Alas poor Yorick! - i knew him

hello!


quick photo share of my lovely Abi being Hamlet in Urban Outfitters!

this amused me very much indeed....and in true Bard Geek fashion i am sharing it with you...

Peace Out

Sam
x

Twelfth Night: The Bards Transvestite Comedy

'If music be the food of love play on' Twelfth Night Act 1 Scene 1

Hello!


I have finished Twelfth Night ...it felt a little speedy for a Bard play but after hiking through Hamlet previous i suppose anything would feel brief! its strange actually because it took me a little while to edge my self back into a less high voltage piece, at first i felt a little board...but it didn't last long - Twelfth Night is belter!


I found this lovely photo of Anne Hathaway playing Viola...she is so beautiful!

                                       Anne Hathaway: Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The title Twelfth Night is thought to have come from the celebration of the twelfth night after Christmas, where social conformity's are turned up side down. Well that's the case for sure, this play turns social classes and gender on its head. Woman pretending to be men (the beautiful and smart Viola sports a pain of trousers and 'does it like a brother, does it like a dude*) and the upper class shack up with the lower class (Maria and Sir Toby and Olivia and Sebastian). It challenges lots of social stereotyping and i like the fact that it explores lots different pairings, friendships and human interaction (whether it be pleasant interaction or not in the case of Maria and Malvolio).

* 'Do it like a dude'- Jessie J 

The sheer amount of mistaken identity had me a little boggled on a few occasions but i think i finally got it:


 - Viola to be Cesario but gets mistaken for her brother Sebastian
 - Sebastian in turn gets mistaken for Viola (Cesario) by Olivia
 - Feste pretends to be Sir Topas to fool poor Malvolio (i feel a bit sorry for Malvolio - but i will get to that)
 - Antonio thinks that Viola (Cersario) is Sebastian


...i think that is all of them (is there more???)...i really enjoyed the freedom that the Bard gives the characters to explore gender, love and friendship in a non-restricted heterosexual  way, particularly the friendship between Anthony and Sebastian. It is quiet clear that Anthony has strong feelings for Sebastian and although not completely reciprocated its a really interesting dynamic for the play.


I first noticed this blossoming in Act 2 Scene 1:


ACT II
SCENE I. The sea-coast.

Enter ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN
ANTONIO
Will you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you?

SEBASTIAN
By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly over
me: the malignancy of my fate might perhaps
distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your
leave that I may bear my evils alone: it were a bad
recompense for your love, to lay any of them on you.
ANTONIO: Let me yet know of you whither you are bound.

SEBASTIAN
No, sooth, sir: my determinate voyage is mere
extravagancy. But I perceive in you so excellent a
touch of modesty, that you will not extort from me
what I am willing to keep in; therefore it charges
me in manners the rather to express myself. You
must know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian,
which I called Roderigo. My father was that
Sebastian of Messaline, whom I know you have heard
of. He left behind him myself and a sister, both
born in an hour: if the heavens had been pleased,
would we had so ended! but you, sir, altered that;
for some hour before you took me from the breach of
the sea was my sister drowned.

ANTONIO
Alas the day!

SEBASTIAN
A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled
me, was yet of many accounted beautiful: but,
though I could not with such estimable wonder
overfar believe that, yet thus far I will boldly
publish her; she bore a mind that envy could not but
call fair. She is drowned already, sir, with salt
water, though I seem to drown her remembrance again with more.

ANTONIO
Pardon me, sir, your bad entertainment.

SEBASTIAN
O good Antonio, forgive me your trouble.

ANTONIO
If you will not murder me for my love, let me be
your servant.

SEBASTIAN
If you will not undo what you have done, that is,
kill him whom you have recovered, desire it not.
Fare ye well at once: my bosom is full of kindness,
and I am yet so near the manners of my mother, that
upon the least occasion more mine eyes will tell
tales of me. I am bound to the Count Orsino's court: farewell.

Exit

ANTONIO
The gentleness of all the gods go with thee!
I have many enemies in Orsino's court,
Else would I very shortly see thee there.
But, come what may, I do adore thee so,
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go.


it struck me that this play holds so much positivity for homosexuality...Olivia is attrackted to Viola in drag and its OK and the Duke is also attracted to her in drag and its OK... its a big love triangle!

my favourite characters are....

THE COMMON FOLK RULE! .... FUN LOVIN SINNERS!

Maria

She is so cleaver and funny, all her lines fly off the page at me! I really like all her interaction with the fellas of the play, she really gives them a  run for their money, out witting them and telling them tales. Sir Toby calls her Penthesilea ...

Note: This is Penthesilea - she was an Amazonian Woman

i suppose what Sir Toby means by this is that she is quiet obviously a strong woman and to him a little Godly...nothing like a crush to make you nick name people after Greek myths!


Her mischievous ways are so exciting and she really pushes the narrative, when she plays the trick on Malvolio, forging Olivia's hand writing and penning a letter which informs him:


Remember who commended thy
yellow stockings, and wished to see thee ever
cross-gartered: I say, remember.


it feels like she is the leader of the folly with the men following wide eyed behind her.






i love it when Sir Toby and Sir Andrew are in owe of her after Malvolio reads the letter:


Act 2 Scene 5
SIR TOBY BELCH
I could marry this wench for this device.

SIR ANDREW
So could I too.

SIR TOBY BELCH
And ask no other dowry with her but such another jest.

SIR ANDREW
Nor I neither.

its like they have never met a funny woman before? maybe they haven't?...though i find that hard to believe ,maybe its just that they never gave woman the chance before? This part would have been played by a bloke originally so I'm not sure where that puts us on Bards representation of funny woman, but i like to think he thought actual woman where funny not just funny men,in frocks being funny woman.....(Oh gosh there i go again, shpeeling on and not concluding! )...can anyone help me on this one?


Note to self : invest in woman playing Shakespeare book....Any suggestions?


Feste


i recently read* that one of the reasons for Shakespearean Language is due to the fact that in the times the Bard wrote these master pieces there where no music, fancy lighting and elaborate sets to help build the atmosphere on the stage so it was the words that the actor spoke that had to take on this task...singing!

Ben Kingsly playing Feste singing 'O Mistress Mine'

Any who the point i am trying to make is that Feste and his constant singing really help separate him from everyone else.I haven't spoke to anyone about Twelfth Night that haven't mentioned the clown Feste! He truly is the a cleaver little so and so, he has an answer for everything and a comical quip about any subject thrown at him ( i would love to have seen him on 'Mock the Week'...Frankie Boyle would be shaking in his boots...or rather shoes,not sure he wares boots?). his songs although not directly linked to the action always hover close by accenting the feelings of the play.


My favourite Feste and Maria bit.....this is full of fantastic black humour, i could watch these two for a full length play of their own! The adventures of Feste and Maria?


Act1Scene 5
Enter MARIA and Clown
MARIA
Nay, either tell me where thou hast been, or I will
not open my lips so wide as a bristle may enter in
way of thy excuse: my lady will hang thee for thy absence.

Clown
Let her hang me: he that is well hanged in this
world needs to fear no colours.

MARIA
Make that good.

Clown
He shall see none to fear.

MARIA
A good lenten answer: I can tell thee where that
saying was born, of 'I fear no colours.'

Clown
Where, good Mistress Mary?

MARIA
In the wars; and that may you be bold to say in your foolery.

Clown
Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those
that are fools, let them use their talents.

MARIA
Yet you will be hanged for being so long absent; or,
to be turned away, is not that as good as a hanging to you?

Clown
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and,
for turning away, let summer bear it out.

MARIA
You are resolute, then?

Clown
Not so, neither; but I am resolved on two points.

MARIA
That if one break, the other will hold; or, if both
break, your gaskins fall.

Clown
Apt, in good faith; very apt. Well, go thy way; if
Sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a
piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria.

MARIA
Peace, you rogue, no more o' that. Here comes my
lady: make your excuse wisely, you were best.


 Exit

Clown
Wit, an't be thy will, put me into good fooling!
Those wits, that think they have thee, do very oft
prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may
pass for a wise man: for what says Quinapalus?
'Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.'
i really love the highlighted quote!
* in Mrs Scraggs book - Discovering Shakespeare's Meaning- An introduction to the study of Shakespeares Dramatic structure by Leah Scragg. It might be worth mentioning that i met Leah when i was performing in the Rivals over Christmas, her lovely son Tim was in the show playing the dashing Jake.....oh and the this book is fantastic! Thank you Mrs Scragg!

Favourite Scenes :

Act 2 Scene 5

this is the bit where Maria, Sir Toby and Fabian set Malvolio up and he reads the letter...its comedy gold! I found myself particularly giggly when Malvolio is reading the letter out loud and making little excited comments about how this letter must me to him....

MALVOLIO
M, O, A, I; this simulation is not as the former: and
yet, to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for
every one of these letters are in my name. Soft!
here follows prose.

Reads

'If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my stars I
am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some
are born great, some achieve greatness, and some
have greatness thrust upon 'em. Thy Fates open
their hands; let thy blood and spirit embrace them;
and, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be,
cast thy humble slough and appear fresh. Be
opposite with a kinsman, surly with servants; let
thy tongue tang arguments of state; put thyself into
the trick of singularity: she thus advises thee
that sighs for thee. Remember who commended thy
yellow stockings, and wished to see thee ever
cross-gartered: I say, remember. Go to, thou art
made, if thou desirest to be so; if not, let me see
thee a steward still, the fellow of servants, and
not worthy to touch Fortune's fingers. Farewell.
She that would alter services with thee,
THE FORTUNATE-UNHAPPY.'
Daylight and champaign discovers not more: this is
open. I will be proud, I will read politic authors,
I will baffle Sir Toby, I will wash off gross
acquaintance, I will be point-devise the very man.
I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jade
me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady
loves me. She did commend my yellow stockings of
late, she did praise my leg being cross-gartered;
and in this she manifests herself to my love, and
with a kind of injunction drives me to these habits
of her liking. I thank my stars I am happy. I will
be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and
cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting
on. Jove and my stars be praised! Here is yet a
postscript.

Reads

'Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou
entertainest my love, let it appear in thy smiling;
thy smiles become thee well; therefore in my
presence still smile, dear my sweet, I prithee.'
Jove, I thank thee: I will smile; I will do
everything that thou wilt have me.

ExitI do feel a little bit sorry for Malvolio... bless him! people seem to bully him a little too much for my liking, maybe he is a bit annoying but does he really deserve all this kidding? When they lock him in that dark room  and tell him he is mad i felt like they went over the top with the joke...this is defiantly the darkest (in themes as well as literally!) part of this otherwise light play.... not sure the play would be as funny if they were nice to him though.....

Act 3 Scene  4 : funny misunderstandings and foolery!

The amount of misunderstanding is brilliant...Mavolio turning up in the crazy yellow stocking ensemble stands alone as a fantastic comic image...add Olivia's bewilderment and Maria's naughtiness and its just the sort of scene i could read again and again!

Malvolio surprising poor Olivia and a chuckling Maria.

It took me a while to get into the momentum of the action but when i did i really enjoyed Twelfth Night....Thank you Bard, another cracking play with hilarious characters!


next stop....I haven't decided yet...any suggestions?

Peace Out
Love
Sam



Hamlet: Finally finished ...The play really is the thing!

Hello Lovely Bard lovers!

i finally finished Hamlet...i know it has taken me what feels like a century but i have an excuse! I am touring a new play and it was our opening week this week, so its been mad mad mad! (and i mean mad as in 'busy mad', not 'Hamlet mad' - although i will get to that, after this not so relevant chitter chatter!).

whilst i am being irrelevant here is a shameless plug for our show - 'Back to the Land Girls' by Badapple Theatre Company, written and directed by the fantastically talented Kate Bramley... for more information visit http://www.badappletheatre.com/

Here is a photo of me and Abi (the actress playing Biddy) with a genuine Land Army Girl we met this week, God bless her she had a whale of a time sat at the front, singing along with us...her name is Lucy.

Dig for Victory!

when i showed Lucy this photo er response was...'OH i look a bit old in that one'



So any way...HAMLET! wow... what can i say, so many people have declared the adventures of the the most famous Prince as their favourite and i can completely understand why, its an epic to say the least. Not only does it contain so many of Shakespeare's famous quotes...

'The plays the thing' - Act 2, Scene 2

'The Lady doth protest too much, methinks' - Act 3, Scene2

'To be, or not to be, that is the question:' - Act 3, Scene 1

...and that is to name but a few, this piece of writing (yes we all know the Bard was a genius, a true diamond) is truly special, out of all the plays i have read this has been the most vast in themes, characters (Hamlet alone appears in so many varied 'charcters' of him self), comedy, drama...where on earth do i start in writing/typing about it....


oh i know ... Hamlet!


He is such a fantastic person (in my opinion what do you think?) and so brilliantly formed that its so very difficult not to love him, even when he kills Polonius (though very dark and violently still he seems) i am still on his side. Hamlet is vast, he has 1495 lines with in the play and five Soliloquies more than any other character in Shakespeare's work (alot to learn, that's for sure! Lines on a Dictaphone while you sleep?)


What a person to play...i wonder how it feels to be asked to play Hamlet? so many fantastic actors have played him...

The first actor to play Hamlet was:

Richard Burbage (1568-1619)

apparently this fella played them all! a real star, so much so the likes of 'Heat' and 'Hello' have never seen!


Then of course their are the famous faces (most of which are beautiful) that have done a turn and adventured into the part of Hamlet:

Jude Law as Hamlet

Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Dr Who: David Tennant

 Photograph: Alastair Muir

Even woman (sorry i don't mean to sound shocked...i will burn my bra after, i promise!) have played the famous Prince. the first woman to play Hamlet (i am led to believe) was:

Sarah Bernhardt (played Hamlet in 1899)



In the Bards time the part were all played by men (common knowledge i know...), so to have the role played by a woman is a huge achievement...well done Sarah Bernhardt from years gone by. This whole woman playing Hamlet thing has really got the cogs going...i found this interesting discussion about The Women who have played Hamlet  on the Warick University Website:

 http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/podcasts/media/?podcastItem=hamlet.mp3

It looks in depth at the reasons why a woman might want to play Hamlet. For political reasons,many suffragettes played Hamlet to empower themselves, some actresses wanted the chance to speak the words and experience Hamlet for them selves and some, i suppose got sick of being told off by Hamlet as Ophelia and Gertrude....another reason is he is Blooming great!

Did you know : Madonna was going to play Hamlet in the film in the 90's ....but she didn't, so i suppose this pearl of wisdom is a little redundant...never mind!

I LOVE HAMLET

i feel like its easy to fall a little bit in love with Hamlet, he is constantly trying to stand up for what is right. i would like to see Andrew Garfield (the new spider man...Spider-Hamlet?) play him:

                                                                Andrew Garfield

...when Hamlet talks to us, the audience it feels like we are his friends...maybe that is why Hamlets Soliloquies are so fantastic and famous, his friends are us the audience because no one in the life of the play really understands him....

Soliloquy Act 3- Scene 1

Hamlet: To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

(this is my favourite Soliloquy...is that predictable? Probably!)

Mirrors

It has been suggested that Hamlet is a play of mirrors, there are so many different narrative strands to cling onto, dictatorships, betrayal, broken homes and untrustworthy friends. i cant image Hamlet ever being irrelevant to our world.

Stalin did not like Hamlet! When the Moscow Arts Theatre where in rehearsals for Hamlet the director got worried due to unsettled rumours and pulled the show.

The play opens with:

BERNARDO :Who's there?

this sets the tone for me, Who is there? can anyone truly know anyone other than them selves? and as Hamlet points out in his constant self discovery, do we ever really know our selves?

It seems Hamlet asks pretty much every BIG question there is to ask, most of which are answers-less but all are in the same direction - How do you be a good human being? He becomes so consumed by the idea of purity and goodness that he pushes people away (even though on most accounts they deserve it), in Act 3- scene 1 Hamlet attacks (verbally...possibly physically) Ophelia:

Act 3 Scene 1

HAMLET :

Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
were better my mother had not borne me: I am very
proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at
my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,
imagination to give them shape, or time to act them
in. What should such fellows as I do crawling
between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,
all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.
Where's your father?

It is almost like his feelings are so concentrated he cant contain them, and they take hold of him and before he knows it he has pushed his love away, killed her dad and alienated him self...but i suppose it is that intensity of feeling that earns him the label : MAD!

Act3Scene 1

KING: Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go

Its no wonder everyone was out to get Hamlet, i think they where all abit terrified of this man with vision and greater thinking...he makes madness sort of light instead of dark...his unconventional thinking unsettles most. I feel like his mum jumps in the boat with him in Act4 Scene 3 and they drift together on the sea of Hamlets madness.

                                                                 Hamlet and Gertrude

Just long enough for them to have a moment together (with his dead father as well...almost forgot the ghost!..how rude!) before Hamlet changes again and drags Polonius' dead body out of her room:

Act4 Scene 3

HAMLET: This man shall set me packing:

I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.

This part of the play really unnerved me, it is a flash of a dark Hamlet...the lines of good and evil in this play are blurred at points, Hamlet could never be a villain but this is a villaniouse act indeed. the little peep holes of light and dark help us see these characters are three-dimensional. in Act 1 Scene 2 we see the King being completely evil and  then to oppose that in Act 3 Scene 3 we see him repent for what he has done...

my favourite scenes are:

Ophelia's Flower scene: Act 4 Scene 5

apparently there was a production once which saw Ophelia distributed broken and bent nails instead of flowers! i love her singing and MADNESS!

The Grave Digging scene : Act 5 Scene 1

the clowns at the start are terrific and they help tackle the great death questions...what happens when we die?

The Players:Act 3 Scene 2is Hamlet a director?he seems so energised by the performers and his passion to communicate through them is inspired.

wow...OK so i have really gone on this time (will try to be a little less gobby next time...i promise!), i could probably babble on further about how fantastic each character is and how i feel they have effected my reading of the play, but alas there isn't enough time!

if you haven't read Hamlet you should! or at least go and see it, there are a good few productions going on now or soon.

Productions of Hamlet

Royal National Theatre. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. Rory Kinnear (Hamlet), Clare Higgins (Gertrude), David Calder (Polonius). Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes, 1 – 5 March 2011 (0844 871 7652); Theatre Royal, Plymouth, 8 – 12 March 2011 (01752 267 222); Lyttelton Theatre, London, 13 – 23 April (020 7452 3000).  www.nationaltheatre.org.uk 

                                                                                                 

Northern Broadsides.  Directed by Conrad Nelson.  Nicholas Shaw (Hamlet), Finetime Fontayne (Claudius), Becky Hindley (Gertrude), Richard Evans (Polonius), Tom Kanji (Laertes) and Natalie Dew (Ophelia). New Victoria Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 25 February – 19 March (01782 717 962); Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 22 – 26 March;  Viaduct Theatre, Halifax, 29 March – 2 April; Canolfan y Celfyddyday Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, 6 – 9 April; West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, 19 – 30 April; Theatre at the Mill, Belfast, 4 – 7 May; Gaiety Theatre, Isle of Man, 19 - 21 May; The Rose Theatre, Kingston, 24 – 28 May.  www.northern-broadsides.co.uk

Stockport Garrick Theatre Company. Garrick Theatre, Stockport, 19 – 26 March (0161 480 5866). http://www.stockportgarrick.co.uk/ 

Brentwood Shakespeare Company. Directed by Glenda Abbott. Brentwood Theatre, 13-16 April (01277 200305). www.brentwood-theatre.org.

                                                                                                                  
Shakespeare’s Globe Company.  Directed by Dominic Dromgoole.  Joshua McGuire (Hamlet).  Strode Theatre, Street, 19 – 21 April (01458 442 846); Shakespeare’s Globe, London, 23 April - 9 July (020 7401 9919). [Small-scale tour - Part of the Word is God Theatre Season 2011].  http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/

                                                                                                                      

Stamford Shakespeare. Rutland Open Air Theatre in the grounds of Tolethorpe Hall, Little Casterton, 5 July – 27 August (01780 756133). www.stamfordshakespeare.co.uk.

Young Vic Company.  Directed by Ian Rickson.  Michael Sheen (Hamlet).  Young Vic Theatre, London, Winter 2011 (020 7922 2922).  www.youngvic.org

i feel like we could all learn something from Hamlet, its just one of those things that is vast and endless in its giving....thank you for reading this epically long blog entry.

...next stop Twelfth Night!

Peace Out

Love

Sam

(The Bard Geek)