billy-the-bard

[billy-the-bard]

rereading a midsummer night's dream and the amount of trust the craftsmen have for the nobles' reading comprehension is just hilarious

"i wonder if they will understand that i'm actually not a lion" "i think we should make it clear that i'm a person playing a wall and not actually a wall" "are they in fact at all familiar with the concept of acting"

[billy-the-bard]

I'll just leave this here...

rereading a midsummer night's dream and the amount of trust the craftsmen have for the nobles' reading comprehension is just hilarious

"i wonder if they will understand that i'm actually not a lion" "i think we should make it clear that i'm a person playing a wall and not actually a wall" "are they in fact at all familiar with the concept of acting"

[billy-the-bard]

Now, you see, this is the kind is Shakespeare analysis we all need! A+

Fellow Bard enthusiasts!

I have a question: Is it common to portray Edmund and the Duke of Cornwall as having an affair, in productions of "King Lear"?

(This is in addition to Edmund's other canon affairs, of course.)

I just watched a version from the mid-80s and its version of Act III, Scene V left NO ambiguity about it.

I mean...

Cornwall on the left, Edmund in the water, on the right.

(Yes, I had to blur, um, certain 'parts of Cornwall', shall we say? Because it was all out in the open...)

[billy-the-bard]

Or as Shakespeare would say: Hamlet.

[billy-the-bard]

is Edmund supposed to be insanely sexy or do Regan and Goneril just both have a thing for evil guys

[billy-the-bard]

I'm reading a thing analyzing King Lear and asking if there are clues that he was abusive. As always, my response is "you can play it that way," but I definitely believe he was always in some way making them compete for his affection, and Cordelia threw away her inheritance prospects because she had just plain had enough, especially when he tried to make them do it in front of an audience.

This obviously doesn't excuse Goneril and Regan of doing things like torturing innocent third parties, but it would explain why, once they have their inheritance, they don't want to have anything to do with dad anymore. The play is still a tragedy, and we can still weep for Lear as we can for many flawed characters, but he is definitely the guy who started the whole thing.

[billy-the-bard]

For those who commented - @transsexualcoriolanus @tragedyposting @beforeviolets and @callixton - this is from the production made by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in 1985. (It's just a short scene, but it really made me wonder if this was the usual interpretation of this.)

Part 1

Part 2

It does not have English subtitles, but if you know the story, I'd say it's worth a watch. Not least because Edmund is played by an actor who does the whole "sexy bad boy" thing very well.

Fellow Bard enthusiasts!

I have a question: Is it common to portray Edmund and the Duke of Cornwall as having an affair, in productions of "King Lear"?

(This is in addition to Edmund's other canon affairs, of course.)

I just watched a version from the mid-80s and its version of Act III, Scene V left NO ambiguity about it.

I mean...

Cornwall on the left, Edmund in the water, on the right.

(Yes, I had to blur, um, certain 'parts of Cornwall', shall we say? Because it was all out in the open...)

[billy-the-bard]

Fellow Bard enthusiasts!

I have a question: Is it common to portray Edmund and the Duke of Cornwall as having an affair, in productions of "King Lear"?

(This is in addition to Edmund's other canon affairs, of course.)

I just watched a version from the mid-80s and its version of Act III, Scene V left NO ambiguity about it.

I mean...

Cornwall on the left, Edmund in the water, on the right.

(Yes, I had to blur, um, certain 'parts of Cornwall', shall we say? Because it was all out in the open...)

[billy-the-bard]

Just finished hamlet & had to share THIS

[billy-the-bard]

To quote myself from an earlier post I made about this production:

Oliver Chris is just perfection as Orsino! He could SO easily have been just a bland, self-pitying simp who lays about all day listening to depressing love-songs and sighing dramatically, but instead we get this enthusiastic, athletic, passionate and emotional golden retriever of a man who's convinced he's in love with Olivia but is also deeply confused by the deep feelings he's developed for his new servant, Cesario.

I mean, if this isn't bi-panic in glorious technicolor, I don't know what is!

I absolutely agree about the ending, because it is set vaguely in the 60s (judging by the clothes, etc.) it feels much more like a case of "Oh, thank goodness! I'll actually be able to live my life openly and safely with the person I love."

And look at his adorable, self-conscious little wave just after that outburst. 😭🥰

I've written a whole thing on this production a while back, which can be found here.

And, yes, he's truly amazing as Oberon!

If that ain't just the most relatable reaction!

("Twelfth Night", NT Live, 2017.)

[billy-the-bard]

I wish I had a Shakespeare production company so I could stage that BDSM performance of TAMING OF THE SHREW I want so badly

It would be the absolute BEST way to stage TAMING. Maybe the only way that really works in this day and age?

BDSM is all about theater for 2. Even when nobody's watching you, which is often, you're playing a role that doesn't look the same as normal life.

And TAMING is all about performance! You could keep it at the outermost layer, the framing story of TAMING. Have the whole thing take place inside a BDSM club or something. Heighten the unreality - remind the audience of a show within a show.

Or get more thematic - Kate and Petruchio are both performing all the time. Performing as jerks, trying to be unlovable and scare people away. It would be really powerful to show them both as understanding the performance of the other, and then them joining to make it a performance of 2 against everyone else.

You could use a wide range of BDSM activities, too - everything from light spanking, to a fetish club, to lifestyle BDSM would work!

If you want something done right, do it yourself - but I don't have a theater company, so I can't!

[billy-the-bard]

imagining an alternate timeline where shakespeare wrote a play about king arthur. we would be so unwell

[billy-the-bard]

There is! We love The Bard here!

yo there’s a SHAKESPEARE FANDOM on here??

wtf no one informed me of this

fecking based, I-

[billy-the-bard]

two dumb questions: 1) how many characters in the tragedies kill their partners (homoerotic nemeses do count in this case) and 2 (the more important one)) are there enough to write a parody of the cell block tango

I don't know how long ago I got this, and I feel like the asker probably needed an answer fast! But I still like the question!

But I don't think there are many!

Othello killing Desdemona in OTHELLO. She's dead for real and I hate it.

2. Richard III killing Anne in RICHARD III. Bastard.

3. Aufidius killing Martius in CORIOLANUS

4.) Claudius accidentally poisoning Gertrude in HAMLET (while trying to poison someone else).

5). Iago killing Emilia in OTHELLO. Emilia's fantastic!!! I hate it!!!!

6). Posthuman sends a literal assassin after innocent Imogen in CYMBELINE. He's lucky the assassin changes his mind and warns her!! He went a step even further than Leontes, but like Leontes, he his romantic partner lived. Speaking of....

THE UN-SPECIAL MURDEROUS MENTIONS :

Leontes comes awfully close in THE WINTER'S TALE to killing Hermione! Fortunately, he's able to hold himself back, putting her on trial instead of an actual assassin. She lives!!! It's OK!!!! I actually like Leontes, in the end!

In many RICHARD II productions, Aumerle kills Richard. The murderer in the play, Exton, comes out of nowhere at the final second, and it's kind of a letdown. Whereas Aumerle disappears after trying to put teh King (with whom he also has a homoerotic connection), and then being forced to swear loyalty to Henry IV. So it's much more compelling if he does it!

Lucrece Killing Tarquin IN the THE RAPE OF LUCRECE (one of the narrative poems). He saw her as a romantic interest. He's her rapist, and she does not see him that way. She kills him!!. It's a well-deserved, satisfying moment. That could do interesting things in a CELL BLOCK TANGO parody!

More than I thought, actually! Enough to do a CELL BLOCK TANGO parody even without the Un-Special Mentions, if you include Posthumus on "attempted". Oh, damn, now I hope someone does it....

[billy-the-bard]

"The Taming of the Shrew", 2020s.

shrew

[billy-the-bard]

big fan of shakespeare villains who step onto the stage and immediately announce “I am here and I am evil. I am here to do mischief.” and then that’s exactly what they do for the next two hours. no other motive is ever explained. at the end they fail. kings

[billy-the-bard]

it’s been said before but fortinbras pov really is the funniest thing. imagine you’re waging war on some country because their old king killed your dad and then you walk into their throne room and there’s 4 dead bodies and one guy who instantly says “i can explain”