Titania and the fairies
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
1935, dir. Max Reinhardt, William Dieterle
Bruce Horak (Hemmer from SNW) is in a Toronto Fringe show, and I have my ticket to see it tomorrow on opening night!
It's going to be...Hemmer time.
The play was a lot of fun! The premise (what if Juliet figured out she was in a play and decided not to stab herself, and then attempted to rescue the other women in Shakespeare consigned to unfortunate ends) was pure classic Fringe -- a Shakespeare riff, one person playing numerous characters, and everyone hamming it up with high energy in a delightful, rather than grating, way. Bruce as Shakespeare had a somewhat smaller part, and was largely the self-important villain trying to retrieve his collected works from the hands of Juliet, but was excellent. I particularly enjoyed when he disguised himself in turn as one of the Macbeth witches, Prospero, and Juliet's nurse.
Melissa Navia (Ortegas) was there to support him on opening night, which was super lovely. She sat a few rows behind us, and I resisted the urge to tell her how cool she is.
Star Trek got me through a pandemic without live, in-person theatre, and it was wonderful to combine the two on the first day of my first in-person Fringe in three years! Now, on to the next 40 shows.
And, most importantly (joke and SNW spoiler after the cut):
http://goodticklebrain.com/home/2019/7/9/malvolios-revolve
The joy of Shakespeare is that even if you see the same play dozens of times, each production is its own, unique experience.
Having said that… there are certain bits of stage business that often crop up in numerous productions. One of my favorites is Malvolio’s revolve.
Just for fun, here are various examples of Malvolio’s revolve that have been captured on film. (If the gifs don’t work, check out my original post here.)
Alec Guinness in the 1970 ITV Saturday Night Theatre production does the classic dubious, self-conscious revolve, although Sir Toby and his gang are safely behind a hedge and don’t have to hide.
Nicholas Pennell in this 1986 filmed production at the Stratford Festival of Canada executes a confident and rarely-seen double revolve, forcing his peanut gallery to duck out of sight.
In this filmed version of the Renaissance Theatre Company’s 1988 production, Richard Briers executes a very slow , dubious revolve that is notable for being counter-clockwise. In my experience, most Malvolios revolve in a clockwise direction.
Finally, this Stratford Festival production milks the revolve for all it’s worth, with Tom Rooney’s Malvolio turning at just the right speed to miss Sir Andrew’s desperate dash across the stage.
Some productions choose to have Malvolio turn the letter around, rather than himself. Others either blow past the line without acknowledging its comedic gag potential, or cut it in its entirety. All are valid choices, but honestly… why look a gift gag in the mouth?
“In my experience, most Malvolios revolve in a clockwise direction” is my new favorite blind of Shakespeare analysis
It’s because the play is more frequently performed north of the equator - in the southern hemisphere, the rotation of the earth causes actors in general and Malvolii in particular to prefer revolving counter-clockwise. This is particularly true of actors who have ever portrayed Caius Marcius or Menenius Agrippa, for reasons that are not yet well understood, and as such is commonly known as the Coriolanus Effect.
Paul Hogarth illustrations for New Penguin Shakespeare (1980s)
The Terror & Shakespeare’s sonnets ➢
‘My love is as a fever, longing still’ + Hickey/Gibson
make me choose ↳ Anonymous asked: Barty Crouch or Hamlet?
S’chn T’gai Spock: a Shakespeare Nerd
this is hands down my favorite line in julius caesar. he truly said i’m not going because i simply do not want to i’m sure that’s reason enough for the entire senate of the republic of rome
a close second is cassius and brutus bickering like an old married couple and then going straight back to being gay for each other in the next page
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The nature of humanity is that every so often someone accidentally invents Shakespeare again
Okay, I think this started as a joke post, but it’s actually a pretty good AND CULTURALLY ACCURATE translation?
Like, we think of Shakespeare as highbrow because he’s old. He wasn’t highbrow. If you’re reading the play in book form and you haven’t found a dick joke on any given page yet you’re either reading a specific passage in Macbeth, or you need liner notes. This is in fact pretty much how it would be written today.
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