Shakespeare wept

[Kallisti]

to set Shakespeare plays anachronistically or wildly misplaced? I’ve seen Macbeth done as 30’s gangsters, Hamlet in Samurai Japan…some of them work, but many of them fall flat.

[ArrMatey]

Slightly OT, but I so rarely get to brag…

I was in a production of ‘The Tempest’ that had various 1960’s touches to it. The play got panned by the reviewer from (of all things) the Chicago Reader. However, three actors got glowing reviews themselves, and I was one of 'em.

[Revtim]

*Originally posted by Kallisti *
**(why do directors feel compelled) to set Shakespeare plays anachronistically or wildly misplaced? I’ve seen Macbeth done as 30’s gangsters, Hamlet in Samurai Japan…some of them work, but many of them fall flat. **

The same reason Shakespeare himself took older tales, and placed them at different times. He thought it would make good entertainment.

[Fretful_Porpentine]

*Originally posted by chorpler *
**When I was in 9th grade, a friend and I wrote a parody of Romeo and Juliet, just for fun. I still have a few bound copies around here somewhere … At the time, I thought it was a masterpiece, but re-reading it now, I want to smack myself. Some parts of it still make me laugh, though, like the scene in “Friar Lawrence’s Cell” where the nucleus yells at the ribosomes for not synthesizing proteins fast enough. **

Brilliant! I remember writing a parody of Macbeth in high school called “The Oregano Caper,” in which the Macbeth character was a business executive who made a habit of inviting his colleagues over for dinner, spiking the pasta sauce with marijuana, and then ratting them out to the random drug-test personnel.

I’m sure it was appallingly bad, but I was really proud of the scene where the ghost of Banquo turns up for dinner, dripping with the instrument of his downfall (“Never shake thy tomatoey locks at me!”)

[Little_Nemo]

And who could forget Lady MacBeth’s classic lines:

“Far out, damned pot! Far out, man! One, two … uhhh … what time is it? Look at all the colors! Look out, a narc! Everybody be cool and stick to the story! Damn, didn’t anyone flush the stash?”

[RealityChuck]

Heck, one of the best things I’ve ever written is Hamlet rewritten as space opera. Unfortunately, it’s only about a page long and I haven’t figured out where to go with it.

I’m torn between thinking these people have good intentions (creating Shakespeare for kids) and being horrified at the exploitation of art for the sake of a buck.

Why be horrified? Shakespeare wrote for the sake of a buck. He was, after all, cranking out cheap entertainment that kept him from writing the poetry he preferred. It just happened he was very good at it (all Shakespeare’s plays are marvelously entertaining).

It’s hardly likely this will tarnish Shakespeare’s reputation.

[Zebra]

Yeah and that West Side Story is for shit!:rolleyes:

[CRorex]

I thought this was a post for Leet Romeo and Juliet (a flash animation telling the timeless tale of Romeo and Juliet in leet speak)
–Julite, what are you doing?

–Mackin’

[PoorYorick]

*Originally posted by GMRyujin *
**“Alas, poor Yorick, I popped a cap in his bitch ass, Horatio.” **

You rang?

[Shadez]

Aw. I thought this was going to be a parody of the shortest biblical verse.