Shakespeare 101

We never do anything casually--seems like it's whole hog or nothing at all. No in-between options in this house. So, when we saw and loved The Merchant of Venice on Broadway with Al Pacino and Lily Rabe (a nice birthday gift from my brother and sister-in-law), I had a feeling that it heralded the beginning of Shakespeare 101 for the spring semester.

You can't just go to a Shakespeare play with no knowledge or background. You have to do your homework to really appreciate a play--there's just so much involved--the language, the plot, historical context. Gary and I have different approaches. I opt for Spark Notes, a great website that summarizes each scene, as well as giving a comprehensive overview.  Gary is the purist and, while he may do cliff notes, he also tries to read the play and get a feel for the language. (also allows him to make pointed comments during intermission like: "Did you notice they dropped scene 4 and combined scenes 1 and 2?"  Sheesh!)

Our second play was Timon (rhymes with Simon) of Athens, staged at the Public Theatre, a small venue with Richard Thomas (John-Boy of the Waltons) as Timon.  I'm sure most people have never heard of this historical play that is rarely performed and may not have even been properly finished by Shakespeare. Some things just don't add up, so scholars speculate that it was still in draft status. Why even perform it, then, you may well be asking, as I did?
  

The hook is that it is eerily relevant to the recent financial chaos we've had and examines what happens when the bottom drops out of an extravagant, licentious lifestyle.  When bankruptcy looms, where do your friends go? I loved the first act, although normally I'm not a fan of Shakespeare in suits, set in the 1920's. How do you reconcile Elizabethan language with the flapper era?--bit of a disconnect, but falls under the theatrical category of suspending disbelief. We accept certain conventions in theatre, if it's done well, because it's an artificial world we're willingly entering
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The second half dragged a bit--numerous long soliloquies (this is Shakespeare, after all).  But, how can you fault a play that stages the decadence and depravity of the city by updating the traditional veiled dancing girls with a brief view of a 1920's porn movie? 

Our third play was Macbeth--a great gory play, fast moving, witches, ghosts, sword fights, people going crazy, riddles, ambition, guilt, deception.  Something for everyone! The Duke Theatre at 42nd street was the perfect setting--small stage, surrounded by the audience on three sides, with entrances and exits from all over the place. You really felt like you were in the play, especially from the 2nd row! 

This weekend we saw a surprisingly good student production of As You Like It at Bergen Community College. I loved the classic Elizabethan costumes, moveable scenery of three anthropomorphosized trees and an enthusiastic cast with a few very talented actors. 


Still to come: King Lear at Brooklyn Academy of Music in May and Romeo & Juliet this summer at a re-created Globe Theatre inside the Park Ave Armory.

One of the best things about Shakespeare is the language. I never realized how many popular phrases originated with the bard.  An interesting benefit from this Shakespeare-mania is we are now ready for the most challenging intellectual cocktail party, ready to drop a few verses, just to show how "learned" we are. Feel free to borrow any of these quotes below. I've also suggested some appropriate places and times to say them.

1. If you get along well with your oncology nurse, you might joke as she draws blood:  "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" When she hooks up the IV infusion, try: "If you poison us, do we not die?"   (Merchant of Venice)
2. After you get a bad sunburn at the beach:  “Mislike me not for my complexion, The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun.” (Merchant of Venice)
3. At the next baseball game:  "Fair is foul and foul is fair." (Macbeth)
4. When rain is pouring down and temps are in the raw 50's:  "Fair is foul and foul is fair."(Macbeth)
5. To your boss, when you've missed a deadline:  "To-morrow, and to-morrow and to-morrow"  (Macbeth)
6. After a boring day at work, to a co-worker:  "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; (Macbeth)
7. When blowing out your birthday candles: “Out, out, brief candle!” (Macbeth)
8. As your boss or a politician explains austerity measures: “It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” (Macbeth)
9. Save this full version for when you've lost your job, your home and your love all in one day (in other words you're really depressed): “Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” (Macbeth)
10. Cooking dinner:  "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." (Macbeth)
11. Getting stubborn stains out of the rug: “Out, damned spot! out, I say!"  (Macbeth)
12. As you pull the overcooked turkey out of the oven on Thanksgiving: “what's done is done.” (Macbeth) 
13. After a bad day on the stock market: “What's done is done.”  or “We have seen better days.” (Timon of Athens)
14. After any bad day: “We have seen better days.” or “True is it that we have seen better days.” (As You Like It)
15. As you finish off your Easter candy in one sitting: “Can one desire too much of a good thing?” (As You Like It)
16. In response to the crazy religious right: “The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.” (King Lear)
17. When you want to pass the buck: “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.” (King Lear)
18. Words to live by: “Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest". (King Lear)
19. When looking at a bad report card or a start up’s business plan: “Nothing will come of nothing." (King Lear) 
20. When a deal is too good to be true: "All that glisters is not gold." (The Merchant of Venice)  Note: the "glisters", not glitters-this will set you apart as the Shakespearean aficionado.
21. When an expectant couple shares the names they've picked for the new baby and you don't like any of them: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." (Romeo & Juliet)
22. On reading someone's blog: “he hath strange places crammed
    With observation, the which he vents In mangled forms.”  (As You Like It)
23. When bloggers get carried away with themselves : "All the world's a stage"  (As You Like it)

A long post, I know. I guess Gary is not the only one in our house who's gone “all out” for the bard, who, by the way, died almost 400 years ago on April 23, 1616. 


And, yes, folks, we are coming to the end of poetry month!