The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.2341  Friday, 15 December 2000

[1]     From:   Tanya  Gough <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 14 Dec 2000 15:04:53 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 11.2329 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries

[2]     From:   Charles Weinstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 14 Dec 2000 20:19:24 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 11.2311 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries

[3]     From:   Stephanie Hughes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 14 Dec 2000 13:35:11 +0000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 11.2329 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Tanya  Gough <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 14 Dec 2000 15:04:53 -0500
Subject: 11.2329 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries
Comment:        Re: SHK 11.2329 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries

>This should go as much to Tanya as anyone . . . videotapes of what I
>recall as being stunning British film-versions of THE DUCHESS (featuring
>Michael Bryant as Bosola) and of EDWARD II (featuring Ian McKellen as
>Edward) were available as long ago as 1979 when I showed both of them to
>students at Emory University.  What has become of them?  Are they
>anywhere available, even as "specialty items"?

Hmmm.  I can't find listings for either film in any university archive
or in any other video listing.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a listing for the Bryant
Duchess in their media listings, but the company they have listed as a
distributor (with "play only" noted along side) doesn't have it. Looks
like BBC has had a hand in this one, and we all know how good they are
about releasing such things.

The McKellan Edward looks wonderful, but unfortunately it was filmed as
a made-for-tv movie rather than a feature film.  Although it is not
always the case, we generally find that made-for-tv movies are harder to
find on video, and once they've been discontinued, they are even harder
to get back.  I'll do some homework on this one, but don't get your
hopes up.  Something like this can take months, if not longer, to hunt
down.

Meanwhile, the best we can offer is the Jarman Edward II, with all its
glorious faults, and there's the Burton/Taylor Doctor Faustus (the
ending of which, I believe, has been hollywoodized).

Tanya  Gough
Poor Yorick

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Charles Weinstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 14 Dec 2000 20:19:24 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 11.2311 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries
Comment:        Re: SHK 11.2311 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries

Caedmon's excellent Duchess of Malfi is fairly well-known. Less
well-known is another version featuring Peggy Ashcroft in the title role
with Paul Scofield as her lycanthropic brother; this can be ordered from
Audioforum of Guilford, CT.  (Despite the pedigree of the cast, it's
inferior to the Caedmon).  The same outlet offers an abridged audio
version of The Changeling, which I haven't purchased (I've never liked
the play).  Caedmon marketed a Doctor Faustus LP in the 1960s with Frank
Silvera in the lead; it's very difficult to find, but a friend made me a
tape duplicate.  Over the decades, compilation LPs have been released
featuring, inter alia, an excerpt from Donald Wolfit's Tamburlaine, the
letter-writing scene from Edward III  (which may have been authored by
an unknown collaborator of Shakespeare's) featuring Richard Johnson and
Max Adrian, and the Volpone-Celia seduction scene with Silvera and Jo
Van Fleet; the same friend, may he be forever blessed, has provided me
with dupes of those.  I also have an audiotape of McKellen's Edward II
released in the 80s by Argo.  Other than the recent Arkangel release of
The Two Noble Kinsmen (half of which, I suppose, counts as a recording
of Fletcher), I'm not aware of any other audio versions of Shakespeare's
contemporaries; but I'd certainly be happy to hear of any.

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Stephanie Hughes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 14 Dec 2000 13:35:11 +0000
Subject: 11.2329 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries
Comment:        Re: SHK 11.2329 Re: Shakespeare's Contemporaries

The most telling domestic violence play of the period in my opinion is
The Yorkshire Tragedy. This is so entirely from the woman's viewpoint
that I believe it likely that it was written by a woman, and also that
it was probably about a real situation.

Stephanie Hughes

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