True, besides, how absurd is it that Petruchio is a Christ-figure and his little Stockhom-Syndrome therapy in the middle scenes constitutes some kind of "suffering for His sake"? But for a nice academic template (Oy!), there's nothing like the opiate of the masses. Actually, Jayne Suhler's images last Friday of Hamlet and Horatio looking down on the 'enchanting" weird sisters while just across the heath I'm sure MacBeth and Banquo were talking 'mortality' with the grave diggers, will haunt my inner English major for some time to come, smiling.
-Jackson
----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Kozusko" kozusko@mac.com To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 2:58 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] Round II
I don't think we're in any danger of coming off as a church group if we pursue reconciliation, conversion, or even "it is required you do awake your faith" scenes. I'm not sure that's what Robert's arguing, but just in case, Shakespeare always seems (to me) to manage the religion question quite carefully. The most expressly "Christian" moments are always set in foreign places and often in the pre- Christian past (Lear), and Christian *concepts* tend to be figured in non-Christian characters (Paulina) ... hot-button issues such as purgatory and agnosticism tend to show up mostly when characters express anxiety about death (Hamlet, Measure). Christians themselvs tend to be jerks (Merchant) or useless kings (H6) or figures of comedy (friars?)...
Matt
On May 17, 2010, at 12:52 PM, Robert Jackson wrote:
Re: a case for comedies...
Reconciliation is by definition a Christian concept, especially in Elizabethian times. Do we want to go down that road? The whole process is primarily one of confession/conversion. Some "reconciliations" attempts are failures, or outright "sinful" in the parlence. Re: Rich III, blatantly antiChrist, and Claudius' praying scene in Hamlet, which fails the more orthodox "deeds over words" requirement.
The "reconciliation scene" at the end of Taming (ahem) for instance, Kate's speech is highly suseptible to the religious interpretation, e.g., substitute "Christ" for "husband" in that speech.
Kate's main point in that speech is the "care" husbands provide their wives, which renounces her arrogant dismissal of Petruchio's "Tis with cares" with her "I care not" in the Wooing scene. I think, strictly from an actor's point of view, this is the beginning of a new beat that begins to wind down that scene with a shift in emotion as far as Petruchio is concerned, and key to the eventual reconciliation, if you will, of "Kate" with "Catherine". How she sees herself versus how she is protrayed by the world. O scandalous world!
Yes, this argument IS absurd. But it works for me.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce Meyer" Bruce.Meyer@UTSouthwestern.edu To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 2:36 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] Round II
My admiration for the depth of Shakespeare knowledge that you people are showing is frightening! wish I had the time and the courage.
I agree that the reconciliation scenes will not ring true unless we have shown the power of the separation.
Will again make a plea for some comedy... surely there can be some joy and laughter in a world of Mystery/Magic/Reunion/Reconciliation!
"Pees, Robert" rpees@AkinGump.com 5/16/2010 1:46 AM >>>
I also really like Gail’s idea of starting with children of storms and moving on to the softening of hearts. One of the reasons that the reconciliation scenes are so powerful is that they were preceded by jolting dislocations—monumental storms, whether meteorological or personal. When Cordelia says that she has “no cause, no cause,” we recall that she indeed has cause to resent her thundering father. When Hermione emerges warm and alive from her statue-like posture, we recall her previously standing stony-still in a trial-like setting while Leontes charged her with infidelity and treason. So, if feasible within our format, we might want to include earlier scenes from the same plays that fuel the emotions that we feel when we see and hear these reconciliation scenes. And as Jeff observes, scenes from different plays can also reverberate and infuse and reinforce themes. The possibilities are truly infinite. Below are a bunch of ideas, some of which incorporate scene suggestions already made, some of which are new (for example, the silly songs from the TV series “Slings and Arrow), and some of which are designed just to continue the conversation about how to mix and match all of the ideas that are coming in. The list below divides the themes of Mystery/Magic/Reunion/Reconciliation into two broad categories (mystery/magic on the one hand, and reunion/reconciliation on the other) separated by an intermission, but that’s just arbitrary on my part. If I had to pick only a few personal favorites from the list below, I would go with the statue scene in The Winter’s Tale, Lear’s awakening before Cordelia, and the Falstaff scenes. Part 1: Magic and Mystery A bell rings twelve times. Prologue: ‘Tis now the very witching time of night,…(Hamlet 3.2)(“‘Tis now the very witching time of night” through “To give them seals never my soul consent”) Scene 1: The Weird Sisters, the Three Apparitions and the Show of Eight Kings and Banquo (Macbeth 4.1)(“Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed” through end) Alternative Scene 1: The Weird Sisters (Macbeth 1.3)(“Where has thou been sister?” through “Till then enough—Come friends.”) Transition 1: The Mackers Song (from the Canadian television series Slings and Arrows): Call me superstitious or cowardly or weak But I’ll never play a character Whose name one dare not speak I’ll play Hamlet In doublet and hose Or either of the Dromios But sorry, I won’t play Mackers I’ll play Richard the Third With a hump and wig Or Henry the Eighth That selfish pig But sorry, I don’t do Mackers Every soul that plays this role Risks injury or death I’d rather sweep the bloody stage Than ever do Mac-you-know-who So gimme King Lear Cleopatra Romeo, Juliet Doesn’t matter I’ll play them all for free But I’d be crackers To take on Mackers You see, I’m skittish about the Scottish tragedy Scene 2: Bottom’s Transformation and a Spell-bound Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 3.1)(“I see their knavery. This is to make an ass of me” through “Tie up my love’s tongue; bring him silently.) Transition 2: Mercutio’s Queen Mab Speech (Romeo and Juliet, 1.4)(“O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you” through “Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.”) Scene 3: Othello’s Denial of Sorcery (Othello, 1.2) (“O thou foul thief, where has thou stored my daughter?/Damned as thou art, thou has enchanted her,/For I’ll refer me to all things of sense/If she in chains of magic were not bound” through “She lov’d me for the dangers I had pass’d,/And I lov’d her that she did pity them./This only is the witchcraft I have us’d’) Alternative Scene 3: “There’s witchcraft in your lips”--Henry’s wooing of Katherine” (Henry V, 5.2)(“Fair Katherine, and most fair/Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms” through “There’s witchcraft in your lips) Transition 3: What potions have I drunk (Sonnet 119):
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears, Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within, Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, Still losing when I saw myself to win! What wretched errors hath my heart committed, Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never! How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted In the distraction of this madding fever! O benefit of ill! now I find true That better is by evil still made better; And ruin'd love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater. So I return rebuked to my content And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.
Scene 4: Apollo’s oracle reveals the truth to an unbelieving Leontes (The Winter’s Tale 3.2)(This scene, which incorporates the trial of Hermione, fills the emotional reservoir eventually tapped by the statue scene in Act 5) Transition 4: Antigonus’s dream (The Winter’s Tale 3.3)(Come, poor babe:/I have heard but not believed,/The spirits o’ the dead/May walk again…” through “Exit, pursued by a bear”) Scene 5: The Resuscitation of Thaisa (Pericles 3.2) Transition 5: Prospero’s riff on Medea’s Incantation a/k/a “Ye elves” speech (Tempest 5.1, 1-56)(“Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves” through “I’ll drown my book”)
{Intermission}
Part 2: Reunion and Reconciliation Prologue: A bitter reunion—Hal banishes Falstaff (2 Henry IV 5.4)(Trumpets sound. A royal procession swells the stage. “God save thy grace, King Hal, my royal Hal” through “Take them away”) Scene 1: The family reunion from hell—Lear and his daughters (King Lear 1.1)(Lear’s scorching treatment of his youngest daughter would be cause for resentment by most children—which renders all the more astonishing her words “No cause, no cause” in Act 4, scene 7.) Transition 1: A Walk in the Rain (song from Slings and Arrows): When life takes its toll When fate treats you bad You used to be king And now you’ve been had Alone with your fool You think you’ll go mad It’s nice to take a walk in the rain A stomp through a storm Is what I’d advise When people you trust Tell nothing but lies And kidnap your friend And gouge out his eyes It’s nice to take a walk in the rain You say your daughters Are evil plotters A pitter patter shower will keep you sane When all has been said And all have been slain It’s good to take a walk in the rain For several hours Helps to have a howl in the rain Without your clothes on Nice to take a walk in the rain. Scene 2: Feste’s reunion with Olivia—the fool consoles the fool (Twelfth Night 1.5)(“Nay, either tell me where thou has been…” through “the fool should look to the madman”)[to echo the prior comical song “A Walk in the Rain” in transition 1, Feste could perhaps enter singing a couple of stanzas of “When that I was and a tiny little boy/With hey, ho, the wind and the rain] Transition 2: “Remembrance of Things Past” (Sonnet 30):
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste: Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe, And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight: Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan, Which I new pay as if not paid before. But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end.
Scene 3: Hermione Reunites with Perdita (The Winter’s Tale 5.3) Transition 3: The Dance of the Twelve Satyrs (The Winter’s Tale, IV, iv)(“Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, …” through “Here a dance of twelve Satyrs Scene 4: Thaisa Reunites with Pericles and Marina (Pericles 5.3) Transition 4: “Full Fathom Five” (song from The Tempest”) Scene 5: A reunion on heaven’s threshold—Lear awakens to Cordelia (King Lear 4.7) Transition 5: The Chimes at Midnight—Falstaff and Shallow remember good times (2 Henry IV 3.2)(“Come, I will go drink with you,…” through “Jesus, the days that we have seen. Come, come.”)(In stark contrast to the ambitious Hal, Justice Shallow is the steadfast friend to the fat knight.) A bell rings twelve times. And maybe a robust finale consisting of a song and/or dance, perhaps Cole Porter’s “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” or the following song from Season One of the television series “Slings and Arrows”: Cheer Up, Hamlet Cheer up, Hamlet
Chin up, Hamlet
Buck up, you melancholy Dane
So your uncle is a cad Who murdered Dad and married Mum
That’s really no excuse to be as glum as you’ve become
So wise up, Hamlet
Rise up, Hamlet
Buck up and sing the new refrain
Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui
Your antic disposition is embarrassing to see
And by the way, you sulky brat, the answer is “TO BE”!
You’re driving poor Ophelia insane
So shut up, you rogue and peasant
Grow up, it’s most unpleasant
Cheer up, you melancholy Dane
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