Getting into Shakespeare

[Maninadirndl]

Well I am interested in the Bard but haven't read anything by him since pre-O level days.

I found this book in the local recycling place - "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" and I tried to wade in but found looking at text on a page somewhat dull and lifeless.

Has anyone put out Shakey's plays online for people to enjoy? I mean a radio type production downloadable off the Net?

@play@ is the operative word.

they were meant to be watched - get a dvd - he is fab and funny in a way i just wouldn't be able to read - i am a highly excellent reader - but i can't read shakespeare - my daughter OTOH loves reasing shakey. i think its a personal thing.

but go rent a dvd -

No-one reads Shakespeare and expects to enjoy it apart from those studying it.

It was definetly meant to be enjoyed as a live event. No substitute.

The BBC have done the lot on TV and radio. The TV ones are all available on DVD, I think. But a good theatre production is the best way.

Start with the 'meatier' ones - Othello, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, for example - rather than some of the harder ones, such as the history ones. Once you get into Shakespeare you can move on to those.

But I would really suggest that once you've seen one that you go back and read the play. They were meant to be acted out, but the language/writing is truly superb.

The Mel Gibson 'Hamlet' is a good starting point. Some probably wouldn't agree but I enjoyed it.

Zeffirelli's 'Romeo and Juiet' (the 60s version) is good too.

Yes, Gibson's Hamlet is surprisingly good.

Animated Shakespeare is good. 30 min animated versions. BBC I think. I bought the Tempest for my eldest 2 last year prior to going to see the play. It really helped them. They loved the play btw - outdoor production, with a picnic (that helped ).

Go and see a play. Tis the best way.

For those working in London EC4, there are currently two Shakespeare plays in shortened format at the Bridewell Theatre. Only £5 for 45 minutes of Shakespeare in your lunch hour!

I had this idea for some kind of viral craze where people downloaded texts of the play then recited them into their mobiles or microphones or whatever then it would get incorporated into a script and make a complete play. It could use the Audacity software.

Could become a craze, people speaking Shakespeare on a Tube or a bus and the whole play downloadable later when it was finished.

"Tis passing strange, my lord, this voice did speak
To th'assembled multitudes from a confin'd box,
The sound was like unto the speech of demons
Carried into the firmament on air."

Hey anyone got any Bardisms which might fit to parenting?

Obvious one which springs to mind is from King Lear: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child"!

"to sleep, perchance to dream?"

aye right!

The SAHM/WOHM debate might be livened up by Lady Macbeth

"I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
... and piled him off to nursery to get back to my high-powered job."

Or, we could have an AIBU from Macduff's mum: "AIBU to have my baby ripped untimely from the womb to give him the edge in any future battles with despots?"

Suck? Wouldnt say no to a bit of that.

I have only just found this thread!

"come what, come may, time and hour run through the roughest day"

From Macbeth. It runs through my head from time to time.

On the dreadful bad mothers thread on AIBU "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

They would have thought I was a loon if I'd posted that.