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Tab wrote:Brilliant, Jim!
Nothing to do with 'Apache' but emphasises that we perceive and judge everything in today's terms.
Must re-visit Shakespeare again - never liked him much at school!
A modern Shakespeare might have said 'if music be the food of love, switch on'

Hi, Terry (Tab) - hope you're OK.

I never liked Shakespeare when I was at school, either. Schoolteachers murder the subject and render it as dry as dust by forcing pupils to remember speeches word for word (notice no-one ever does that with Shaw or Wilde). Shakespeare is meant to be seen in performance, but I was 25 before I saw one of Will's plays, acted live, all the way through - I was more or less dragged along by a group of friends to see "The Comedy Of Errors" and was certain that I:

(a) wouldn't like it and

(b) wouldn't understand it.

I ought to have had more faith in myself. That performance (an amateur production in the June open air) was brilliant and turned me on to a half-lifetime of informal study and enjoyment of the Bard's works.

I own the full DVD box set of BBC productions from 1978 to 1985 (now unfortunately out of print), but there are any amount of full versions of the popular plays on Youtube, almost all of them acted by the English and drama departments of American universities. Even better, there are quite a few professional productions available on Amazon Prime (for those who have it), including:

Much Ado About Nothing / Henry V / Richard II / Hamlet / Macbeth / Twelfth Night / A Midsummer Night's Dream / Julius Caesar / The Winter's Tale (listed as "A Winter's Tale" for some reason) / King Lear / Romeo And Juliet / The Two Gentlemen Of Verona (listed as "2 Gentlemen of Verona") / Julius Caesar (with Jeremy Sisto).

The above are included with a Prime membership. There are also lots (of more professional versions) available for rent. Try "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Thank you, Jim. That was interesting and instructive.

Andy

Not exactly Shakespeare, but a typical period piece from 1964, including the recently deceased Earl Cameron, aged 102, and a genial performance by the previously referenced John Leyton...



Bill

JimN wrote:

Tab wrote:Brilliant, Jim!
Nothing to do with 'Apache' but emphasises that we perceive and judge everything in today's terms.
Must re-visit Shakespeare again - never liked him much at school!
A modern Shakespeare might have said 'if music be the food of love, switch on'

Hi, Tab - hope you're OK.

I never liked Shakespeare when I was at school, either. Schoolteachers murder the subject and render it as dry as dust by forcing pupils to remember speeches word for word (notice no-one ever does that with Shaw or Wilde). Shakespeare is meant to see in performance, but I was 25 before I saw one of Will's plays, acted live, all the way through - I was more or less dragged along by a group of friends to see "The Comedy Of Errors" and was certain that I:

(a) wouldn't like it and

(b) wouldn't understand it.

I ought to have had more faith in myself. That performance (an amateur production in the June open air) was brilliant and turned me on to a half-lifetime of informal study and enjoyment of the Bard's works.

I own the full DVD box set of BBC productions from 1978 to 1985 (now unfortunately out of print), but there are any amount of full versions of the popular plays on Youtube, almost all of them acted by the English and drama departments of American universities. Even better, there are quite a few professional productions available on Amazon Prime (for those who have it), including:

Much Ado About Nothing / Henry V / Richard II / Hamlet / Macbeth / Twelfth Night / A Midsummer Night's Dream / Julius Caesar / The Winter's Tale (listed as "A Winter's Tale" for some reason) / King Lear / Romeo And Juliet / The Two Gentlemen Of Verona (listed as "2 Gentlemen of Verona") / Julius Caesar (with Jeremy Sisto).

The above are included with a Prime membership. There are also lots (of more professional versions) available for rent. Try "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

A few years ago my wife and I had a short break at a hotel near Stratford, and took in Warwick Castle and Stratford itself. Of course we had to visit Shakespeare's house among other Shakespeare sites. The house tour ends in the garden which you have to cross to exit through the gift shop. In front of all the garden seats there was a group of young actors, all dressed for their parts, enacting a scene from the Merry Wives of Windsor, and it was just as Jim described. I'd hated all the plays at school but when you see one performed live it's like shining a floodlight on the words.

I finally saw what all fuss was about, his work is absolutely brilliant.

Len