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Literary Review
The Bard by any other name...
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Shakespeare can be found in many places, in many guises. A quick tour by VISA RAVINDRAN.
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From a Tamil adaptation of "Richard III" by the Magic Lantern group.
"Is this a flick-knife I see before me, the catch towards my hand?" — Suggested crucial line of dialogue in "The Scottish Play" in The Guardian (are the Bard's Labour Lost on Branagh?)
RUPERT ST JOHN SHAKESPEARE, who believes he is a descendant, married Susan Yerrel at the former home of the playwright's daughter — Hall's Croft on March 9. The wedding involved the biggest gathering of Shakespeares in 400 years. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust says it was planning to make Hall's Croft a wedding venue when the application came in from Karen Wilkin, a friend of the couple. When Indian academic authorities seem to have taken a shortsighted decision to remove Shakespeare from General English courses altogether, interest in the Bard in the rest of the world is rising. Two Chinese versions of "Hamlet" are on boards in China and Taiwan, Kathakali and martial arts have been woven into Indo-French Shakespeare productions and Peter Brook has given international dimensions to his "Tempest" and other productions. And not to be left behind, British scientists have recreated Puck's Potion, the flower-based elixir, from "A Midsummer Night's Dream", based on the text which says:
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little Western flower.
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
The Royal Society of Chemistry says the wild pansy or Heart's Ease, is the basis of the elixir which fated Titania to fall in love with the first person she saw...
There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare, some bizarre, some cleverly transposed in time and place without losing the grandeur of the originals that inspired them. For those purists who believe that without his original poetry the majesty of Shakespeare's language is lost, modern adaptations are a travesty of great literature. To others, who believe that the unfamiliar world of Shakespeare and his language are an obstacle to ordinary mortals and should therefore be made accessible in contemporary English and relevant settings, his plays are a treasure house of opportunities that stretch creativity to the maximum. "The trick is to make a completely new piece of work while preserving the original piece of work," says Trevor Nunn in an interview on Masterpiece Theatre's "The Merchant of Venice" which, in its pre-World War II setting, receives a fascinating new focus.
Professor Lerman, La Guardia Community College in New York, heavily edits Shakespeare and Greek classics to bring them alive for his students. The students say this helps them understand the unfamiliar worlds better and some of them are encouraged to go to the originals from there. "I edit the productions much as they do in the movies", admits Lerman. "But it doesn't destroy Shakespeare, because you can't destroy Shakespeare." This has become a regular feature and attracts so much interest that even local residents have joined in.
"Adapting Shakespeare", an essay on the Internet (www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/Othello/tg_adapting.html), gives some fascinating information on adaptations. A royal Shakespeare Company production of "Romeo and Juliet" featured sports cars, swimming pools and hypodermic needles. Ben Donenberg's "Starship Shakespeare" portrayed Shakespearean characters fighting for control of a spaceship. Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" was adapted for the stage and filmed too as a story of rival street gangs on the lines of the warring families of "Romeo and Juliet". At the movies, Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet with knives clacking off screen to create duelling sounds. One of the first reinterpretations of Shakespeare was a 1920 German version of Hamlet as a girl raised as a boy. Peter Hall's 1968 "A Midsumer Night's Dream" included miniskirts and Beatle wigs while Judi Dench, as Titania, wore only green body paint. Several more were inspired by Shakespeare plays like "Ten Things I Hate About You" ("Taming of the Shrew") and "Looking for Richard" ("Richard III") and now a teen version of "Othello", playing out the tragedy of love, hate and revenge on the basketball court, according to the author of the essay.
Akira Kurosawa made three films based on Shakespeare plays. He transposed "Hamlet" to corporate Japan and placed "King Lear" ("Raan") within the warrior culture of ancient Japan; his "Throne of Blood" followed Macbeth closely but made in the Noh style in a wind-swept, fog-shrouded, medieval background. "Raan" was shown some years ago in Chennai — sensitively transposed, its sweep was magnificent and the adaptation lost nothing but actually enhanced the universal quality of the primal feelings of Shakespeare's play.
But today in a time of fast food and quick fixes The Reduced Shakespeare Company does the completed works in less than two hours. Bill Morisette's tongue-in-check adap<147,1,7>tation of "Macbeth" has Maura Tierney, Emmy-nominated star, playing Pat Macbeth, the ambitious wife of a fast food employee. Set in the 1970s, the adaptation titled "Scotland, PA" tells of a deadly fight for ownership of the restaurant. There is Shakespeare everywhere and in all guises. There is Bard on the Beach near the beach on English Bay, Vancouver, Bard in the Yard — Long Beach Shore Company and Bard in the Parks (Montana State University taking it to the community) and in several other common spaces in summer, professionals and amateurs put up performances in many cities across America, not forgetting the Stratford Festival of Canada and the open air presentations in the Cotswolds.
If fast food is here, can door delivery be far behind? Shakespeare Delivery is a group of unemployed actors offering door delivery of "bite-sized chunks of Shakespeare" with "side orders of sonnets and soliloquies". The troupe's founder Timothy Levitch says "We deliver moments of Shakespeare, just like Chinese food." When customers ring the service this is what they hear: "Your world is a stage. Allow Puck to discover the love potion in your drawing room. Allow Macbeth to murder Duncan on your couch. Let Malvolio gossip and be petty over your dining room telephone... A Shakespearen moment — fresh from the oven of the master." There are special packages for weddings and to cheer up unrequited lovers. Shakespeare, like many others, is now a product too in a market-driven world. Despite all the twists and transformations, despite those who approve of the retellings and those who do not, this is yet another way in which Ben Jonson's tribute to Shakespeare, that he was not of an age but for all time, is proved yet again.
Some useful websites:
The Shakespeare Classroom — www.jetlink.net — has a wealth of information about Shakespeare and the teaching of Shakespeare. Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet —
http://sh.palomar. edu — is a five-diamond site by Massij.
Shakey's Place —
www.thinkquest.org — is full of information about Shakespeare. Festivals all over the U.K., biography, quiz, 3D recreation of the Globe Theatre (you can also go back stage). There are Internet resources for teachers and students. The Thinkquest quiz is for students between 12 and 19 years and they can even audition for a part through this website.
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