#williamshakespeare — Public Fediverse posts

The Trial of Romeo Oscar review – Ayckbourn goes back to the future with android accused of murder https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/sep/11/the-trial-of-romeo-oscar-review-alan-ayckbourn-stephen-joseph-theatre-scarborough #Theatre #Stage #Culture #AlanAyckbourn #Comedy #Comedy #StephenJosephTheatre #Technology #Robots #RomeoAndJuliet #WilliamShakespeare

The Trial of Romeo Oscar review – Ayckbourn goes back to the future with android accused of murder
By Nick Ahad

Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughThe playwright explores our relationship with technology, asks if robots have souls and even questions the value of art in this sci-fi courtroom drama

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/sep/11/the-trial-of-romeo-oscar-review-alan-ayckbourn-stephen-joseph-theatre-scarborough

#Theatre #Stage #Culture #AlanAyckbourn #Comedy #Comedy #StephenJosephtheatre #Technology #Robots #RomeoandJuliet #WilliamShakespeare #TheGuardian #NickAhad

Movie Review: As You Like It (1978)

Title: As You Like It
Release Date: December 17, 1978
Director: Basil Coleman
Production Company: Time-Life Television Productions | BBC
Main Cast:

• • Helen Mirren as Rosalind
  • Brian Stirner as Orlando
  • Richard Pasco as Jaques
  • Angharad Rees as Celia
  • James Bolam as Touchstone
  • Clive Francis as Oliver
  • Richard Easton as Duke Frederick
  • Tony Church as Banished Duke
  • John Quentin as Le Beau
  • Maynard Williams as Silvius
  • Victoria Plucknett as Phebe
  • Marilyn Le Conte as Audrey
  • Tom McDonnell as Amiens
  • David Lloyd Meredith as Corin
  • Arthur Hewlett as Adam
  • Jeffrey Holland as William
  • Timothy Bateson as Sir Oliver Martext
  • David Prowse as Charles
  • John Moulder-Brown as Hymen
  • Paul Bentall as Jacques de Boys
  • Peter Tullo as Palace Lord

• Mike Lewin as Palace Lord
• Carl Forgione as Banished Duke’s Lord
• Max Harvey as Banished Duke’s Lord
• Chris Sullivan as Dennis
• Paul Phoenix as Page
• Barry Holden as Page

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Orlando is forced to work like a servant for his brother Oliver, so he goes to win his fortune in a wrestling contest, where he meets a lady of the court, Rosalind. Rosalind (daughter of the deposed duke) is companion to Celia, niece of the deposed Duke, and when the current duke banishes Rosalind from the kingdom, she, Celia, the court jester (and incidentally Orlando) all end up in the forest or Arden, where the deposed Duke holds court. Romantic mixups, cross-dressing, love poems nailed to trees, and a lion await them all.

My Thoughts:

I’ve returned to BBC Television Shakespeare which is always a good option for Shakespeare’s plays that don’t get as many movie adaptations.  I was hoping to watch a 1961 Royal Shakespeare Company performance with Vanessa Redgrave as Rosalind, but couldn’t find the film anywhere (although the audio is on YouTube).  Of course, Helen Mirren is no slouch and she shines in her performance of Rosalind.  Unlike most of the BBC productions which are filmed on sound stages, As You Like It is filmed entirely on location with the better part of the movie set in the forest.  With that being said, it is a bit strange that all the characters just hang out in the woods with no tents or other structures.  The cast is talented but the script doesn’t allow anyone to stand out apart from Mirren.  Dave Prowse, famous for playing Darth Vader, makes an appearance as a wrestler.  As one of Shakespeare’s more musical plays, there are some delightful songs as well.  The problem though is that this production is just too much of a straight, by-the-book run-through of a play that really needs a more compelling dramatic approach.

Rating: ***

Book Review: As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Author: William Shakespeare
Title: As You Like It
Publication Info: New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2019. [Written circa 1599]
Summary/Review:
 

I feel like most of Shakespeare’s plays that I haven’t read yet that I at least have a passing idea of what it’s about and it’s cultural legacy.  As You Like It is a rare play that I went into with basically no previous knowledge.*  There is a complex setup that establishes this pastoral comedy which I feel makes it less well-structured than Shakespeare’s best works.

The basic gist is that Duke Frederick has usurped the throne of his elder brother Duke Senior, who lives in exile in the Arden Forest. Senior’s daughter Rosalind remains at court because she is the closest friend of Frederick’s daughter Celia.  Orlando, the youngest son of a deceased duke who’d been loyal to Senior, chafes at the tyranny of his elder brother Oliver. At a wrestling match where he challenges Frederick’s champion, Orlando meets Rosalind and they fall in love at first sight.

Frederick arbitrarily exiles Rosalind, and Celia loyally offers to go with her, along with the court fool Touchstone.  Rosalind disguises herself as a man, Ganymede, while Celia takes the appearance of a poor girl, Aliena.  Meanwhile, Orlando flees his brother along with his elderly servant Adam, and they meet Duke Senior’s entourage.  Orlando composes poems of love which he posts on trees and are discovered by Rosalind. As Ganymede, Rosalind acquaints herself with Orlando and offers to pretend to be Rosalind so he can practice wooing her.  This feels very gay even though it really isn’t.  Then again, all of these characters would’ve been played by boys in Shakespeare.

In various side plots, a shepherdess named Phebe falls in love with “Ganymede.” A shepherd named Silvius in turn is in love with Phebe. Touchstone also falls in love with the shepherdess Audrey, competing with William for her affections.  And Celia ends up paired off with Oliver, who repents of his cruelty after Orlando rescues him from a lion in a scene that takes place completely off stage.  Rosalind expertly works through all these troubles to a satisfactory conclusion, albeit one that puzzlingly ends with Hymen, the god of marriage, making an appearance as well as news of Duke Frederick also having had a change of heart.

The strength of this play is Rosalind, one of Shakespeare’s most complex and fully-realized woman characters.  Rosalind pretending to be Ganymede pretending to be Rosalind is wonderfully written and  I love how Rosalind tries to keep a step ahead of all the deceit and disguise. Unfortunately, the other characters tend to be underdeveloped and the other three other romances doesn’t add much to the story. The play ends abruptly, not unusual for a Shakespeare comedy, but it feels that if so much time hadn’t been spent building the premise, a more natural conclusion could’ve come out of Rosalind’s scheming.

* This isn’t entirely true, because As You Like It contains one of Shakespeare’s most famous monologues from the melancholy Jaques. I was so surprised when I read it!

All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts

Rating: ***1/2

I’m reading every Shakespeare play, one per month, in chronological order.  Here’s my progress thus far:

1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. The Taming of the Shrew
3. Henry VI, Part 1
4. Henry VI, Part 2
5. Henry VI, Part 3
6. Titus Andronicus
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors
9. Love’s Labours’ Lost
10. Richard II
11. Romeo and Juliet
12. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
13. The Life and Death of King John
14. The Merchant of Venice
15. The History of Henry IV, Part 1
16. The Merry Wives of Windsor
17. The History of Henry IV, Part 2
18. Much Ado About Nothing
19. King Henry V
20. Julius Caesar

A quotation from Shakespeare

FOOL: Come away, come away, death,
      And in sad cypress let me be laid.
   Fly away, fly away, breath,
      I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 58ff (2.4.58-61) (1601)

More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #twelfthnight #feste #burial #death #dying #heartbreak #passion #pining #rejection

A quotation from Shakespeare

FOOL: Come away, come away, death,
      And in sad cypress let me be laid.
   Fly away, fly away, breath,
      I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 58ff (2.4.58-61) (1601)

More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #twelfthnight #feste #burial #death #dying #heartbreak #passion #pining #rejection

A quotation from Shakespeare

FOOL: Come away, come away, death,
      And in sad cypress let me be laid.
   Fly away, fly away, breath,
      I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 58ff (2.4.58-61) (1601)

More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #twelfthnight #feste #burial #death #dying #heartbreak #passion #pining #rejection

A quotation from Shakespeare

FOOL: Come away, come away, death,
      And in sad cypress let me be laid.
   Fly away, fly away, breath,
      I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 58ff (2.4.58-61) (1601)

More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #twelfthnight #feste #burial #death #dying #heartbreak #passion #pining #rejection

Book Review: King Henry V by William Shakespeare

Author: William Shakespeare
Title: King Henry V
Publication Info: London : Arden Shakespeare, 1995, 2002 [written circa 1599]
Summary/Review:

I may be wrong, but I think Henry V is the most famous and highly-regarded of all of Shakespeare’s English history plays.  In the chronology of when they plays were written, it is the last of eight plays in a continuous sequence from the 1390s to the 1480s, albeit in the middle of that historical chronology.  Shakespeare saved the best for last.

The drama of the play is conveyed by a Chorus who introduces each act.  The structure of the play is fairly simple.  In the first act we see that the King has matured since the days of Prince Hal, and is determined to secure his birthright in France.  In the next act, he uncovers a plot by members of his court to assassinate him.  Act III depicts the English in their successful siege of Harfleur. Now surrounded by the French army, Act IV depicts Henry visiting his soldiers in disguise and then rallies the troops with his St. Crispin’s Day speech.  In the final act, having achieved a tremendous victory at Agincourt, Henry charmingly woos the French princess Katharine in a marriage that will seal the peace.

This play is an example of English patriotism and nationalism but it’s complex in a way that goes beyond jingoism.  Henry is depicted as a scheming and sometimes flawed leader, and in his speech at Harfleur he threatens war crimes.  Shakespeare was writing during the reign of Elizabeth I and the last of the 8 plays ends with her grandfather Henry VII “rightfully” gaining the throne. In this context, it makes sense that Shakespeare is willing to depict previous monarchs as less than great.  This is also a war play that doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war.  While some adaptations make it an anti-war play, I think it’s most likely that Shakespeare is recognizing that the great achievements of war can come at great moral and mental costs.

Rating: *****

I’m reading every Shakespeare play, one per month, in chronological order.  Here’s my progress thus far:

1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. The Taming of the Shrew
3. Henry VI, Part 1
4. Henry VI, Part 2
5. Henry VI, Part 3
6. Titus Andronicus
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors
9. Love’s Labours’ Lost
10. Richard II
11. Romeo and Juliet
12. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
13. The Life and Death of King John
14. The Merchant of Venice
15. The History of Henry IV, Part 1
16. The Merry Wives of Windsor
17. The History of Henry IV, Part 2
18. Much Ado About Nothing

Book Review: Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Author: William Shakespeare
Title: Much Ado About Nothing
Publication Info: New York : Washington Square Press, 2005 [written circa 1598-1599]
Summary/Review:

Leonato, the governor of Messina, hosts Don Pedro and his troops on his estate after a successful battle.  One of his men, Claudio and Leonato’s daughter Hero immediately fall in love and plan to marry.  But Don Pedro’s jealous brother Don John plots to upset the happy scenario by framing Hero as an unfaithful woman. The plan to exonerate Hero involves cribbing from Romeo & Juliet with a fake death, but a happier outcome.

Much of this is overshadowed by the B-plot involving Leonato’s niece Beatrice and Claudio’s friend and fellow soldier Benedick.  As the play begins, they display a deep loathing for one another exchanging barbed quips I can only imagine in the style of a 1940s screwball comedy.  Don Pedro’s men along with Hero and her attendant Ursual plot to convince Beatrice and Benedick that the other suffers from unrequited love for them.  The ploy works hilariously to create the ur-text of enemies-to-lovers romance plots.

I think this may be to most laugh out loud funniest of Shakespeare’s comedies in the chronology thus far (although The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream all have their moments) while also tying together two complementary plots in a successful whole.

Rating: ****

I’m reading every Shakespeare play, one per month, in chronological order.  Here’s my progress thus far:

1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. The Taming of the Shrew
3. Henry VI, Part 1
4. Henry VI, Part 2
5. Henry VI, Part 3
6. Titus Andronicus
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors
9. Love’s Labours’ Lost
10. Richard II
11. Romeo and Juliet
12. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
13. The Life and Death of King John
14. The Merchant of Venice
15. The History of Henry IV, Part 1
16. The Merry Wives of Windsor
17. The History of Henry IV, Part 2

Theater Review: Julius Caesar by Dream Role Players

Julius Caesar

Hannah Baker – Director
Aza Pietropaolo – Assistant Director 

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

July 10, 2026: Longfellow Park, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cast

Julius Caesar – Robin Abrahams
Brutus – Jaryn Wilcox
Cassius – Elizabeth Ross
Marc Antony – Angelo Alexander
Casca – Mary Parker
Metellus – Lisa Burdick
Cinna – Lucia A. Grunko
Decius – Crow J. Traphagen (u/s Brutus, Caesar)
Octavius/Funeral Citizen 1 – Delaney Walkes
Lucius/Artemidorus/Funeral Citizen 2 – Hayley Haggerty
Calpurnia/Lepidus/Popilius/Funeral Citizen 3 – Paula Hawthorne (u/s Cassius, Antony)
Soothsayer/Cobbler/Servant/Funeral Citizen 4 – Kris Kim (u/s Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus)

Last night I enjoyed free Shakespeare in the park, courtesy of the Dream Role Players and an almost all-woman and nonbinary cast. The park in question is Longfellow Park, overlooked by the house of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who I would expect would love seeing Shakespeare performed in his front yard.  Hannah Baker’s direction of the play takes a dark political humor approach.  Shakespeare’s words are not changed but they are delivered in a humorous manner emphasizing the pettiness of political infighting and misguided notions of honor.  Also, for some reason Cassius rides a Segway scooter for the entire play.  I don’t know if it’s supposed to represent a chariot or just a bit of absurdism. Like many Shakespeare works, I had several moments of “oh, that’s where that phrase comes from,” perhaps more often than typical.  Previously, I was only familiar with the scenes from Julius Caesar that my high school Latin teacher had us act out every year on the Ides of March.

Familiar faces in the cast include Robin Abrahams (A King and No King), Jaryn Wilcox (Mariette in Ecstasy), and Mary Parker (director of A King and No King).

Julius Caesar continues at Longfellow Park tonight and tomorrow and then July 17-19, before moving to Herter Park in Allston for two shows on July 24-25.  All performances begin at 7pm.

A quotation from Shakespeare

MARCUS: Sorrow concealèd, like an oven stopped,
   Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Titus Andronicus, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 36ff (2.4.26-37) (c. 1590)

More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #titusandronicus #concealing #emotion #grief #hiding #repressing #sadness #sorrow

A quotation from William Shakespeare

RICHARD: Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead;
   And I would have it suddenly performed.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard III, Act 4, sc. 2, l. 20ff (4.2.20-21) (1592)

More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #williamshakespeare #willshakespeare #richardiii #princesinthetower #assassination #killing #murder

Book Review: The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Author: William Shakespeare
Title: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Publication Info: New York : Washington Square Press, 2004. [written circa 1597]
Summary/Review:

Sir John Falstaff is back, this time thrust into the center of madcap comedy and romance. Seeking money as always, he sends identical notes attempting to woo married women, Alice Ford and Margaret Page.  They catch on to his Falstaff’s plan and conspire to go along with meeting him in order to play trick on him.  Unaware of the plotting, Frank Ford becomes exceedingly jealous of his wife and goes about in disguise.  And while all of this happening, three men court the Page’s daughter Anne but she only desires one of them, a gentleman named Fenton.

This is one of three plays featuring Falstaff, but scholars are uncertain whether this play was written before or after Henry IV, part 2.  I haven’t read that one yet, but of the two I’ve read, I can’t say that I particularly like Falstaff.  I mean,  I know he’s  rogue, but he’s not even a funny one.  And the comic hijinks of this play don’t feel up to Shakespeare’s best.  The legend is that he wrote it quickly on the request of Queen Elizabeth to create a play about Falstaff in love, and it feels like a rush job.

It’s still better than The Two Gentlemen of Verona, but otherwise it doesn’t rank highly in the Bard’s oeuvre for me.

Rating: **1/2

I’m reading every Shakespeare play, one per month, in chronological order.  Here’s my progress thus far:

1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. The Taming of the Shrew
3. Henry VI, Part 1
4. Henry VI, Part 2
5. Henry VI, Part 3
6. Titus Andronicus
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors
9. Love’s Labours’ Lost
10. Richard II
11. Romeo and Juliet
12. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
13. The Life and Death of King John
14. The Merchant of Venice
15. The History of Henry IV, Part 1

A quotation from Shakespeare

RICHARD: And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
   To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
   I am determinèd to prove a villain
   And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard III, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 28ff (1.1.28-31) (1592)

More about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #richardiii #badguy #badperson #selfaffirmation #selfawareness #selfdetermination #selfdirection #selfevaluation #selfperception #selfunderstanding #villain

The murder of Desdemona, from Orson Welles’ Othello – Gefunden – Von Wolfgang Sofsky

Die über drei Stunden dauernde Tragödie von der Intrige des Jago und der Eifersucht des Mohren hat Welles auf einen 90minütigen Film gekürzt. Er endet bekanntlich mit der Frage des Othello an die schöne Desdemona (Suzanne Cloutier),  ob sie zur Nacht schon gebetet habe, schließlich soll die Todgeweihte nicht sterben, ohne sich mit dem Himmel ausgesöhnt zu haben. Der Tod der Desdemona (Othello V,2) wird bei Welles zu einem grandiosen Schauspiel von Licht und Schatten, Schönheit und Entschlossenheit, Liebe, Eifersucht, Angst und Tod: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5nfj6DfwCs

https://holbachinstitut.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/orson-welles-othello-2/

Book Review: The History of Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare

Author: William Shakespeare
Title: The History of Henry IV, Part 1
Publication Info: New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2020. [Originated circa 1597]
Summary/Review:

Of the Shakespearean English histories I’ve read so far, this one is the least stand alone.  It definitely feels like it’s setting up Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V.  King Henry IV has a couple of problems: first, he falls out with Henry Percy – a.k.a. Hotspur – who allies with Welsh and Scottish rebels against the king.  Meanwhile, his son Prince Hal is leading a licentious life with his rowdy friend Sir John Falstaff.  I’ve known from reading about Shakespeare that Falstaff was an incredibly popular character, cowardly yet quick-witted, but I found him kind of irritating.  Hopefully, I’ll find him more entertaining in upcoming plays.  The various storylines come together with Prince Hal regaining the king’s affections by fighting the rebels at the Battle of Shrewsbury.

Rating: ***

I’m reading every Shakespeare play, one per month, in chronological order.  Here’s my progress thus far:

1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. The Taming of the Shrew
3. Henry VI, Part 1
4. Henry VI, Part 2
5. Henry VI, Part 3
6. Titus Andronicus
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors
9. Love’s Labours’ Lost
10. Richard II
11. Romeo and Juliet
12. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
13. The Life and Death of King John
14. The Merchant of Venice

A quotation from Shakespeare

KING RICHARD: For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
   And tell sad stories of the death of kings —
   How some have been deposed, some slain in war,
   Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
   Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed,
   All murdered.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard II, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 160ff (3.2.160-165) (1595)

More info about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #richardii #autocrat #death #fate #kings #mortality #power #regicide #storytelling

A quotation from Shakespeare

BOLINGBROKE: How long a time lies in one little word!
   Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
   End in a word; such is the breath of kings.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard II, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 218ff (1.3.218-220) (1595)

More info about this quote: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shakespeare #williamshakespeare #richardii #decree #diktat #king #power #royalty #sentence #time

Wouldn't a #roadtrip be fun? 🛣️
Let #WilliamShakespeare come with you - as a #radioplay
"Shakespeare on the Radio" by Andrea Smith takes a tour of 100 years of #BBC radioplays by the Bard, 1923-2023

#BritishStudies #EnglishLiterature #BritishRadio #AdaptationStudies #BBCradio

(sadly not our car!)

I went to a performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by the Misguided Theatre Company at last weekend's Stoneybatter Festival. Here we have a scene from Titus Andronicus in which Titus and his daughter Lavinia are butchering Chiron or Demetrius as they prepare to serve him in a pie to his mother Tamora.

#TitusAndronicus #WilliamShakespeare #MisguidedTheatre #theatre

Who is better, Dickens or Shakespeare? We asked nine prominent writers https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/02/who-is-better-dickens-or-shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #CharlesDickens #VirginiaWoolf #AndrewDavies #ChinuaAchebe #WoleSoyinka #SarahPerry #ElifShafak #Stagebooks #Culture #Books

The Tyee: Please Advise! Does One MLA Make the BC Conservatives a Force? (in Opinion) https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2023/02/22/One-BC-MLA-For-Conservatives/ #bcnews #TheTyee - via @[email protected] #VancouverSuncolumnistVaughnPalmer #formerLiberalleaderGordonWilson #OliverEkmanLarssonhockeyplayer #RichardZussmanGlobalBC #NechakoLakesriding #WilliamShakespeare #BCPremierDavidEby #FreedomConvoy2022 #BCGordonCampbell #AnjaliAppadurai #TheLastofUsHBO #ApolloCreed #KevinFalcon #JohnRustad #Macbeth