Page 2 | Quick poll - would you take an under-11 to King Lear? Yes or no?

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Janh · 18/01/2006 11:55

Thank you, ladies! (NDP, DS2 would be too I think...)

Marina, I can't remember plots of Much Ado and As You Like It! Thanks for those thoughts - if recommendation was restricted to Y5 & Y6 then, would you think R&J, Macbeth and Tempest all OK? And Dream and Twelfth Night maybe for Y3 & Y4 as well?

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roosmum · 18/01/2006 11:57

bink, RIII is one of my top bard plays (with KL, of course), it's pretty dark tho!

agree with marina re tempest, bit lighter (& shorter).

NomDePlume · 18/01/2006 11:57

My DS2 would enjoy Macbeth (I did when I went to see it on a school trip in Y7), but the only thing that could persuade DS1 into the theatre is if 50Cent was playing Macduff

frogs · 18/01/2006 11:58

We took dd1 and a friend to see Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open -air theatre in Regents Park the summer they turned 9. It had Russ Abbott as Bottom, and they hammed the comedy tremendously. The girls were falling off their seats laughing, and I thought, what a brilliant introduction to Shakespeare. We recently went to Twelfth Night at the Strand theatre, which isn't a brilliant production (too clever for its own good) but I defy any under 10 not to be in hysterics at the bit where they're all bobbing up and down behind the hedge. Fab.

I'd go for comedy every time for their first shakespeare.

frogs · 18/01/2006 11:58

We took dd1 and a friend to see Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open -air theatre in Regents Park the summer they turned 9. It had Russ Abbott as Bottom, and they hammed the comedy tremendously. The girls were falling off their seats laughing, and I thought, what a brilliant introduction to Shakespeare. We recently went to Twelfth Night at the Strand theatre, which isn't a brilliant production (too clever for its own good) but I defy any under 10 not to be in hysterics at the bit where they're all bobbing up and down behind the hedge. Fab.

I'd go for comedy every time for their first shakespeare.

RTKangaMummy · 18/01/2006 11:58

Please would you be able to email me the details as well

cos by the time we get our primary times some of the shows have been and gone or tickets sold out

rtkangamummy at yahoo dot co uk

thank you

for herts/nw london/middlesex/buckinghamshire

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Janh · 18/01/2006 11:59

expat, I do love your responses to things! 'Man, that guy's got some issues.'

beety, I know, sorry about the S4K ref

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harpsichordcarrier · 18/01/2006 12:01

no me neither

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Janh · 18/01/2006 12:02

Kanga, I do Herts & Bucks, but not N London or W London/Middx; I can certainly email you what I do, but they have a website here which normally includes everything in the magazine and often some extras.

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Marina · 18/01/2006 12:03

Richard III Bink! Ds was mesmerised by a snippet of Laurence Olivier playing on an installation at the Tower of London.
Also agree that Regents' Park offers the best in accessible proper Shakespeare in London. Globe also worth it for the experience with the right play on...
Janh, Much Ado was recently reworked with the ginger sex bomb Damian Lewis and Sarah Parrish (hussy) for the BBC. Two ex-lovers with a cynical outlook on life are set up again by their family and friends and comically forced to concede they are each other's soul-mates. It is sparklingly funny and touching. But wasted on anyone under 30 IMO

Bink · 18/01/2006 12:03

R&J - OK, I guess, but I would actually save that till secondary, because you want to see it for the first time when you're exactly that age & full of your own tragic intensities.

Like Coriolanus should be saved till you're a young adult. And Ant & C till you're, oh, at least forty-five.

Frogs, v useful - will save that. They did a little pretend Dream at drama club in the summer, so already have a bit of a sense of what's going on.

One last thing: do you lot remember having to do Julius Caesar first at school? That was because it's the only one which has No Sex In It.

BirthdayBeetroot · 18/01/2006 12:05

took all mine to msnd at stratford lastyear and even my 6 year old was laughing.

Twelfth Night is great fun. Isn't The Tempest pretty long???

Bink · 18/01/2006 12:06

My own personal utter favourite is Richard II.

I wasted time - and now doth time waste me ...

RTKangaMummy · 18/01/2006 12:11

DEFFO BRILL site Thanks Jan

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Janh · 18/01/2006 12:14

Also, Kanga (and anyone else interested) - 2 great sites for finding out what's on in your area well ahead of time, so you should catch them before they're sold out:

whatsonstage
ents24

whatsonstage lets you search by county or town or venue, and for kids' shows/dance/music etc - with ents24 you have to scour the listings. Both very useful though.

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Marina · 18/01/2006 12:17

Richard II. Thanks to D Jacobi in gold brocade in the BBC Shakespeare aeons ago, I still feel a frisson of teenage passion when I so much as walk past the Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery (which I did on Monday on a school trip). Me: oooh, look, ds, Richard II! Ds: Can we PLEASE go and find Perseus and the Gorgon?
On a more constructive note people on this thread might be interested to know that the BBC have just reissued the entire 37-play BBC Shakespeare as a DVD boxed set. There are some total lemons in amongst them but some very good productions as well.

roosmum · 18/01/2006 12:18

& the award for best villain goes to...RIII!

love all the bits where the plays are self-conscious about being plays - esp in RIII, a character "Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time / Into this breathing world scarce half made up"

fab!

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Janh · 18/01/2006 12:20

Would that include the Shrew with John Cleese, Marina? Or is this a more recent lot?

Incidentally - last word on this particular Lear - it goes in "because the theatre has asked for it to be included". Hm.

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Nightynight · 18/01/2006 12:27

at my school, we performed Midsummer Nights Dream aged 11.
aged 12, we performed scenes from MacBeth.
and around 13 was Romeo & Juliet. Who got to play Juliet was a bit like who gets the Virgin Mary at primary school. (not me, either time needless to say) In fact, as far as I remember, I was the b**y narrator in R&J as well!!

I think Shakespeare is a bit lost on younger children though.

Marina · 18/01/2006 12:37

That's the set Janh. Also includes Helen Mirren as Rosalind in As You Like It, peerless DJ as Hamlet in black velvet, and a very good Lear actually! Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet stick in the mind as leaden studio-bound plods alas...

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Janh · 18/01/2006 12:39

Twelfth Night had Richard Briers as Malvolio IIRC?

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Bink · 18/01/2006 12:41

We did Merchant of Venice aged 11/12. The one Jewish girl in the class (all girls school) was told to read Shylock, and told it was.

Othello at 16. Teacher took O for himself, assigned parts, then "and that leaves Bink for the divine Desdemona". Quite different experience from your usual class reading.

motherinferior · 18/01/2006 12:42

Gorblimey. Do we thank him for your subsequent glittering academic achievements?

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Janh · 18/01/2006 12:44

oo-er, Bink. Did he have Humbert tendencies?

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Marina · 18/01/2006 12:44

No, it was Alec McCowen janh. You are maybe thinking of a very good Thames TV adaptation with Caroline Langrishe as Olivia.
The BBC one also had Felicity Kendall as Viola and direly bad scenery-chewing Robert Hardy as Sir Toby. Painful viewing.
I have the complete booklet at my elbow here so ask away for any others!
The Antony and Cleo was another highlight. Jane Lapotaire and the much-missed Colin Blakely. Jonathan Miller directed and I see that most of the ones that stand up today as worthwhile viewing were his productions.