I loved your Shakespearean Tragedy lectures at Peterson Academy so much I put my hand written notes in my fire proof safe 😂! Please consider producing more content on that platform.
My theory is that if you play the comedies in exactly - and I mean exactly - the style of Carry On or Lloyd/Croft sitcoms, they still work. Even the posh parts played broad rather than realistic - Penelope Keith or Patricia Routledge would smash that bearward line.
I shall get round to doing the course, Mr Doyle, but I'm still struggling with your course on the tragedies and wondering whether I'll ever believe I've retained enough to have the nerve to take the Final!
I'm no Shakespeare scholar, but when I was 21 in 1990, I traveled around Ireland and the UK for the summer, and had a chance to see the Renaissance Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Lear at the Edinburgh festival. The tickets were so cheap that I bought tickets to two performances of each, being an admirer of Branagh's Shakespeare films. And I am not exaggerating when I say that in A Midsummer Night's Dream I laughed so hard that I cried. I don't think I've ever seen anything that funny since. There were times when I was laughing so hard that I got scared that I couldn't breathe. I'd seen many Shakespeare films and plays before that and none affected me this way.
In my American high school, we were exposed to a few scenes of Romeo and Juliet in acting class. “Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?” Our teacher explained the line’s genesis in the poor oral hygiene of the times. And that’s as much exposure to the bard as we ever got. These days many college-bound students have never even read a novel from cover to cover. Decades ago I married a woman who was an avid Oxfordian, and I took another stab at his work, still to little avail. The only truly meaningful Shakespearean experience I’ve had was a performance of King Lear, where the tragedy mirrored my own mother’s decline into dementia, and I cried real tears. I’ve got a leather bound volume of his complete works on my shelf but rarely crack it. And my new wife, who’s English, will have nothing to do with him. So it’s a complicated relationship, and I may never really crack the code. Yet still I acknowledge his mastery of the language.
I believe, that as part of our clerisy's deracination policies, Shakespeare has been taken out of schools. Is this correct? I intend to take the course.
I once had lunch with Claire Fox who told me when she was a teacher she had to fight hard to be allowed to teach Shakespeare as it wasn't seen as 'relevant to the kids.'
Thank you for this Andrew. I grew up slightly obsessed with Shakespeare and studied English Literature @ A level. One of my sisters and me (I??) in our summer breaks would hitch hike over 200 miles from our rural home all the way to Stratford Upon Avon to watch Shakespearean plays for days at a time. And end the nights at the pub where all the actors would gather afterwards. And later sleep under the stars in our sleeping bags!!!
Like a ‘gap year’ with a difference 🎭
I will definitely consider enrolling to JP’s academy.
I know it is not an original point to make that Shakespeare did not write his plays to be 'read' but to be performed, but it is worth reiterating. If you see a brilliant performance, any minor language comprehension problems have been forgotten by the time you leave the theatre. It is the characters and the story that stay with you.
I was lucky enough to see excellent productions of both Twelfth Night and Much Ado last year. They couldn't have been more different. The first was performed by an all-male cast (The Lord Chamberlain's Men) who perform Shakespeare as the plays would have been performed in his day. The second was Jamie Lloyd's modern take on Much Ado, with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Attwell, with sparkly costumes and Ibiza club music! Both were a joy - and hilarious! It was wonderful to see so many young people at the Theatre Royal who had probably never been to a Shakespeare play before (and had clearly come to see the two Marvel actors) roaring with laughter.
Certainly proof to me that Shakespeare comedies DO work across centuries. I just wish my school had taken me to see productions like this before we were made to sit down and 'analyse' text.
Once a joke requires explanation it cannot make people laugh. But as I argue here, the ageing of jokes is not the significant factor to the impact of Shakespeare’s comedies.
I love your reviews on Shakespeare! I am going to see RSC Hamlet in April so fingers crossed it will be less modernised and I won’t need to run away from the theatre screaming.
To entertain you I will tell you a story. I have really bad memory when it comes to remember something by heart. I know what is happening with all our patients at work but it took me 2 years to remember my phone number! The only thing that I will always remember, however, is the spell from Macbeth because it was my father’s habit to come and recite it when he wanted to secretly warn that my ant is cooking dinner. To be fair to my ant her cooking has improved significantly!
Did you all see that apparently Wm Shakespeare was actually a black Jewish woman, according to a feminist historian called Irene Coslet? How could we have got it so wrong?
I loved your Shakespearean Tragedy lectures at Peterson Academy so much I put my hand written notes in my fire proof safe 😂! Please consider producing more content on that platform.
Haha! Well, the comedy lectures are already up and I'm hoping to film the histories later this year...
My theory is that if you play the comedies in exactly - and I mean exactly - the style of Carry On or Lloyd/Croft sitcoms, they still work. Even the posh parts played broad rather than realistic - Penelope Keith or Patricia Routledge would smash that bearward line.
Almost everything is improved with a Carry On sensibility...
I shall get round to doing the course, Mr Doyle, but I'm still struggling with your course on the tragedies and wondering whether I'll ever believe I've retained enough to have the nerve to take the Final!
I hope you do!
I'm no Shakespeare scholar, but when I was 21 in 1990, I traveled around Ireland and the UK for the summer, and had a chance to see the Renaissance Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Lear at the Edinburgh festival. The tickets were so cheap that I bought tickets to two performances of each, being an admirer of Branagh's Shakespeare films. And I am not exaggerating when I say that in A Midsummer Night's Dream I laughed so hard that I cried. I don't think I've ever seen anything that funny since. There were times when I was laughing so hard that I got scared that I couldn't breathe. I'd seen many Shakespeare films and plays before that and none affected me this way.
In my American high school, we were exposed to a few scenes of Romeo and Juliet in acting class. “Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?” Our teacher explained the line’s genesis in the poor oral hygiene of the times. And that’s as much exposure to the bard as we ever got. These days many college-bound students have never even read a novel from cover to cover. Decades ago I married a woman who was an avid Oxfordian, and I took another stab at his work, still to little avail. The only truly meaningful Shakespearean experience I’ve had was a performance of King Lear, where the tragedy mirrored my own mother’s decline into dementia, and I cried real tears. I’ve got a leather bound volume of his complete works on my shelf but rarely crack it. And my new wife, who’s English, will have nothing to do with him. So it’s a complicated relationship, and I may never really crack the code. Yet still I acknowledge his mastery of the language.
I believe, that as part of our clerisy's deracination policies, Shakespeare has been taken out of schools. Is this correct? I intend to take the course.
Only in a few cases. It's now possible to graduate in English Literature at Yale without having read Shakespeare. Bonkers.
I once had lunch with Claire Fox who told me when she was a teacher she had to fight hard to be allowed to teach Shakespeare as it wasn't seen as 'relevant to the kids.'
Thank you for this Andrew. I grew up slightly obsessed with Shakespeare and studied English Literature @ A level. One of my sisters and me (I??) in our summer breaks would hitch hike over 200 miles from our rural home all the way to Stratford Upon Avon to watch Shakespearean plays for days at a time. And end the nights at the pub where all the actors would gather afterwards. And later sleep under the stars in our sleeping bags!!!
Like a ‘gap year’ with a difference 🎭
I will definitely consider enrolling to JP’s academy.
I know it is not an original point to make that Shakespeare did not write his plays to be 'read' but to be performed, but it is worth reiterating. If you see a brilliant performance, any minor language comprehension problems have been forgotten by the time you leave the theatre. It is the characters and the story that stay with you.
I was lucky enough to see excellent productions of both Twelfth Night and Much Ado last year. They couldn't have been more different. The first was performed by an all-male cast (The Lord Chamberlain's Men) who perform Shakespeare as the plays would have been performed in his day. The second was Jamie Lloyd's modern take on Much Ado, with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Attwell, with sparkly costumes and Ibiza club music! Both were a joy - and hilarious! It was wonderful to see so many young people at the Theatre Royal who had probably never been to a Shakespeare play before (and had clearly come to see the two Marvel actors) roaring with laughter.
Certainly proof to me that Shakespeare comedies DO work across centuries. I just wish my school had taken me to see productions like this before we were made to sit down and 'analyse' text.
Even when translated, I still don't find the line funny
Once a joke requires explanation it cannot make people laugh. But as I argue here, the ageing of jokes is not the significant factor to the impact of Shakespeare’s comedies.
I love your reviews on Shakespeare! I am going to see RSC Hamlet in April so fingers crossed it will be less modernised and I won’t need to run away from the theatre screaming.
To entertain you I will tell you a story. I have really bad memory when it comes to remember something by heart. I know what is happening with all our patients at work but it took me 2 years to remember my phone number! The only thing that I will always remember, however, is the spell from Macbeth because it was my father’s habit to come and recite it when he wanted to secretly warn that my ant is cooking dinner. To be fair to my ant her cooking has improved significantly!
Did you all see that apparently Wm Shakespeare was actually a black Jewish woman, according to a feminist historian called Irene Coslet? How could we have got it so wrong?
I'm Nicking Ben effective as my new stage name. :)