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Awhile back, I talked about a couple of Shakespeare's plays being noir. Actually, a lot of his plays are noir. The Merchant of Venice, of course, tops the list and was my original reason for posting. At the time, I was reading my way through the plays.
In the comments, someone said Shakespeare was meant to be seen, not read. That was a "Well, duh" moment for me. I've seen Richard III and The Tempest as done by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival years back, both excellently done. But I thought, I've only seen a handful of these as movies. So I made this my project for the year: See all of Shakespeare's plays on YouTube or as a movie. As of this writing, I have four left: The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, Henry VIII, and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Included was Edward III, which, until the 1990s, was not considered one of his. A handful are still questioned as his, most notably Pericles.
Because some plays aren't as well-known as others, it becomes hard to look for versions online. Some, like the Henry VI trilogy, varied wildly between an RSC television special from the 1960s to a youth Shakespeare camp to a local Shakespeare company doing a table read over Zoom. The last was actually kind of fun to watch.
Of course, there were the classic movies, like Pacino's turn as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. My favorite remains Ian McKellan's take on Richard III. But the biggest surprise to me was Joel Coen's MacBeth, with Denzel Washington in the title role. (Talk about Shakespeare as noir!)
In having to comb YouTube for some of the plays (I didn't want to spend money on a Britbox or Marqee subscription.), I've found the plays filmed on stage to be uneven in quality. Some of this, of course, was the ability of the actors. One, MIT's reality-show take on Timon of Athens. Then acting and editing were...Let's call it an acquired taste. But the concept worked rather well. Some had a lot of heart and some great performances, but were not exactly Wil's best. In particular, it's obvious why Edward III took so long to be included in Shakespeare's canon. It's Shakespearean in style, but the story begins with the titular Edward wooing Joan of Kent while the back half is about the Black Prince, though said Black Prince is offstage for most of it. Shakespeare would likely have focused on Prince Edward.
So, should one read or watch Shakespeare's plays? Oh, watch is definitely preferred. How else can you see Falstaff, the Bard's prototype for Harry Mudd and other rogues? But reading the Henry Trilogy (and The Merry Wives of Windsor) can be fun, especially if you read Sir John's lines aloud? I wish this binge included a turn by Brian Blessed as Falstaff. He's an obnoxious lout, but he's my favorite recurring Shakespeare character.
Jim, one other factor you don't mention is the ability and knowledge of the DIRECTOR. I've seen Shakespearean productions that were a disaster because the director was out of his element. The Hartford Stage Company produced The Comedy of Errors back in the 1990s, and Roger Rees was supposed to direct, but at the last minute he had to cancel and the theater brought in a director who only did contemporary plays. He wasn't comfortable or familiar with Will's language and stagecraft, and it showed.
ReplyDeleteMark Lamos directed Shakespeare well and often, but his replacement (I won't name him) tried a Macbeth that was so bad half the audience left the preview at intermission. The older couple sitting ahead of me stayed (I did, too) because I overheard the woman say, "Well, I'm curious to see how they screw up the sleep-walking scene." Really.
A director tries to get the best cast possible, of course. But then it's his job to help everyone look his or her best and serve the intention of the playwright. Any playwright.
John Patrick Shanley was once asked why he had started directing many of his plays, and his answer was "Because about 75% of the directors out there are incompetent."
Jim, you make me realize how lucky I am to have seen so very many of Shakespeare's plays on an actual stage. I remember being a high school kid seeing Othello at Shakespeare in Central Park in 1958 (their second season), with Kathleen Widdoes as Desdemona and James Earl Jones as a spear carrier (I know because a classmate, who was volunteering backstage, had a crush on him). I remember Len Cariou as the young King Henry V (you know him as "Pops" aka Henry Reagan, Tom Selleck's dad in Blue Bloods) in the Sixties. I've seen many of the plays over the years at the Public Theater and on Broadway in New York, at the faux Globe at Stratford, Connecticut (destoyed by fire in 2019), and in London and maybe in Stratford Upon Avon (memory not perfect!) on visits to the UK. I've seen the Winter's Tale ("exit, pursued by a bear," the best stage direction in the history of drama) twice and Titus Andronicus (yuck) onstage. And I played Lady Capulet in a production of Romeo and Juliet as a freshman at Brandeis University long before they had a fancy theater and hosted Broadway tryouts (bitch of a part, terrible lines). I still remember much of the play verbatim from the endless rehearsals.
ReplyDeleteLiz, I loved Stratford. I saw Lynne Redgrave as Viola in Twelfth Night, James Earl Jones as Othello, Fred Gwynne as Claudius in Hamlet (with Christopher Walken). At Hartford Stage, I saw Richard Thomas as Richard III, Jake Appelbaum in my favorite production of Hamlet, and several other good productions and actors. There's no bigger thrill than acting in a Shakespearean play with a good director...except maybe directing one with a really good cast. I've been lucky enough to have it both ways, too.
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