Welcome to my blog all about discovering William Shakespeare. Over the next few months I shall be watching the complete works of Shakespeare and giving my thoughts on them. I shall, as closely as possible be going through them in the chronological order in which they were written. I shall at the same time be reading background about each play and critical analyses of the plays. I am totally flexible about the direction this blog takes. It is a new venture to me and therefore I am on a learning curve. But the basis of it will be grounded in watching Shakespeare DVDs and reading his plays. So let the adventure in Shakespeareland commence.
The first play to be considered will be Henry VI Part One.
4/7/22. It's been a few weeks now since setting up this blog so time to get going on it. Last night I read some background to Parts One and Two of Henry VI so on Wednesday the plan is to watch both of those back to back if there is time.
11/7/22. Time to get going a bit more consistently with this blog and I am developing a modus operandi for the blog. I now have quite a lot of books about Shakespeare's plays so before watching each play Shall do some reading about it then blog some thoughts. Then watch the play and blog some more thoughts. Shakespeare did not write short plays so just watching the plays requires a time commitment and I need to be organised on that. With that in mind I intend to get Henry VI Parts 2 and 3 watched today and tomorrow and then blog some thoughts about the trilogy as a whole.
12/7/22. So two down one to go. Henry VI aPart three tomorrow. I'm glad I'm doing background reading to these plays and have an idea of plot and who's who whilst watching the plays. there are lots of different characters with lots of different titles. Duke of this, Earl of that and also its about a civil war and those are by definition confusing. So I'm learning a bit about the Wars of the Roses. Shakespeare has telescoped the time lines a bit for dramatic effect and of course because he was writing during the reign of Elizabeth 1 there is a strong anti Yorkist slant. But as they say, 'history is written by the victors'. More tomorrow after I have watched Part three.
13/12/22. I love Shakespeare. Shakespeare is great , our greatest playwright ever and a great poet to boot but can I be allowed to make a negative observation. Shakespeare can be long winded. The three Henry VI plays were 10 hours in total. Some of that may have been The BBC with their slow motion battle scenes and also Shakespeare characters cannot die with a ten minute monologue. but it has to be said these three plays were gripping and even though Shakespeare is not averse to playing around with history watching these plays has made me more interested in finding out more about The Wars of the Roses. Also there was much fun to be had watching these BBC productions in seeing some of our finest actors as they were 40 years ago.
16.7/22. Not only have I now seen the first four Shakespeare plays in rough chronological order I have also learned a new word, Tetralogy, apparently meaning a series of four, a quadrilogy if you like (eg The Aliens quadrilogy). So yes the three Henry VI plays and Richard III make up said tetralogy. They are quite often presented as the War of the Roses plays in productions. They are about power, the gaining of it, the keeping of it, the corrupting effect of it and the losing of it. There is lots of anger, selfishness, killing and dying in these plays. Watching the machinations of the downfall of Boris Johnson and the ensuing Tory leadership debate nothing much changes except of course there is no actual killing although the phrase 'the knives are out' gets plenty of use.
23/7/22. A week off watching Shakespeare and doing the blog. Back next week with The Comedy of Errors and hopefully also Titus Andronicus.
26/7/22. Instead of Comedy of Errors I ended up watching Titus Andronicus instead with the aim of watching comedy of Errors later in the week as it's a little shorter. My first awareness of the play Titus Andronicus was through watching the brilliant Vincent Price film Theatre of Blood in which Price plays a vengeful Shakesperean actor taking revenge against critics who have given him bad reviews. Each critic is murdered in the style of a Shakespearean murder and in Titus Andronicus a character is fed her own sons in a pie before being dispatched. In Theatre of Blood one of the critics is killed by being force fed his own pet dogs that he calls 'my babies'. It's wonderful seeing the excellent Jim Trott ie Trevor Peacock in so many Shakesperean roles on these BBC Shakespeare DVDs.t
30/7/22. I watched The Comedy of Errors a couple of days ago. Six down thirty one to go as there are 37 plays together. Thirty eight if you include The Two Noble Kinsmen which seems to have been added to the list recently and is a play he co-wrote with John Fletcher. But back to The Comedy of Errors which is Shakespeare's shortest play. It is a comedy of mistaken identity centred around two sets of twins separated at birth by a shipwreck. Shipwrecks seem to feature a lot in Shakespeare, I suppose they were quite common back in those days. It may be that Shakespeare comedies need to be seen with a live audience as amused as I was by this play I didn't laugh out loud. Can't remember if I did when I saw it at the Tobacco Factory although I do remember laughing out loud at Much Ado About Nothing. Interesting cast again including Roger Daltrey of The Who. This would have been about the time he was doing films with Ken Russell. Anyway he plays the twins Dromio servants to Michael Kitchen's twins Antipholus. Giving the play gravitas are the veterans Wendy Hiller and Cyril Cusack.
4/8/22. So onto Taming of the Shrew which is a play some modern critics find difficult because of its possible misogyny. Of course with the play being well over 400 years old it is going to reflect some out of date cultural issues. There have been productions, I believe, and also readings of the play that have given a feminist slant to it. This BBC production had an interesting choice of Petruchio in the casting of John Cleese. Watching the play though it struck me that one of the themes running through the play was rage and anger. ``````````````both Petruchio and Katarina seem to be people angry with their lot hence the attraction that grows between them. John Cleese of course is a master at portraying suppressed rage. In the last week or so I have also taped the Franco Zeffirelli 1967 film version with Taylor and Burton and the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me Kate which centres around the putting on of a production of Taming of the Shrew so may have more to say about this play later.
6/8/22. On Thursday I watched Two Gentlemen of Verona a Shakespeare play I have never seen before. It seems to be a play that is not performed a great deal and seems to be regarded critically as one of Shakespeare's lesser plays. Classed as one of his comedies it does feel quite light but I did find it quite enjoyable and entertaining but it did seem to me a little problematic. One of the two eponymous Gentleman of the title, Proteus, behaves quite badly to his friend, the other Gentleman, Valentine such that the forgiveness shown by Valentine to Proteus in the final act of the play feels difficult to believe. Nice though to see Tessa Peake-Jones (Raquel from Fools and Horses) in an early role playing Julia one of the two main female parts. And Tyler Butterworth son of Peter Butterworth and Janet Brown plays Proteus.
9/8/22. On Sunday I did a couple of things that merit an entry in my blog. First I watched the 1967 film of Taming of the Shrew that starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and secondly I spent some time on the internet loo....ng up sites that rank Shakespeare's plays. In most lists Taming of the Shrew was near the bottom of the list and on one list was actually ranked bottom. I knew it was a problematic play for modern audiences and critics because of the way it portrays the relationship of the sexes. Presumably when written the times were very patriarchal and this is reflected in the play although of course Shakespeares play because of their longevity are continually re-interpreted for contemporary audiences. This 1967 film of Taming of the Shrew is directed by Franco Zeffirelli as a bawdy farce and makes much use of the well publicised tempestuous relationship between Burton and Taylor at that time.
11/8/22. Romeo and Juliet is probably one of Shakespeare's best known and best loved plays. I guess one of the difficult things in doing this play for stage, TV or whatever is casting of the two leads with both characters being just teenagers 14 and 15. Do you cast in an age appropriate way in which case you are going to be casting very young and by definition, inexperienced actors or do you look for more experienced actors who are going to be older than the parts they are playing. In this BBC production they did a bit of both by casting 14 year old Rebecca Saire as Juliet and 25 year old Patrick Ryecart as Romeo. Both are perfectly fine. Also amongst the cast are future stars such as Anthony Andrews playing Mercutio and Alan Rickman as Tybalt. And the experience is there in the shape of such as John Gielgud, Celia Johnson and Michael Hordern. It is all very entertaining and moving.
14/8/22. This morning I watched Love's Labours Lost a play I am not terribly familiar with. It's closed as a comedy but has something of a downbeat ending when one of the lead characters is told her father has just died. Never having seen the play before it came as quite a surprise to me having enjoyed 2 hours of comedy, farce, masquerades and word banter. I suspect that ultimately about growing up. the main characters in the play are all young and ripe for romantic attachment at which they spend most of the play merely playing at. After the announcement of the death they are all brought back down to earth and decide to spend time apart to mature. There were a lot of people in this play I did not know but I did recognise David Warner and amongst the ladies were Maureen Lipman and Jenny Agutter in their younger days.
20/8/22. We are having some work done on the garden this week and next so not had as much time for Shakespeare a usual. However yesterday I watched A Midsummer Nights Dream and also read some critical analysis of it. I have a variety of books on Shakespeare some quite a bit older than others. So although Shakespeare is timeless critical analysis of his plays is affected by the time it is or was written. So I read some analysis today from as early as 1913 and some from 2019. I have to say the 2019 stuff is easier for me to get into although that's not to say the older stuff, which goes into the subject of Masques and also the subject of Court Marriage, is not of interest but the more modern stuff looks at A Midsummer Night's Dream from a modern perspective specifically a feminist reading. I have to confess to feeling more at ease with this as it is a subject I have grown up with. There seems to be some discussion at present about how one age interprets the history of another age and thus imposes its own cultural values on that interpretation. It begs the question as to whether the reading of things from the past can ever be entirely free of subjectivity.
01/09/22. Bit of a break there while dealing with the disarray of getting the garden sorted but yesterday I watched Richard II. I have seen this before at the Tobacco Factory and was quite impressed with it. It tends to be bracketed with the history plays but could easily be put with the Tragedies as it is about the fall of a man with character flaws. He loses his kingdom through his vanity and ruthlessness seeming to turn everybody against him giving Bolingbroke his opportunity to seize the crown. But along the way he learns some lessons about the fragility of power. There is a terrific central performance by Derek Jacobi as Richard and he is ably supported by the likes of John Gielgud and Wendy Hiller. Hopefully I can get back to watching two a week now.
07/09/22. King John or to give the play its' full title The Life and Death of King John (big clue there as to what happens in the final act). It has been a somewhat neglected play apparently and is certainly one that I personally knew very little about. King John was the son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine who ascended to the throne in 1166. As per usual Shakespeare exercises huge dramatic licence with timelines as he does in many of his History plays. He was a Plantagenet so the play contains much jostling for power and some killing. I have read some Plantagenet history and sometimes find it difficult to unravel. The Platagenet Kings tended to have lots of children and there were multifarious claims and counter claims to succession. In this play it is suggested that John has usurped the throne from his nephew, the rightful heir Arthur. John is not a very likeable character which was one of the difficulties I had with this play. The cast again though is interesting with Leonard Rossiter playing King John, George Costigan playing Philip The Bastard and Claire Bloom as Blanche Arthur's mother.
10/09/22. When I was at Bulmershe college in the 70s doing Film and Drama I had a drama teacher called Tom Wilde who had a theory that all plays had just one central character, the person who the play is about whose story arc is intertwined with the themes of the play. In some plays of course this is obvious not least because the play is titled after that person eg Hamlet, Othello etc but I must admit I have had difficulties with applying this rule to The Merchant of Venice of Venice. I had always assumed that Shylock was the eponymous character of the play but on watching it for the first time it seems to me that Antonio is the title character The Merchant of Venice but I'm not even sure if they are that character who embody the arc and thematic drive of the play so perhaps it is Portia as it is her love tory with Bassanio that drives the plot of the play. Or perhaps it is Bassanio as he is in the first and last scenes of the play. And as to do I think the play is anti-semitic? Possibly. Europe would have been rife with anti-semitism at that time but of course Shakespeare put in that wonderful "if you prick us do we not bleed" speech.
14/09/22. Some thoughts on Much Ado About Nothing 3 days after watching it. I have watched Much Ado on a couple of occasions before. The splendid 1993 film version in which Emma Thompson plays Beatrice and Kenneth Branagh plays Benedict. I also saw a theatrical version at the Tobacco Factory and with both the versions I remember the comedy, the banter between Beatrice and Benedict. I don't know if it's what the director intended or whether I just saw it more but what I got from the BBC version was the darker side of the play and the cruelty of the abortive marriage scene where Hero is supposed to marry Claudio but she has been framed for flirting with another man. What I found really unsettling about this scene, and it is of course coming from a modern sensibility, is the haste with which Hero is assumed guilty not only by Claudio but also her father Leonata. It left me feeling less than satisfied with 'the happy ending' where Hero's innocence is proved and the marriage takes place. If I'd have been Hero I would have told Claudio to get stuffed. But as I say that's a modern sensibility.
15/09/22. This morning I watched Henry IV Part One. This is the first part of the Henriad trilogy (or if you include Richard II a tetralogy) so I have two other plays to watch before pronouncing on it all but here are a few initial thoughts. The dominant character of this play and also Part Two is Falstaff, a larger than life character who is the drinking buddy and confidant of the young Prince Hal who is to become Henry V. The role is often played by ageing well respected actors eg Orson Welles, Simon Russell Beale and in this production Anthony Quayle. Considering he is the title character Henry IV is not really the central character. I guess if there is a central character and because he stretches over all three plays, you would have to say it is Prince Hal/Henry V played by an actor called David Gwillim whose name was unfamiliar to me. I shall write more about these three plays as I work my way through them over the next few days.
16/09/22. Amongst the books on Shakespeare I am using to get deeper understanding of the plays and the background and history to to them is a Dorling Kindersley book called 'Essential Shakespeare Handbook' which gives a background to the play, an Act by Act plot summary, some history of productions of the playing critical responses. Also the is a Dramatis Personae for the play with the number of lines each character has. The interesting thing about both parts of Henry IV is the Falstaff has more lines than any other character and in the case of Part II considerably more lines. In fact twice more than the number of lines Henry IV and Prince Hal have, yet he is not really the main character in the play although for many, including Elizabeth I, he was the most loved. Shakespeare when writing plays knew his audience especially those with power.
22/09/22. Henry V, which I watched yesterday was the eighteenth Shakespeare play I have watched. Of that 18 ten have been what are bracketed together as the History Plays. There are eleven history plays altogether so that means, as I am watching the plays in chronological order, that Shakespeare wrote all but Henry VIII in the first half of his playwriting career. I wonder why. Perhaps there is a reason and perhaps there is not. If there is one I have not come across it. Anyway as far as Henry V is concerned it seems to me the most optimistic of the History plays principally because it deals with a king perceived as heroic and successful in his heroics. There is not as much plotting and intrigue as there are in the other History Plays. It centres on the Battle of Agincourt and Henry's winning of the French crown. There is no Falstaff in it to bring him down. Of the History Plays I would say Richard II was my favourite as it contains lots of moral grey areas which is something I go for. Short break now from watching Shakespeare so I can watch some Jane Austen adaptations but I am looking forward to the second half of the Shakespeare canon which includes many of the masterpieces like Hamlet and Othello.
04/10/22. And I am back. Its been a nigh on two week break from Shakespeare, an halfway through break you could say, but now its eyes down for the other nineteen Shakespeare plays to watch. So yesterday I watched Julius Caesar which is probably the first Shakespeare play I read as I did it for my 'O' level English literature course almost 50 years ago now. This is another play where the main character of the story arc is not the title character. I think this play is about Brutus and how his obsession with honour leads to his downfall. Too much of an over thinker is our Brutus. Where some or all of his co-conspirators in the assassination of Caesar may be motivated by envy Brutus seems to be motivated by fear of Caesar"s ambition and descent into tyranny. Also part of his downfall is his lack of awareness as to what motivates crowds. During the dressing of the crowds scene by Brutus and Mark Anthony it is the latter who plays to the the crowds emotion rather than their reason as Brutus does.
13/10/22. Two days ago I watched As You Like It. This is the one where many of the characters decamp to the Forest of Arden which could be in Warwickshire or somewhere in France depending which Shakespeare scholar you read. I am not sure what tack to take with this play, what to say about it. From some of the analysis I have read amongst the themes of the play are different kinds of love, there are four marriages at the end of the play and also the love between non marrying characters. Also there is the contrast between the pastoral scenes and the scenes at court and also there is Shakespeare being playful with theatricality for example at the end when the character of Rosalind steps forward to comment on what has occurred in the play in a kind of breaking the fourth wall way so theatrical artifice is being highlighted. So did I enjoy this play. Yes I did. I wouldn't have it down as a favourite. I have laughed loudly at Shakespeare plays but mostly as part of a theatre audience.
17/10/22. A couple of days ago I had an early morning viewing of Twelfth Night, play number twenty one on my list. Getting to know Shakespeare tropes and conventions now. As in As You Like It we have people disguising themselves particularly young women as young men. In As You Like It it was Rosalind pretending to be a boy and in Twelfth Night it is Viola. I was left wondering at the end if there was potential follow up with Malvolio taking his revenge on Maria, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek for the cruel joke played on him by those characters which ends up with him in jail As in all Shakespeare comedies there is a dark undercurrent to the play. Certainly Malvolio is a fairly unpleasant character in the first part of the play but I can't help feeling his punishment did not fit the crime. As usual in these BBC Shakespeare plays there is a terrific cast of familiar faces including Robert Hardy, Annette Crosbie, Felicity Kendall and as Malvolio the excellent Alec McCowen.
26/10/22. Well Hamlet is in the cassette tray already to watch, all three and a half hours of it. Just getting my head into watching it possibly in two halves but my head is a bit all over the place at the moment. So watch this space for the time being.
21/3/23. Don't worry Will I haven't forhotten you but have been distracted with other things the last few months. I have also started a couple of other blogs on Chaplin and Dick Lester and truth be told , with the next play to watch being Hamlet coming in at three and a half hours I have not got around to finding the the time to watch it but I am not giving up on the original aim of watching all your plays Will and getting through the BBC Shakespeare boxset. There are sixteen plays of the thirty seven left to watch which include some of the great ones like the aforementioned Hamlet and others like King Lear, Macbeth and The Tempest so hopefully the gap between this entry and the next will not be the five months between this one and the previous one. Anyway I enjoy your plays so much Will to abandon this project.
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