#shakespeares rose theatre

[cutebottledspider]

Thy mother felt more than a mother’s pain,  And yet brought forth less than a mother’s hope:  To wit, an indigested and deformèd lump,  Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree.  Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born  To signify thou cam’st to bite the world.  And if the rest be true which I have heard,  Thou cam’st—

Henry VI part III (Act 5, scene 6)

[pegasusdrawnchariots]

Rhyme as Romance in Theatre

Rhyme between two characters is a tool in theatre to show how compatible they are or that they're on the same wavelength or something similar. Possibly the most famous example is the sonnet that Romeo & Juliet form when they first meet in Shakespeare's eponymous play, included here for reference:

Steamy! Two characters meet & they fall into the same meter? Not only that but they rhyme with each other? Not only THAT but they form a perfect sonnet of all things? Bravo, Mr Shakespeare...

But I'm not here to talk about them. I'm here to talk about a far more overlooked instance of stichomythic rhyme in a romantic tragicomedy that conveys the same ideas — that two characters know each other VERY well & are highly compatible — but that also involves a Whole Third Guy.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the love triangle of all time, allow me to introduce the three romantic leads from Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac: Cyrano, Roxane, & Christian. (For those who are familiar, feel free to skip the indented text.)

Cyrano & Christian are both in love with Roxane, who has known Cyrano since childhood but who is in love with Christian. Cyrano, who has kept his feelings for Roxane hidden from them both for fear of being mocked for his large nose, offers his poetic talent to help the handsome Christian, who is awful at wooing women, win Roxane over. (And if this means Roxane finally gets to hear how Cyrano feels, even if the words aren't attributed to him, well, would that be so bad?)

The two gentlemen team up, deciding to be each other's half in forming a romantic hero fit for the ages — Cyrano the eloquence, Christian the beauty. And it works! Roxane talks to Christian (who has memorised lines from Cyrano) and reads Christian's letters (ghostwritten by Cyrano) and falls in love with him! Or is it technically with Cyrano? Both? Neither? Hmm...

Which brings me to the poetry.

The fast-paced exchange here is not a meetcute as it is in Romeo & Juliet, we are well past that & over the half-way mark of the play by this stage. In this exchange, Christian & Roxane have gotten married only moments ago but the two lads are being sent off to war... Cyrano is trying to drag him out of Roxane's arms & Roxane keeps yanking Christian back, the childhood friends sharing this exchange over their tug-of-war with an interestingly silent Christian stuck in the middle:

(The top extract is the original rhyming French in lovely alexandrins, by Edmond Rostand. The first English translation is faithful to the original text literally but does not rhyme, by Charles Renauld. The second English translation is more liberal and does rhyme, by Anthony Burgess of A Clockwork Orange fame.)

Now, I have to admit that the presence of rhyme in and of itself is not so particularly interesting in this exchange because ALL of the play Cyrano de Bergerac is written in verse (!!) but there IS something in this exchange that does not appear in Shakespeare's sonnet...

Cyrano & Roxane are not only having a full conversation while dragging Christian back & forth, they are not only rhyming at the same time, but they are also finishing each other's lines & prompting each other's rhymes simultaneously. A wonderful combination of stichomythia & rhyme 🥳 (Romeo & Juliet features a milder version of this, in which each character gives a complete quatrain before they start matching rhymes a line at a time to show us that they're clicking the longer they speak.) You can see it most clearly in Burgess's translation above, in which the lines are spaced out to make the meter clearer, that they pick up where the other left off & finish the line in a rhyme before continuing.

Even better, almost all of Cyrano de Bergerac is written in couplets, as anglophones can see with "try/dry" at the top of Burgess again. However, Burgess takes his translation one step further in its rhyme scheme during this exchange. By the end, Cyrano & Roxane have completed a full ABAB quatrain. A quatrain may not be as technically impressive or as romantic as a sonnet but it is more so than a couplet, and hey, they're being dragged off to die in a war! The quatrain is appropriately short to squeeze in during the hectic rush & leaves this moment of poetic & therefore cerebral connection between Cyrano & Roxane as the last words we hear before the act ends.

(Let me praise Burgess briefly in this aside. There is one more instance of him deviating from the original couplet rhyming scheme during one of Cyrano's monologues. Cyrano gets caught up in a daydream of Roxane's beauty and Burgess has him slip into a Petrarcan sonnet without even realising it... Aww <3)

The most intriguing part, however, is the content of their conversation. Cyrano & Roxane are not flirting about holding hands & kissing the way Romeo & Juliet are. They are talking about a Whole Third Guy.

Christian — poor Christian — is the subject of this conversation! While being dragged around like a rag doll! Roxane pulls him towards her & begs Cyrano to promise to keep him safe during the war. Cyrano pulls him towards HIM & does his best to make those promises, only becoming still at the final one for obvious reasons (💌).

When I said "love triangle" at the start of this post, I really meant it! This is not a jealousy angle, with two guys who dislike each other fighting over the same girl. The play, for better or worse, does not let any of the three couples be Together & happy for more than a few moments, but to me that is only further support to the threesome argument...

If you need further convincing, know that the next time we see Cyrano, he is A) in between delivering a love letter to Roxane & writing her his next one, & B) fretting over Christian going hungry & calling him handsome.

And if you STILL need further convincing, please enjoy the 2015 production's blocking of the stichomythic promise exchange:

(Roxane in the gown, Christian in the cape, Cyrano in the nose!)

[the-tenth-arcanum]

honestly shakespeare really went off when he wrote the scene in which richard murders henry vi in the tower. it's so so good

[shakespearenews]

William Shakespeare is headed back to the big screen again. Bernard Rose (Immortal Beloved) is writing to direct Lear, Rex…, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Al Pacino will star as the title character, and Jessica Chastain will star as Goneril. Other cast to follow soon.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

alright henry vi: house of lancaster (english shakespeare company) let’s go

thank you @shredsandpatches

[twistedtummies2]

Since you're now familiar with "Requiem of the Rose King" too, have you thought of doing a ranking for your favorite potrayals of the Richard III?

Yes and no. The chances are good I'll do some lists related to Shakespeare in the future - I've had the idea in my head for a while - but if I do one for Richard III as a character (which is likely), I don't think I'd include the version from "Requiem of the Rose King" there. Why? Because Requiem's Richard is REQUIEM'S Richard, not Shakespeare's. That's kind of the point. XD Requiem is inspired by and reimagined from the Bard's treatment of Richard's story, but the way it depicts the characters is entirely its own. So it doesn't seem fair to me to count that one, much as I wouldn't count Vincent Price or Basil Rathbone from the two versions of "Tower of London." Again, those movies are influenced by Shakespeare, certainly, but I don't think either really can be counted as proper adaptations/productions of the famous playwright's work.

[frogshunnedshadows]

Meticulous archaeology of The Rose playhouse, circa 1590 to 1600, just outside London, used to make some very elaborate 3D modeled interiors, exteriors, and environs. With stills and a short movie.

[parallel-system]

I’m doing a production of Bye Bye Birdie and I’m playing Rose, and I’m also queer, and headcannon Rose as a queer woman (unlabeled but demiromantic + bi leaning) and I get to do the office look out to the audience when Albert does something dumb

Horatio, and only Horatio, will often look directly into the audience like he's on the office whenever Hamlet starts acting weird.

[vr1srezi]

Your Davejade college au is actually perfection despite not being in college I’ve been doing Shakespeare since I was like 8 and the way I started tweaking when I read scansion in your fic was insane i got like flashbacks but enough about Shakespeare (although I could go on forever about the man who has for some unknown reason impacted my freshman and sophomore years of high school more than I’d like to admit) the way you write jade and Dave is actually so insanely good like I truly did believe Dave was a Shakespeare nerd and I can only hope and dream that you will write more davejade fics because i am starved of good fics for them

aw lmao thank you :) that fic was honestly me just like, having a fun silly breezy time & being extremelyy self-indulgent haha. though less explicitly romance, I do have two other fics that center jade & dave's relationship pretty heavily if you're interested: a prose piece called some dark state between, and (probably my most well-known work) my surrealist jade play At Rise. Both are pretty old and, honestly, I've grown considerably as a writer in both taste & craft in the years since posting them, but some people still seem to like them, so 🤷

I fear I cannot promise any more davejade in the future unless someone commissions me to write it (which can be done! it would delight me in fact! commission info is linked in my pinned!) but I would like to continue my series of surrealist plays about homestuck women eventually (once i'm freed from the trenches of writing formally experimental volleyball anime yaoi...). next up is vriska play i think...

[willstafford]

So Lear, So Far

KING LEAR Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, Saturday 16th November 2024 When I heard the Crescent’s production of King Lear was going to have an LGBTQ+ flavour, I thought, This could go either way.  So to speak.  As it turns out, the production has very little that is obviously queer about it.  I wasn’t expecting Regan and Goneril to be bitter drag queens – although that would bring them closer to…

[insanityclause]

“We are the only love-gods”, declares Don Pedro to Claudio and Leonato — with some flourish — in this effervescent staging of Much Ado About Nothing. Correction, gentlemen. I think you’ll find Jamie Lloyd, who directed this glorious production of Shakespeare’s romcom, is the Cupid of the moment. From start to finish, the show is a joy: a love song to the exhilaration, pain and giddy nonsense of passion, with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell absolutely acing it at the helm.

Lloyd unclips the play from its Italian setting and styles it as a kind of Nineties rave with its own lovestruck landscape (designed by Soutra Gilmour). Rosy confetti rains down on the performers, settling into sweet pink drifts across the stage; a giant inflatable heart rises above the action like a moon; the drama is punctuated by serious consumption of shots, delirious dancing to club hits and Mason Alexander Park singing soulful covers.

Gone is the war — here the men strut into the arena to the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)”. Gone, too, is the subplot involving the officious officer-of-the-law Dogberry, which makes for a rather abrupt resolution of the drama. We lose too the potential social commentary embedded in the tale. But the result is a fleet, focused and very funny production that, amid all the riotous partying, charts beautifully the play’s soaring highs and darker depths.

At its heart is the “merry war” between Beatrice and Benedick, the couple who protest their loathing of each other, all the while yearning for connection. Atwell and Hiddleston are superb, throwing some fabulous shapes and bringing pinpoint timing to their characters’ quicksilver wit, but also picking their way poignantly through the couple’s warring emotions.

Mara Huf as Hero and James Phoon as Claudio © Marc Brenner

Hiddleston’s Benedick is impishly charming, savouring his own waggishness, flirting with the audience — “Certain I am loved of all ladies”, he says, with a saucy wink at the stalls — and rolling beneath piles of confetti as he attempts to conceal himself to overhear the conspirators. But he’s also immensely touching in his astonishment that Beatrice may care for him — “Love me?” he whispers. “Why?” — and quietly sincere in his resolution to avenge Claudio’s wronging of Hero.

Atwell responds with a Beatrice of mercurial intelligence and emotional truth. In a brilliant move, she doesn’t hide to eavesdrop on her fate, but stands, motionless, her conflicting feelings scudding across her face. Tiny shifts in her voice and body language betray to us the hurt within and the way she projects insouciant wit to protect her heart.

The irony is that, beneath their prickly exteriors, these two care deeply for one another, whereas love’s young dream, in the shape of the impetuous Claudio (James Phoon) and eager Hero (Mara Huf), evaporates at the first hurdle. Claudio’s cruel jilting of Hero is a terrible moment, Shakespeare reminding you that, banter aside, mistrust between men and women can have devastating consequences. Lloyd manages the shift skilfully: there’s a sudden iciness and, for the first time, the confetti stops falling.

And there are many thorns among these roses: we notice Gerald Kyd’s Prince, drowning loneliness in drink, and Tim Steed as his “villainous” brother, playing up to the role expected. Heartbreak, hope, healing — it’s all here in this gorgeous, big-hearted production.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[cutebottledspider]

✦ Arthur Hughes as Richard of Gloucester in HENRY VI, PART III (Wars of the Roses) at the RSC.

✦ Act V, scene 6.

[haru-dipthong]

Ep 13 of my Utena fansub is out! (end of the first arc)

Since this is a summary episode that’s essentially a clip show, there isn’t too much for me to comment on translation-wise. I did notice while I was copying lines from older episodes though, none (or almost none) of the recorded lines in this episode are recycled from older episodes. They say the same words, but they’re all alternate takes. I wonder why it was done like this… surely it would have been easier to just recycle the exact clips. Sometimes they don’t even say the same words! On my first watch, I remember being surprised that I didn’t feel bored watching this clip episode, and I think that might be part of the reason - none of the audio is exactly the same as the actual episodes.

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ついに彼女は七番目の試練、自分という名の決闘にも勝ち抜いたわけだ。

It seems she has passed the seventh trial, the Duel by the name of Self.

I find the phrasing of the Japanese in this line a little bit strange - the grammar という is often used to say that something is called a particular name, but when translating to English it sometimes makes sense to ignore this particular grammar and just say “the X of Y” or something similar instead of “the X called Y”, which can sound a bit verbose at times. In this case though, the verbosity is warranted, because Akio is literally saying that the duel is titled “Self”, with the word 名.

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勝てば官軍、負ければダボハゼ、歩く姿は百合の花！

The shadow girls are having fun with proverbs here. They’re intentionally getting the proverbs all mixed up and wrong.

One of the original proverbs they’re referencing is 勝てば官軍、負ければ賊軍 — literally “if you win, you’re the loyalist army, if you lose, you’re the rebel army”. Or as we say in English “history is written by the victors”. They substitute 賊軍 (”zokugun” lit. rebel army) for ダボハゼ (”dabohaze” lit. goby, the species of fish, which is also an insult like “worthless”) for a gag and to indicate that they’re not remembering the proverbs correctly.

The other proverb they’re mixing up is 立てば芍薬、座れば牡丹、歩く姿は百合の花 — “When she stands she’s like the shakuyaku (Chinese peony), when she sits she’s like the botan (tree peony), when she walks she is as the lily”. If you can read Japanese, you can see that these two proverbs have a similar structure and ring to them which makes it plausible yet funny that the girls have crossed a war proverb with a poetic line about beauty.

So, when translating this, how are you meant to do it? Well, one option is you could translate everything literally.

If you win, you are loyal. If you lose, you are a goby. And if you walk, you are as the lily!

or

The victor writes the record, the loser is a flop, and when she walks she is as the lily!

But I don’t like this approach. The actual meaning of the proverbs isn’t the main point of this line. The point is that it’s funny that they’re mixing up two very different lines, and that the references to proverbs are meant to induce a particular feeling, rather than a particular meaning. In order for it to land, the audience needs to be at least passingly familiar with the references, and they definitely won’t be familiar with a foreign proverb translated into English.

I decided to use Shakespeare, since the girls often reference theatre tropes and are themselves “on stage” within the narrative. I took two lines from Romeo and Juliet:

These violent delights have fishy ends. And a rose by any other name would smell as sweet!

This fulfils my requirements, and it even keeps the flower references in the second half (and I got to make it a ROSE instead of a lily!!). I spent an hour on this bloody line so you better appreciate it! T_T

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Thanks as always to @dontbe-lasanya for their editing!

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[the-tenth-arcanum]

btw the streaming platform marquee.tv currently has a "99p for 3 months*" deal. they have theatre plays, operas, ballet, etc.

*(99p for each month. might be UK only I've not checked.)

[shakespearenews]

“In a sense, we’re still fighting the Wars of the Roses,” smiles Philippa Gregory, the bestselling historical novelist, of this enduring factionalism. There is even a Richard III Society, dedicated to rehabilitating his reputation. “That’s a very unusual thing for a historical figure to have.”

Devoted Ricardians will no doubt be thrilled by her latest work: Richard, My Richard is Gregory’s debut play, and sees Richard III rising from his grave in a car park in Leicester, and arguing with the embodied figure of History, in an attempt to clear his name. It opens at Shakespeare North Playhouse this week.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

alright henry vi: house of york let’s get it

@shredsandpatches