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arishaNEW MEME! List all the Shakespeare plays you've read/seen on film/seen live!
Hamlet: I read it for school and I dunno, it's never been my favourite, although the Trojan War scene does get a thumbs-up from me. I've seen the Kenneth Branagh film, parts of the Mel Gibson film, and the Ethan Hawke film. Which was hilarious. If you've ever wanted to see the "to be or not to be" monologue performed in a Blockbuster, allow me to fulfill your dreams. I've also seen the Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead film, and it seriously depressed me for days. Isn't that movie supposed to be funny?!
Macbeth: I read it for school and really loved it. I've seen Throne of Blood, Kurosawa's film adaptation.
Othello: I've seen the Kenneth Branagh film, which I really enjoyed.
Romeo and Juliet: I read it for school. I've seen the Franco Zeffirelli film, the Baz Luhrmann film, a recording of the Yukio Ninagawa-directed performance, and the beginning of a French film adaptation which I didn't like much. And tonight I saw it live! I ... never know what to think about this play. Having said that, though, I just remembered my unending love for the French musical, my favourite song from which is Tybalt's "C'est le jour." It is entirely the fault of this musical that I always have issues pronouncing "Tybalt" the English way. D:
R&J gets another paragraph or two so I can mention some things about the production we saw tonight at the university. Benvolio was played by a woman which was kind of neat, and neither of the title characters were typically gorgeous which I thought was pretty awesome! The setting was changed to the Middle East, with the Montagues being Jewish, the Capulets being Muslim, the prince and his men being peacekeepers, and sand all over the stage, but I felt they could've done a lot more with this than they did. Mercutio's death, which is by far my favourite scene in the play, got totally shafted -- they had it right after the intermission, which my friends and I had spent joking and giggling, so we were definitely not in the right mood for it. They also cut a lot out of it! "A plague o' both your houses" was still intact, thank goodness, but my other favourite line ("Mercutio's soul / Is but a little way above our heads, / Staying for thine to keep him company: / Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him") was cut completely. Which sucks!! And definitely took away any of the suspense that the duel between Tybalt and Romeo might've had. haha, it especially sucks because the last version of R&J that I watched was the Baz Luhrmann version, where I thought this arc was done perfectly. Seriously: the rest of that movie mostly just weirded me out, yet it's the only time I've seen Mercutio and Tybalt's final scenes just as I've always imagined they should be.
Probably my most favourite part of the university's production, however, were the two characters who represented the sun and the moon (the set design was really cool, and allowed the sun character to climb up the back wall when it was daytime, and the moon character to climb up it when it was nighttime, as if they were each rising and setting). The sun spoke, with this crazy effect added onto her voice so that it always sounded like multiple people speaking, and so she was able to fill the roles of the narrator, the apothecary and a minor character in the party scene, with the moon always sitting nearby and occasionally mouthing the words along with her. Soooo cool! They each pulled an hourglass out of the sand at the very beginning of the play (they hid so many props in piles of sand around the stage, it was fantastic), turned them over (accompanied by a creepy hissing sound) each time a significant event took place, and then buried them in the sand again at the end. I'm not sure exactly what the significance or symbolism of these two were, but it doesn't even matter; I LOVED them. And their beautiful sparkling costumes didn't hurt. xD
hahaha, this reminds me of when we saw The Fantasticks and my favourite character by far was the Wall. Symbolic, mute characters with gorgeous costumes are apparently all right in my book!
Titus Andronicus: I've seen the Anthony Hopkins film and enjoyed it perhaps more than I should have, considering this is Shakespeare's bloodiest work.
As You Like It: I saw this live! And loved it. :D It was really awesome to see a Shakespeare play live without knowing anything about it. It definitely meant I had to pay more attention to the dialogue, difficult or not! xD
The Merchant of Venice: I've seen the Al Pacino film. Multiple times! I really enjoy this one, although, as with R&J, I'm always a little confused about the message it's trying to send.
The Taming of the Shrew: Uh ... I've seen 10 Things I Hate About You? Does that count? >xD
Troilus and Cressida: SHAKESPEARE DOES THE TROJAN WAR!! I've read large chunks of this, and finally own the BBC version on DVD. omg I really need to get around to watching this.
OMG that list is pathetic. I CHALLENGE YOU TO BEAT ME!!
I don't have an appropriate icon for this post so I'm just gonna use my sparkling new New Moon icon. :D Now off I go to work on the shirt I'm gonna wear to opening night!! (Exit, pursued by a bear.)
Hamlet: I read it for school and I dunno, it's never been my favourite, although the Trojan War scene does get a thumbs-up from me. I've seen the Kenneth Branagh film, parts of the Mel Gibson film, and the Ethan Hawke film. Which was hilarious. If you've ever wanted to see the "to be or not to be" monologue performed in a Blockbuster, allow me to fulfill your dreams. I've also seen the Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead film, and it seriously depressed me for days. Isn't that movie supposed to be funny?!
Macbeth: I read it for school and really loved it. I've seen Throne of Blood, Kurosawa's film adaptation.
Othello: I've seen the Kenneth Branagh film, which I really enjoyed.
Romeo and Juliet: I read it for school. I've seen the Franco Zeffirelli film, the Baz Luhrmann film, a recording of the Yukio Ninagawa-directed performance, and the beginning of a French film adaptation which I didn't like much. And tonight I saw it live! I ... never know what to think about this play. Having said that, though, I just remembered my unending love for the French musical, my favourite song from which is Tybalt's "C'est le jour." It is entirely the fault of this musical that I always have issues pronouncing "Tybalt" the English way. D:
R&J gets another paragraph or two so I can mention some things about the production we saw tonight at the university. Benvolio was played by a woman which was kind of neat, and neither of the title characters were typically gorgeous which I thought was pretty awesome! The setting was changed to the Middle East, with the Montagues being Jewish, the Capulets being Muslim, the prince and his men being peacekeepers, and sand all over the stage, but I felt they could've done a lot more with this than they did. Mercutio's death, which is by far my favourite scene in the play, got totally shafted -- they had it right after the intermission, which my friends and I had spent joking and giggling, so we were definitely not in the right mood for it. They also cut a lot out of it! "A plague o' both your houses" was still intact, thank goodness, but my other favourite line ("Mercutio's soul / Is but a little way above our heads, / Staying for thine to keep him company: / Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him") was cut completely. Which sucks!! And definitely took away any of the suspense that the duel between Tybalt and Romeo might've had. haha, it especially sucks because the last version of R&J that I watched was the Baz Luhrmann version, where I thought this arc was done perfectly. Seriously: the rest of that movie mostly just weirded me out, yet it's the only time I've seen Mercutio and Tybalt's final scenes just as I've always imagined they should be.
Probably my most favourite part of the university's production, however, were the two characters who represented the sun and the moon (the set design was really cool, and allowed the sun character to climb up the back wall when it was daytime, and the moon character to climb up it when it was nighttime, as if they were each rising and setting). The sun spoke, with this crazy effect added onto her voice so that it always sounded like multiple people speaking, and so she was able to fill the roles of the narrator, the apothecary and a minor character in the party scene, with the moon always sitting nearby and occasionally mouthing the words along with her. Soooo cool! They each pulled an hourglass out of the sand at the very beginning of the play (they hid so many props in piles of sand around the stage, it was fantastic), turned them over (accompanied by a creepy hissing sound) each time a significant event took place, and then buried them in the sand again at the end. I'm not sure exactly what the significance or symbolism of these two were, but it doesn't even matter; I LOVED them. And their beautiful sparkling costumes didn't hurt. xD
hahaha, this reminds me of when we saw The Fantasticks and my favourite character by far was the Wall. Symbolic, mute characters with gorgeous costumes are apparently all right in my book!
Titus Andronicus: I've seen the Anthony Hopkins film and enjoyed it perhaps more than I should have, considering this is Shakespeare's bloodiest work.
As You Like It: I saw this live! And loved it. :D It was really awesome to see a Shakespeare play live without knowing anything about it. It definitely meant I had to pay more attention to the dialogue, difficult or not! xD
The Merchant of Venice: I've seen the Al Pacino film. Multiple times! I really enjoy this one, although, as with R&J, I'm always a little confused about the message it's trying to send.
The Taming of the Shrew: Uh ... I've seen 10 Things I Hate About You? Does that count? >xD
Troilus and Cressida: SHAKESPEARE DOES THE TROJAN WAR!! I've read large chunks of this, and finally own the BBC version on DVD. omg I really need to get around to watching this.
OMG that list is pathetic. I CHALLENGE YOU TO BEAT ME!!
I don't have an appropriate icon for this post so I'm just gonna use my sparkling new New Moon icon. :D Now off I go to work on the shirt I'm gonna wear to opening night!! (Exit, pursued by a bear.)