Is Shakespeare "as boring as bat shit "?
Sun, 9 Nov 2008, 10:00 pmstinger102 posts in thread
Is Shakespeare "as boring as bat shit "?
Sun, 9 Nov 2008, 10:00 pmWhen I was in high school and Shakespeare was compulsory, I used to love the stories (plenty of sex and violence) but hated the language. Why could he have not said the same thing in plain and simple words? And why should we Aussies have to learn about old Pommie poets anyway?
When I was at uni in the 70s, I had a small part in the scottish play. I had one long speech to remember. It was most daunting, until it was pointed out to me that it was written in iambic pentameter, so that once the actor got into the rhythm, the actual words just seemed to flow.
As I matured, I began to appreciate the whole canon more and more. I realised that Shakespeare had contibuted more to the development of the English language than any other single person (with the possible exception of Chaucer). Moreover, it was not only great literature, but if you could tap into the language, it was great theatre as well.
Nowadays, it stikes me that any theatre actor worth his or her salt has done, and yearns to do more Shakespeare, as an important aspect of their artistic development. Not only that, but the plays never seem to lose their audience appeal.
Finally, I regard myself as a devotee of Australian dramatic works and historical narratives. I value our national heritage to the point of jingoism. Having said that, I regard Shakespeare as just as much a part of our heritage as Britain's.
I therefore categorically disagree with the above proposition.
Here's where we think the
Wed, 12 Nov 2008, 10:45 amHere's where we think the whole Macbeth superstition came from. Being Shakespeare's shortest play and the one with arguably the most violence (except for Titus Andronicus) it was always guarenteed to draw a crowd. So when rep. companies were facing hard time financially they would do a revival of Macbeth in order to generate some income quick. However due to lack of funds the play was quite often badly rehearsed and with loads of fight scenes it really was an accident waiting to happen... and it did. So Actors being the wonderful superstitious creatures that they are and sailors (back in the day they would have also had sailors who were on leave as Crew (Which is why its called crew, rigging etc.))who were worse probably came to the conclusion due to the "infernal" utterances of the play that it was cursed by bad spirits.
Having said all this without exception every time someone has uttered macbeth in a theatre or in rehearsal the show has then been plagued by a large number of mishaps... for example Freddy Badgery and I were doing The Tempest and back stage cast members had been uttering Macbeth and low and behold that night the lights in explicably went out, I nearly fell down a large whole and there was a loose nail which jammed itself intoa cast members foot... then again we were at rechabites!!!
Anyway out of respect to my fellow actors and my predecessors(sp?) I will not utter Macbeth. Besides everyone loves a Ghost story and who are we to ruin it for them!
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