Nothing Much to Do

If you enjoy Much Ado About Nothing nearly as much as I do, you should check out this super awesome YouTube series called "Nothing Much to Do."  It's based off of the plot of Much Ado and is told is the incredibly modern medium of the video blog (Vlog if you're nasty).  You can see a trailer for it below.

Check out the series here.

I do adore this play.  Who doesn't love a good story of haters becoming lovers?  And they are SO good with their verbal sparring. Case in point:

Benedick
What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?

Beatrice
Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meat
food to feed it as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must
convert to disdain if you come in her presence.

You say that now, fair lady...

* * *

Also, can I just share with those unaware (a rhyme, yay!) that the title, Much Ado About Nothing is a triple entente.

- Firstly, because the plot of the play is based upon misunderstandings and false accusations that turn out to be nothing.
-  Secondly, because in early modern England, "nothing" was a slang term for a woman's genitals (being that a man's was a "thing" therefore a woman's was "no-thing").
-  Thirdly, because in those days, "nothing" was a homophone of "noting," (which means they were pronounced the same way).  This plays upon the fact that the play contains plenty of people overhearing others' sayings and doings.

Aaaand Shakespeare drops the mic.

The Play's the Thing

Are any of you peeps out there from the NC area?  If so, have I got great news for you!

There are so many Shakespeare productions in the Triangle this Spring!  I'll share a few upcoming with you:

Romeo and Juliet at Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh.  I saw this one and it was phenomenal.  They aren't afraid to make the play less serious in its romantic endeavors, and Romeo and Juliet act like giddy, fools in love, rather than the extra-serious and overly dramatic renditions that come across nowadays as a bit archaic.  Plainly put, Juliet acts like an infatuated teenage girl and Romeo acts like a man in love with being in love - and bounds across the stage with the joy of it.  It's crucial for there to be a solid comic in Mercutio, and this one certainly has one.  I highly recommend - though the run is almost over.  Don't wait!

Much Ado About Nothing at Raleigh Little Theatre.

This is one of my favorite plays - who could keep from loving Beatrice and Benedick?  No one, that's who.  This show opened last night and I already have my tickets.  Check out their showtimes to see if you're interested in a Much Ado version set in post-WWII America.  I know I am!

The Tempest at Titmus Theatre at Thompson Hall - NC State University.
2/27/2015 ONLY

New York’s acclaimed Aquila Theatre - the foremost producer of touring classical theatre in the United States – returns to NC State with two new productions of classic works. "The Tempest" is Shakespeare’s famous tale of forgiveness and enlightenment. Believed to be his final play, it is imbued with magic, the supernatural, and a heightened sense of theatricality. DO NOT MISS THIS.

A Midsummer Night's Dream at Raleigh Little Theatre in the Rose Garden

Mischievous sprites, lost lovers, and bumbling rustics cross paths in a magical night under the towering trees, fairy ferns, and blooming roses of the Raleigh Rose Garden.  Bring your chairs, picnics, and the whole family for this fanciful 90 minute evening of Fun!  Can you imagine how fun it will be to see this story told with actual woods surrounding it?

Equivocation. n.

1. the use of ambiguous expressions, especially in order to mislead or hedge

2. Logic. a fallacy caused by the double meaning of a word. 

England, 1605: A terrorist plot to assassinate King James I and blow Parliament to kingdom come with 36 barrels of devilish gunpowder! 

Shagspeare (after a contemporary spelling of the Bard’s name) is commissioned by Robert Cecil, the prime minister, to write the “true historie” of the plot. And it must have witches! The King wants witches! But as Shag and the acting company of the Globe, under the direction of the great Richard Burbage, investigate the plot, they discover that the King’s version of the story might, in fact, be a cover-up.

Shag and his actors are confronted with the ultimate moral and artistic dilemma. Speak truth to power—and perhaps lose their heads? Or take the money and lie? Is there a third option—equivocation? 

Sounds good to me!

There are more coming up later in the spring, including Macbeth and Measure for Measure, but there isn't as much info about them as of yet.  Perhaps I'll have to do another extra post about them then!

Valentine's Day with the Bard

Happy Valentines Day from the bard!  Chicks will totally dig you if you give them this card for Valentine's Day. Trust me, I am a lady and I have a degree in Things Ladies Like.*  This is totally one of those things.

You could also go in the opposite direction, and get something like this:

Buy your cynical card here!

Then if we're being serious, there's always the lovely quote from Much Ado About Nothing:

Be a sap! Get em this card.

And if all else fails, just write her a sonnet.

*That is a wild exaggeration.

Let's Play Another Round of Actually...

Today we shall talk about something that drives me crazy.  Yes, you guessed right.  It's another segment of my self-righteous, corrective diatribe,

ACTUALLY....

Should be fun?  Maybe?

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Remake

Let's start at the beginning, with one of the most quoted lines of Shakespeare.  We turn to Romeo & Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2.

Juliet: 

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

O Romeo, Romeo, for the rest of my life I will have to listen to people assume that wherefore means where?  It does not.  So here it comes, y'all...

Actually...

Wherefore means why in this context.  Or 'for what reason.'  Which is something that can be discerned through the context and grammar of Juliet's speech.  If she were speaking directly to Romeo it would be "Wherefore art thou, Romeo" and there would be a comma, yes?  But there is not.  I know this is a minute detail, but context clues, guys!  I love them!

Additionally, why would she go on to lament his lineage after asking where he was?  "Where are you, Romeo?  Deny your heritage and refuse your own name" makes much less sense than "Why are you Romeo? Deny your heritage and refuse your own name."  She is implying that it is his name that tethers him to the Montagues - which makes a lot of sense in the worlds in which the play was written and set.  Your name was everything if you had a good one and nothing if you did not. And yet she tells him to cast it off and vows that if he can't, then he needs only swear to love her and she would be willing to swear off her own name.  Makes WAY more sense, right?

Which brings me to a concession/correction I must make.  I have... bemoaned the great adoration Romeo and Juliet have gotten culturally as lovers.  But only in so much as I think there are other great lovers in Shakespeare that I find more moving, and that I believe comparing yourself to them implies a less-than-full understanding of their predicament or the messages of the play itself.

None of that detracts from the beauty of the famous balcony scene.  Why, just look at this!  Juliet asks into the darkness that Romeo deny his name, and he agrees to so willingly that when she asks who it is that visits her in the darkness, he says, "By a name/ I know not how to tell thee who I am/ My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,/ Because it is an enemy to thee."  He takes her metaphor and runs with it, beautifully.

And she says, "Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?"  His reply: "Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike."  Which is not only lovely and ties in to the shirking of their names, but by referring to her as 'saint,' he has now twice referenced their first conversation, where they discussed what saints and palmers do to show affection. ("Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?")

Anyway. my point has been lost somewhere, but suffice to say, Wherefore means WHY and people perpetrate this misconception all. the. time.

Did this feel like a lecture?  My condolences.

From Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film version of R&J