Wednesday, June 11, 2008

“Half the time I didn’t even know what they were saying, but it didn’t even really matter.”

Ryzik, Melena. "Scottish Play Gets Polish Makeover." New York Times 11 June 2008.


I have a decidedly mixed reaction to the production of Macbeth mentioned in the New York Times this morning. My head starts to hurt when I hear things like "“Half the time I didn’t even know what they were saying, but it didn’t even really matter” to describe a Shakespeare play. I think we should know what they're saying, and I think that it does matter.

I'm also worried about this description: "The show is blood-and-guts Shakespeare as a drive-in movie."

Hmmm.

On the other hand, it sounds like it's trying to be relevant—as well as visually stunning. But I'm not sure Macbeth-as-action-film is quite what I'd like from a production.

I need my Brooklyn readers to give a report. From where they live, they may be able to hear the fireworks, after all!
~~~
Links: NYT Article.
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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it; and, for your sake, / Am I this patient [b]log-man.

 —The Tempest