Sorry, my lips are foam-flecked and I must chew some carpet!

I didn't trust myself to write on this subject first thing this morning because the furies were upon me!  I had just read a description, rather than a critique, of Benedict Cumberbatch's preview opening of Hamlet.  Virtually the first thing I read was that the 'Directrice', a Ms. Lindsey Turner, had decided that she knew better than that country bumpkin from Stratford-on-Avon how the play should have been constructed.  Thus, her production opens with the famous 'To be or not to be' soliloquy which does not appear in the text until Act III.i.

Perhaps someone, Cumberbatch maybe, should tell this intensely stupid woman that she does not know better than 'our Will' and anyway, when we take out a second mortgage in order to see a London production, we want to see Shakespeare's play not hers!!!!!!!  (Uh-oh, temper, temper, time for my meds, I think!) The play is dressed, apparently, in a mixture of "old world European and modern".  Thus, at a stroke Ms. Lindsey 'thick-as-a-plank' Turner misses the great theme within this play which is the clash between Old Medieval Man (Laertes) and the New Renaissance Man (Hamlet).

After suffering through the first half (only!) of Ms. Blanche MacIntyre's destruction of Stoppard's greatest play, Arcadia, and having read the preliminary reports of Ms. Lindsey Turner's effort to correct Shakespeare's masterpiece, I do not think I will ever go to see a production of anything by a woman, well, perhaps a circus, possibly!

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

Calm thyself lest you be overtaken with a case of the vapors and begin throwing things.

[Uncle Mort]

I will speak daggers to her, but use none.

[David Duff]

If I was in the auditorium I would throw things, Whiters, I would!

And Uncle Mort, please, do use daggers - I'll hold your coat!

[Penseivat]

Quite a few years ago, went to the pictures (the cinema for those living in the south), and saw Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in "The Taming Of The Shrew". To the best of my memory, the introduction included, "By William Shakespeare", followed by "additional dialogue by" (then the name of some Hollywood scriptwriter). Additional dialogue to Shakespeare! It appears the lack of respect, or understanding, of the Bard, has crossed the Atlantic and been absorbed by some little known theatrical luvvies/numpties. I understand Bandersnatch received glowing reviews, but I bet he couldn't beat the performance given by a South London youth theatre 8 or 9 years ago, who did "A Midsummer Night's Dream" using Shakespeare's words in a rap style. Mesmerising!

[Whitewall]

David, I think you might be in good company?

[Mayfly]

I saw an eloquent interpretation of "A Midsummer night's dream" done via, of all things, a comic. Neil Gaiman's excellent series "The Sandman" covers an agreement between Morpheus of the Underworld, and William Shakespeare to write three plays for him. The highlight is the closing speech by Robin Goodfellow which was re-interpreted as a chilling reminder that fairies and mythical creatures can in fact be dark and menacing. The line "Else the Puck a liar call" is rendered as a "You're not going to dare to do that, are you?" one. Mind you, all this goes to prove that men can successfully put a new twist on Shakespeare and women can't (apparently), which is not where I was originally going... Have you never seen a successful, new vision of Shakespeare as produced by a woman, David? How about Prami's visionary adaptation of Shakespeare, lol?