tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post2567368489490307702..comments2024-02-08T05:04:18.484-08:00Comments on J'S THEATER: The Clintons-MacbethsJohn Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-73164081889711042852008-05-31T18:01:00.000-07:002008-05-31T18:01:00.000-07:00Keguro,I often look at the plays, particularly to ...Keguro,<BR/><BR/>I often look at the plays, particularly to study characterization, plotting, and the intricacies of the rhetoric, metaphor and symbolism, among other things. I particularly love how he shifts between verse and dramatic prose given the speakers, the circumstances, and the affect and dramatic effects he's aiming for. <I>Macbeth</I> is not his greatest, I know, but I cannot get enough of those two. And then there's the ever problematic <I>Othello</I>.... "It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,-- / Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!-- / It is the cause." How can any writer who cares about language not appreciate such gifts, whoever wrote them? Truly Shakespeare is inexaustible. I do love the sonnets too, though. I've taught them at the high school and undergraduate level, and look forward to the day when I can teach them at the graduate level.<BR/><BR/>I would love to have seen that performance. It sounds utterly fascinating, and there are several of his plays that offer interesting queer possibilities. Imagine <I>As You Like It</I> with the genders of all the performers switched, for example (this has probably been done umpteen time, hasn't it?).John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-16482257283069206502008-05-30T17:35:00.000-07:002008-05-30T17:35:00.000-07:00Chicago is off my list for the foreseeable future,...Chicago is off my list for the foreseeable future, unless I need a very cheap flight somewhere. <BR/><BR/>I honestly have not spent any time with any Shakespeare, apart from the sonnets, for more years than I should admit. With the sonnets, it's more the contemporaneity of sentiment rather than style or language that fascinates me. <BR/><BR/>The all-woman cast was fascinating; it made explicit, I think, the strange (queer) gender neutrality of Shakespeare's characters. Even Lady Macbeth, perhaps especially Lady Macbeth, seems oddly gendered, her body full not of "femininity," but all sorts of un-gendering, de-gendering substances. Perhaps?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-75447465435517487252008-05-27T12:03:00.000-07:002008-05-27T12:03:00.000-07:00Keguro, don't you think the English of Macbeth is ...Keguro, don't you think the English of <I>Macbeth</I> is pretty straightforward? He even creates numerous phrases we still use today, like the "be-all and end-all"! The man (or constellation of persons involved in the writing of these plays) deserves mega props, by any measure. But you are right...then again, people complain about Henry James. Or Herman Melville. Or Zora Neale Hurston. Or....<BR/><BR/>I didn't see the Henry IV all-women cast, and I wish I'd known about it. Are you still making periodic undercover visits this way?John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-4601456277128064232008-05-26T10:42:00.000-07:002008-05-26T10:42:00.000-07:00"Why didn't Shakespeare write in regular English? ..."Why didn't Shakespeare write in regular English? What's with this Olde English?"<BR/><BR/>I'm channeling a voice you've no doubt heard.<BR/><BR/>The breast passage is, like, one of my favorites. Or, since I rarely return to the plays, my favorite.<BR/><BR/>Did you see the Chicago/midwest Henry IV all women cast this spring? Or was that only available downstate?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com