@StrawberryMilkshake I like Macbeth Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
@Lostpoet Portia's "Quality of mercy" speech remains my favorite. I loved doing Antony's dying speech because it allowed me to die on stage for the longest time.
@Grateful4you I had a book called the greatest orientations of all time and it had the Mark Antony Caesar speech. I didn't realize this clip only played a little bit of the scene.
@StrawberryMilkshake When you say read what exactly do you mean? We had to read several Shakespeare plays for Eng. Lit. O-Level at the age of 15, fifty years ago. But read in this case meant being assigned a part to play and performing the play. Just reading the play as though it were a novel wouldn't work.
@StrawberryMilkshake I think Shakespeare's so malleable that it only needs the barest suggestion of makeup and costume to allow the audience to believe in the character. It's the lines and the performance that matter most I think.
@Lostpoet So that the director could choose actors of a certain build and dress them according to Shakespeare's vision for the part, for instance? Shakespeare didn't do this but apparently some playwrights do. Shakespeare's stage directions are mostly just half a dozen words specifying the location of the action. Oscar Wilde's are a bit longer and specify not just the location but how it appears, for instance from The Importance of Being Earnest, second act: [quote]Garden at the Manor House. A flight of grey stone steps leads up to the house. The garden, an old-fashioned one, full of roses. Time of year, July. Basket chairs, and a table covered with books, are set under a large yew-tree.
[Miss Prism discovered seated at the table. Cecily is at the back watering flowers.] [/quote]
@ninalanyon It does make it easier to read if you know what the scene looks like but I don't think the people in Shakespeare's time really read many books, so he didn't need to incorporate that into his works.
If you buy the Barns and Nobel or the Penguin collections of Shakespeare than they usually add the scenes in italics.
@Lostpoet In my experience very few people read plays unless they intend to produce, direct, or act in them. I'm pretty confident that this was even more so in Shakespeare's time. So, no not the general public.
