Brush Up Your Shakespeare
Aug. 8th, 2005 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The last time I went to see the Rude Mechanicals perform, I was pretty underwhelmed. I'm sorry, a 5'6" girl with a big rack and a 6'2" man with a bushy beard are simply not so identical that people will confuse them with each other when she puts on a pair of pants.
However, I've been told to give 'em another chance, and since they're doing King John, which I missed at Stratford, whatthehell.
So why am I writing this? Because poking around on their website produced these things of general shakes-geek interest: The Annotated Hamlet script (I love that idea, more theaters should do it!), The Hamlet Flow Chart, and these kickass posters for assorted productions.
However, I've been told to give 'em another chance, and since they're doing King John, which I missed at Stratford, whatthehell.
So why am I writing this? Because poking around on their website produced these things of general shakes-geek interest: The Annotated Hamlet script (I love that idea, more theaters should do it!), The Hamlet Flow Chart, and these kickass posters for assorted productions.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-08 06:53 pm (UTC)And I thought the whole induction very pretentious.
But I like the basic concept.
There needs to be an amendation to the Hamlet flow chart though. After the "do you have 100 lines" they need to add "did Tom Stoppard write a play about you?" Cause R&G do not have 100 lines each and they die.
Where do the Mechanicals perform?
no subject
Date: 2005-08-08 07:10 pm (UTC)Pretentious possibly, but I was interested to see who they gave which line in the introduction. I'll give them this, they believe in reaching for the skies... even if I think last time they fell into the trees and bounced out.
What I like in the annotated is that agree or not (and ability of the performers to portray or not) you got to see what the director was up to. The 12th Night I saw had a really good idea as outlined in the playbill - that the twins are fleeing the French Revolution, that's why they don't tell anyone who they are and they don't send home for help - but it never showed up on stage.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-08 07:17 pm (UTC)The annotated script is interesting in the aftermath, and as a scholarly study, but if you have to post an annotated script in order to get the idea of what you were trying to do across, then you've failed. (I feel the same way about director's notes. If you have to read those to understand the play, someone screwed up.)
And in the induction, who the hell is "ingenue?" It's not Ophelia, she has her own lines. Is that what they're calling Hamlet?
no subject
Date: 2005-08-08 07:26 pm (UTC)Let's just say, so not a professional set of actors. But I was told that they've gotten much better, so I'm giving them a chance.
who the hell is "ingenue?"
I don't know. It wouldn't be the first time they split up a character into more than one character. Three Festes was... unique.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-08 07:32 pm (UTC)Ingenue is the young man among the troop of players who plays the girl.
LOL
no subject
Date: 2005-08-08 08:16 pm (UTC)It is definitly community theater, even with the occasional ringer.
The annodated script is more of an internal document, though it is out there on the site for all to see.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-08 10:41 pm (UTC)That's a pretty good way of phrasing it. I give 'em bonus points for the trying... but at the same time, it would be a lot more impressive if they could convey onstage what they had in mind.
I'll take you up on that Errors offer!
The Posters
Date: 2005-08-09 06:21 pm (UTC)Re: The Posters
Date: 2005-08-09 06:54 pm (UTC)I keep waiting to see if he'll do any of the other Shakes shows - or if he'd put those designs on a T-shirt, because I'd so buy one or two!
Re: The Posters
Date: 2005-08-09 06:56 pm (UTC)http://www.leemoyer.com/