I’m back! had a great time, enjoyed all three plays (the mood change from Pt. 1 to Pt. 2 was a bit of a jump, but Falstaff was marvellous.) Henry V was really something - the Beloved liked it, but thought that Emma Thompson did the Kate part better in the movie.
Nope - 1988, with Colm Feore as Richard - he came on to the festival stage backlit, so the first thing you saw was this terribly deformed shadow coming forward. He played it with extremely bad limps, yet energetic - deformed but not crippled, if that makes sense. He must have had serious leg cramps at the end of each show.
I find that the change in tone between Parts 1 and 2 is jolting even when you’re just reading the plays – I’ve never seen Part 2 performed.
The '97 Stratford production starred Stephen Ouimette, who was probably the most understated Richard III I’ve ever seen – he was pretty good in the part, though. Wonder who they’ll get for the production next year…
(BTW, they also did Richard II in 1999 – I wish I’d seen it, but I hadn’t read the play yet at the time. I ended up writing my thesis on it. :D)
Also, I know you said you didn’t want to see Titus, but Julie Taymor’s film version is a fantastic treatment IMHO. It’s very weird…and actually not as gory as I’d expected.
9th grade: R&J. Didn’t like it. I just never felt that I was listening to real teenagers. Of course, I didn’t help that I had an awful English teacher that year.
10th grade: Julius Ceasar. Better. Some nice displays of how the characters manipulate the crowd in Rome, and I like the different dynamics in the two armies.
12 grade: Henry IV, part i. Extremely good. This is the one that got me hooked on Shakespeare. The portrayal of a rebellious youth who actually understands his duty to family and country better than he appears to is excellent. All of the important scenes are written very skillfully.
Henry V: Not as good as Henry IV. The glimpses of soldiers in wartime are very well written, but the character of Henry just isn’t as interresting this time.
Hamlet: Excellent. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s single most interesting character, and the dialogue is well written throughout the play. The supporting characters are also all used intelligently.
Macbeth: My favorite. Not only is the dialogue sharp, but the characters are believable and he sets the mood very well. Also, the play is much more concise than most of his work.
So, yes, Shakespeare should still be taught in high school. But I don’t see why people want to try to make elementary school kids try to memorize a few lines and put on a very abridged version, since they won’t understand what they’re saying anyway.
Read all of 'em–and some are pretty lame but c’mon, the the bulk of what he wrote still rings true as a bell after several centuries. He had bills to pay. His real art and genius is that soooo much breathes life after several centuries.
I’ve never intentionally memorized anything (unless assigned) but much remains. Antique language included, his sheer suavity of thought and turn of phrase plowed synaptic furrows. Who says mere words can’t hurt, heal or guide?
Art lasts.
I can’t isolate instances because they’re too pervasive. (They’re also muddled up with too many more current quotes/verities.) It’s Western, English-speaking imprinting but in a lot of ways Shakespeare is the baseline.
Without Shakespeare, you may suspect that people are the same now as they ever were and that there are no truly novel circumstances. With him, you know.
I’ve been forced to read Shakespeare during high school, but also in elementary school as well. In grade 8, my class read Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet, both of which we were helped a lot with the vocabulary. Also in grade 8, I helped act out a production of Twelfth Night, but in rhyming couplets so the younger audience could understand.
Now in high school, we’ve been reading:
9th grade: Julius Caesar
10th grade: Romeo & Juliet
11th grade: Macbeth
12th grade: Hamlet
OAC (Gr. 13): Antony & Cleopatra
I’ve also seen a ninety-minute (I think) production on EVERY Shakespeare play, condensed. It was hilarious, especially with the 30-second Hamlet. It was in London, England. I forget the company, just that it was funny.
OK, I’ve been rambling about my experiences. I think that Shakespeare shows how similar our modern civilization is with his era. His works taught me much about literature and how it can be used.
It is really amazing how some of this stuff sticks with you. In high school, the English classes were required to memorize all sorts of stuff, poems, plays, old ballads. A couple of years ago at the 40th class reunion a dozen of us or so stood up and recited the Dagger Speech from Mac Beth, from memory, with out notes, and with a minimum of drunken laughter. It was pretty rough in spots, but by the Bard, we got through it.