William Shakespeare

[gypolord]

yeah part of his problem is the fact the plays HAD to be overacted they had no microphones and stuff and nobody at the back could hear or see small actions.

[*ME2005*]

Oh I find it funny  The melodrama I mean. That why I agreed with Gypolord.
But I cant compare with anything, because the only plays of Shakespeare Ive read (well, studied) are Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth.

I tried reading them too (boredom  ) as we have the whole set at home... but I didnt get far because of the language...Its really daunting 

[bingo]

i ve read most of shakespeare's work (not the original,of course,that'd be kind of exhauting,as ME said )

but i have to say i prefer his'comedies' to the tragedies. Othello drove me mad. Which is,actually,once you think about it,proof of a good tragedy,(To me:-) ) but i really dont like tragedies anyway..

[dj26792]

well i saw a dvd if a production that was essentially a compressed version of the plot of each of shakespeares plays,
and it was absolutley brilliant, it was also really funny, and made even more so by the fact that no one else in the class got most  of the jokes, so they would crack a joke, id laugh, and then the rest of the class would wonder what was funny and id laugh even harder because they didnt get it, by which time the actors have cracked another joke, and the cycle continues.

however ive never enjoyed the originals that much, although i did enjoy reading macbeth for school.

[Maiar]

I'm confused as to what you guys mean by originals  Do you mean that you've read adaptions of the plays?

Othello was my GCSE Shakespeare topic! Every other class did Romeo and Juliet (in my school I mean), but for some reason we got to do Othello. I really liked it...dunno why exactly, it just...appealed.

But returning to the idea of originals, Im gonna continue with what I think you guys mean and argue my case for Shakespeare. Quite often with adaptions you just get the bare bones and very little of hte actual bulk/subplots are transferred. Take the children's version of Wuthering Heights for example, it's over simplified, but it serves as a way of guiding people towards reading the original. If you enjoy the adaptions, I really do recommend reading originals. It may be a challenge, but the sense of acheivement you get at the end and the enjoyment fromthe plays is worth it.

[*ME2005*]

When we said orignal, we meant the original play, written by the man himself

I dont think Id like to read adpations or whatever they are...I mean, the only reason they appeal to me in the first place (and repulse me too, I have a love-hate realationship with the stuff) is because theyre written by Shakespeare...its his work. So there wouldnt really be a point for me to read a simplified version, without reading the play itself too, cause...I dunno?

I hope Im making sense here, because Im getting a bit confused myself!

[Maiar]

So I was on the right track of adaptions etc?  Someone else has rewritten them e(Either by shortening or simplifying) and it's not Shakespeare's words?

[dj26792]

the adaptation i saw wasnt a simplified version, wgat they did was take the basic plot of each play and perform them one after the other, but they did them all very cleverly, for example, they did most of his plays about kings as a grid iron game, with commentary to explahn the plot, it made sense and was incredibly funny

[Maiar]

That sounds pretty cool  I think we were meant to see one as part of a theatre course but we never did. 5 Minute Shakespeare I think we had the chance of...or something like that.

I didn't mean simplified in that the language or whatever was simplified, I meant the sub-plots were played down or not included, and only the main story was kept. If that makes sense 

[gypolord]

the abridiged version that dj is talking about was absolutly hillarious...they even rapped othello, and titus andronicus was a cooking show.

[dj26792]

yeah but the grid iron was the best.

[bingo]

the abridiged version that dj is talking about was absolutly hillarious...they even rapped othello, and titus andronicus was a cooking show.

I SAW THAT! The Reduced Shakespeare Company, right?? Tia and i watched it together ... we were in stitches!

I'm taking Macbeth (for the millionth or millionth-and-one time, i think) this year ... our substite teacher is a hilarious British dude ... he made us act it out but i lost control at some point; i was the murderer ... my line, as i was about to kill Lady Macduff and Son?

''Die ... you egg!''

(i believe thats when i was overcome by helpless fits of laughter xD)

[Maiar]

I finally studied Hamlet! I still think Othello's my favourite Shakespeare though    Next year, however, I have to look at most of Shakespeare's plays (As general overviews  ) for one of my modules, and I think it'll be a bit painful  I struggled to grasp and remember everything that was going on in Hamlet... but Hamlet did have a really good revision tactic! ie. Get lots of pictures of David Tennant in Hamlet...crop them...and put the quotes you have to remember all over it  It actually worked...unfortunately, the quote I was most proud of remembering and hoped to drop in for extra marks, was the quote they gave us to interpret  oh the irony