Shakespearean "translations"

[Artoriarius]

Nice "slippery slope" fallacy there! But by "highbrow literature" rut, I meant that people tend to see Shakespeare as highbrow literature - some grand, glorious thing that needs to be studied to understand, usually in boring high school literature classes that nobody enjoys. It's not; it's entertainment for the masses, and a modernisation can make people who used to read the plays with boredom in school see them in a new light. Think of it as another way of interpreting the plays for the audience. And just as performing Richard III with an actual disabled person playing the titular king (as happened on Broadway a few years back) didn't mean every performance thereafter required one person to act the king and one to speak his lines; just as sign language versions haven't changed the way the actors move during regular performances; and just as Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet didn't make every performance of Romeo and Juliet afterward include guns and gangsters; modernisations aren't going to replace the plays. They're just one more of a myriad of ways to perform, understand, and enjoy the Bard's work.

 

[hitmouse]

I'd love to see a photo.

Google Maps

Rhyddings House, Brynmill

This is a strange rather ugly building. It’s pebble-dashed exterior is tinged grey with neglect. The front garden is unkempt and there’s a red boat in the far corner of the garden. I noticed …

emmafcownie.com

To boldly bowdlerize – Thomas Bowdler and the Swansea connection

The idea for a watered down version of Shakespeare had been in Bowdler's mind for years, ever since his own father had first read him the plays during his childhood.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Extollager]

Hitmouse, one of the nifty things about Chrons is conversation like this, with such unforeseen and worthwhile bits of learning.

"And whatever you feel about the process, what Bowdler did do was to make Shakespeare's works accessible, particularly to children. And that is something to be applauded." I wondered if Dr. Bowdler's versions were ever professionally performed. That reminds me that, for a great many people throughout the years, Shakespeare has been someone you read, not someone whose work you saw performed. That has conduced to the recognition of the man as a great poet, in that perusal in the study or the parlor allowed reflection on his work that, for recent audience at least, would hardly be possible if seeing and hearing the plays performed. But then I wonder if many members of his original audiences possessed a capacity of attention that has been lost to nearly everyone for many, many years.