Me and group of 3 of my friends are looking to compete in a Shakespeare competition, but in order to compete we need to prepare a 5 minute cutting of one of Shakespeare's History Plays. SInce I am the writer in the group, the duty fell to me to produce a cutting, but I must admit that I am no Shakespearian Scholar, especially when it comes to his histories.
Can anyone think of any of Shakespeare's histories that can be effecively cut for four people for five mintues. The cutting can either sum up the play, follow one subplot, or just be a preticularly powerful scene from the play, but it must include all four actors, and contain as much group interaction as possible. Interesting ideas like split screens, etc would also work.
I am fairly confident that once I have an idea for a cutting I can manage one, but having not read any of Shakespeare's histories, finding an idea DOES seem to be the hard part.
Well, thanks for your time, hope to hear back from you.
Hmmm…first thought would be Act 3, Scene 1 of Julius Caesar, this is the assassination with the “Et tu, Brute” line. I think you could break it down to Caesar, Brutus, Antony and Cassius while retaining most of the substance. Finding good stuff for the camera could require a bit of creativity.
Four actors? You might want to look at Richard II 5.3, which is written for four people and just about fits within the time constraints, although you’ll have to cut it a bit (I’ve been working on a recording of the play; it runs about five and a half minutes). It’s an extremely goofy scene in some ways – it takes a lot of the really, really serious themes in the play and boils them down to domestic farce. Not sure how it’d work out of context. But it’s a fun scene to act…
