the body that run through _Lear_. Hope this helps. Ellen Summers Hiram College