Book Note: William Shakespeare: Complete Works—The Royal Shakespeare Company Edition

Shakespeare, William. William Shakespeare: Complete Works. [The RSC Shakespeare.] 2nd edition. Ed. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. New York: The Modern Library, 2022.

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At some point, I'd like to do a "Book Note" post on each of the complete Shakespeares I have.  But that time hasn't arrived yet—though I do have a post on the New Cambridge complete works (for which, q.v.).

But I do want to talk about the Royal Shakespeare Company complete Shakespeare, mainly because it provides something other complete works lack: Devoted attention to historic performance of the plays.

By that, I don't mean the survey provided in every Arden single edition. In this volume, we learn what the RSC has done with key lines and scenes throughout its history.

First, true to much modern acting practice, the RSC complete works uses the First Folio as its starting point.  Here's what the General Introduction has to say about that (on page 51): 

Second, the preface notes that the first edition provided a distinction between stage directions specifically given in the First Folio and those that can be deduced from the text—something of an innovation in that edition. About this, the preface says "The idea was to allow readers to construct an imaginary performance in their head" (13).  But this second edition has "replaced these platonic performances with a hundred actual ones" (13).

Third, let me provide Act III, scene i of Hamlet (and the "Key Facts" section on that play) by way of example. For this play, three productions (P for production) are referenced: P1 = 2008 with Gregory Doran as director (the Stewart / Tennant Hamlet), P2 = The 2013 Hamlet directed by David Farr, P3 = Simon Godwin's 2016 production.

And that's just a sample of the richness that can be gleaned by considering how past directors and actors have staged the text.

The Royal Shakespeare Company edition of Shakespeare's complete works is ideal for the scholar who is interested in performance, for the actor or director who wants to explore the imaginative range of past productions, and for the student who gravitates more toward practical explanation than scholarly footnotes. 

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FoxTrot Friday on a Sunday?

Amend, Bill. "Comparative Studies." FoxTrot.com. Posted December 1, 2024. https://foxtrot.com/2024/12/01/comparative-studies/.

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Here at Bardfilm, we try to keep our finger on the pulse of Bill Amend's FoxTrot.

And our finger is particularly sensitive when it comes to Shakespeare in FoxTrot.

Ah, whom are we kidding?

I just like to read the Sunday FoxTrots online; I also take almost any opportunity to talk about Shakespeare.

In today's strip, Andy is grilling Paige about her homework. "Where's the Shakespeare?" I hear you ask. Well, it's in the English paper that Paige has only just begun, naturally!

I'm inferring that the paper is on Shakespeare because of the longstanding tradition of the Fox kids' educational expectations. From personal experience, I'm inferring that the two sentences Paige has "written" for her essay are "Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle toward my hand?" and "Come, let me clutch thee."

[Paige has unwisely chosen to begin her essay with a quotation rather than seizing that important opening for herself with her own words.]

These Shakespearean layers add much to the humor of today's FoxTrot comic. Here at Bardfilm, we look forward to even more. Keep the Shakespeare allusions and quotations and references coming, Mr. Amend!

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Links: The Comic at Foxtrot.com.

Shakespeare in Grosse Pointe Blank

Grosse Pointe Blank. Dir. George Armitage. Perf. John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Mitchell Ryan, and Dan Akyroyd. 1997. DVD. Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment, n.d.

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I first saw Grosse Pointe Blank in a small theatre in a small town in Maine. The top floor was the cinema; the bowling alley was on the ground floor.

The film is about a hit man who goes back to his hometown for his tenth high school reunion and tries to re-ignite a relationship with an old flame.

Despite its having an all-star cast and critical and popular acclaim, I didn't like it. It has an interesting premise . . . once you get past the idea that the writers seem to have been thinking "How can we make a high school comedy with actors who are clearly no longer in high school? I mean, they got away with it in The Breakfast Club, but that technique strains credulity a bit too much." But it didn't go anywhere interesting with the premise.

Many people have recommended that I re-watch it. "You must have been in a bad mood when you saw it." "The noise of bowling downstairs must have distracted you."  "I can't believe you don't love this film!"

And I think I gave in at one point and watched it again, but I didn't like it any better. But then someone played the ace up their sleeve: "Didn't you like the Shakespeare in the film?"

Well, that did it, and I re-watched it. Note: You can probably get me to watch just about any stick if you proffer Shakespeare as a carrot.

But I still didn't like it much, and now I'm a bit resentful that there wasn't more Shakespeare. I was thinking I might have missed an entire Shakespearean subplot.

No such luck. There's not even enough to make extracting a video clip worthwhile. But here are some stills with all the Shakespeare in Grosse Pointe Blank. First, a modern paraphrase of a couple lines from a song in The Merchant of Venice delivered by the old flame during one of her radio broadcasts:

That, naturally, is a play on the song Portia has the singers sing before Bassanio makes his choice: "Tell me, where is fancy bred, / Or in the heart or in the head?" (III.ii.63–64). And the message is, I suppose, what Bassanio says: "So may the outward shows be least themselves" (III.ii.73). Perhaps her old flame, who stood her up on prom night, has some interior goodness. And, from the audience perspective, perhaps this hit man has a heart of gold.

The only other Shakespeare in the film is a flippant quote from the woman's father:

For those of you keeping score, that's from Hamlet (II.ii.303–04, slightly misquoted). Perhaps it, too, points toward the awesome nature of the human spirit, even if it be hidden in a quintessence of dust.

To sum it all up, I haven't changed my mind. But I had not noticed the Shakespeare before, so I'm glad of that.

And the film has a terrific soundtrack—we can't gainsay that.

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Links: The Film at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the film from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

All the Devils Are Here at the Guthrie

Page, Patrick. All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain. Perf. Patrick Page. Dir. Simon Godwin. Guthrie Theatre. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2024.

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All the Devils are Here is part theatre history, part lecture, part Shakespearean acting, and all great.

I first heard about the show when it opened in New York City, and I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to see it.

But I'm very glad I did.

Patrick Page takes us chronologically through nine Shakespeare villains, providing context (including villains written by Shakespeare's contemporaries), backstory (including some speculative but reasonable elements), and enacted scenes (including playing multiple roles in a given selection).

The program provides a "Villain Scorecard" with somewhat tongue-in-cheek commentary about each of the villains Page covers. I'm providing that as the best overview of the contents of the show:

The show is well worth seeing. It's both educational and entertaining, and the choices and the acting are top-notch.

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Links: Tickets at the Guthrie.

Shakespeare in FoxTrot's Deliciously FoxTrot

Amend, Bill. Deliciously FoxTrot. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2021.

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I hardly need to admit that I've occasionally needed to stretch things quite a bit, to make dubiously-warranted assumptions, and to fill in gaps that might not have needed filling in an attempt to find tangential or downright hidden Shakespeare references in FoxTrot books for FoxTrot Fridays. 

I don't need to admit it because you've noticed.

But I trust that the humor of FoxTrot's Bill Amend has entertained even the most skeptical of Bardfilm's readers.

But today, we have Deliciously FoxTrot, a collection that comes through with two very strong Shakespeare-related comics.

In the first, we see how Jason has gathered school supplies suitable for each of his subjects—including his English class: 

In the second, we have Paige subliminally taking on the characteristics of Lady Macbeth:

That second one is made all the better by the title (the collections of Sunday comics have that extra place for an extra joke).

As always, I'm eager to see what our next FoxTrot Friday will have.  But this time, I'm saddened by the knowledge that we're getting close to the end of the published books.

Please keep producing such masterful work, Bill Amend!  And don't forget the Shakespeare angle.

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Click below to purchase the book from amazon.com
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Shakespeare on Fantasy Island

“The Tallowed Image / Room and Bard.” By Alan Brennert. Perf. Ricardo Montalban, Hervé Villechaize, Lloyd Bochner, Audrey Landers, and Robert Reed. Dir. Carl Kugel. Fantasy Island. Season 6, episode 12. NETWORK. 29 January 1983. 

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I've known for a good while that there was an episode of Fantasy Island that featured (at least in part) William Shakespeare. For a little while, I have known that Shakespeare was played by Robert Reed of Brady Bunch fame. But, for some reason, DVD releases of Fantasy Island have been few and far between—only the first three seasons have been released, and Shakespeare doesn't show up until Season 6! That's one reason I had to fantasize about a Fantasy Island / Tempest crossover (for which, q.v.). 

But I knew that it wouldn't be long before it came my way (how it came my way is another matter), and I've enjoyed the Shakespeare half of the episode (for anyone who wants to know, the other story is about wax museums and Victorian London—with a horror flavor).

In the plot, famed actress Angela Markham arrives on Fantasy Island wanting to meet Shakespeare—but not to commit random acts of bardolotry or to learn what life was like in Shakespeare's day. She simply wants to act for him and to receive affirmation that she is a good actress.

Due to some fantastical mishap, Shakespeare ends up on Fantasy Island instead of Angela Markham showing up in Elizabethan England (the show doesn't trouble too much with the details, so neither shall I). Angela persuades Shakespeare to write a scene for her to act so that she can show her acting chops. Unfortunately, Shakespeare is suffering from writer's block. And he's being pursued by a man from his own time who thinks that Shakespeare is after his wife (which he sort of has been but also sort of hasn't). And the man has the support of Queen Elizabeth, who will not shed many tears if Shakespeare is killed.

But we soon come to realize precisely where Shakespeare is in his career: This is early Shakespeare, with many of his best plays yet to be written (we can suspend our disbelief when we're told that Angela is going to be at the Globe theatre, which means that he's already written everything up to 1599 at least, including Much Ado About Nothing, which is a phrase that this Shakespeare has either never heard before or never considered). If Shakespeare dies on Fantasy Island (or, I suppose, anywhere else) at the hand of the jealous husband, we'll never get Hamlet (among others).

Here's a brief edit of the episode for your entertainment, amusement, and edification:

I'm impressed at how well Tattoo knows his Shakespeare—including recognizing a Congreve quote (or paraphrase) as non-Shakespearean.

Among the other interesting things are the insights into Shakespeare's writing process and the strange temporal shift that enables a speech from a yet-unwritten (from Shakespeare's point of view) play to be delivered and then made the foundation of The Pedlar of Venice.

I'm always looking for rare Shakespeare-related things (including these items in "The Holy Grail of Shakespeare and Film" post and its comments)—so let me know if you've been able to track down anything!

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

Click below to purchase season one of the show from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

Book Note: Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

Dench, Judith, and Brendan O'Hea. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2024.

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The key to enjoying Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent to its fullest is to align your expectations with the book. You won't find an autobiography of Judi Dench here. You also won't find uniformly deep Shakespearean analysis. And don't expect a straightforward memoir.

Do approach the book recognizing that it's a somewhat rambling collection of hundreds of anecdotes, thoughts, memories, commentary, and other bits, most of them quite fascinating. Imagine that you've been invited to tea with Brendan O'Hea and Dame Judi (but you've been cautioned not to interrupt)—you'll have a grand old time listening to the wide-ranging conversation.

I highly recommend that you read this book—or, possibly better yet, listen to the audiobook version. The reader who provides the Judi Dench sections isn't exactly doing an impression, but she certainly performs her sections in the style of Dame Judi. 

Either way, the book is great for dipping into and gleaning some wisdom or insight into plays and characters that you may or may not have thought about before. Whether you know the characters and plays or not, you'll find rewarding nuggets.

I can't give you the entirety of the book, but I can give you a sample of Dame Judi's thoughts on one of her earliest roles: that of Ophelia. The parts in italics are Brendan O'Hea's; those in roman type are Judi Dench's.

It goes on from there and includes her thoughts on Gertrude. As you can see, it's not altogether focused, but it doesn't suffer at all if you're not expecting it to be.

As a final sample, I thought we would all benefit from "Dame Judi's Advice to the Players":

Grab a copy today and start gleaning!

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Shakespeare in FoxTrot's Mother is Coming

Amend, Bill. Mother is Coming. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2018.

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For this week's FoxTrot Friday, I admittedly had to do a bit of stretching in one way or another . . . but you'll see that the payoff in the final comic here is worth it.

When we're looking for Shakespeare in FoxTrot, we often find it in the older kids' coursework. And where we're not told absolutely specifically that there's Shakespeare there, we can make a fair (at least to the brain of the Shakespeare aficionado) assumption.

That's the case here. Surely there's some Shakespeare included in the "tons of homework" Mrs. Fox mentions in the first panel: 

Although Shakespeare isn't usually part of Jason's curriculum, it is part of his world. Here's something of a Gravedigger Scene from Hamlet:

I don't know about you, but it only takes the first syllable of Shakespeare's name for me to start thinking about the Bard. Stir in a little Taylor Swift, and it's hard not to have a very subtle Shakespeare allusion:

In the next comic, there's a little backstory for all of the Shakespeare assignments in Peter's courses:

Finally, we have a clear and direct Shakespeare reference. Because he did not do well on a Hamlet exam last year, Peter has a plan for this time around:

One of the wondering things about FoxTrot is that even the ones that have to be stretched to detect even a modicum of Shakespeare are immensely enjoyable.

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Click below to purchase the book from amazon.com
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More Shakespearean Deep Cuts from The Office

"The Girl Next Door." By Kelly Hannon, Jonathan Hughes, and Mary Wall. Perf. Ellie Kemper, Mindy Kaling, and B.J. Novak. Dir. Mindy Kaling. The Office. Season 8. Webisode. DVD. Universal Studios, 2009.

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Once again, it's time to dive deeply into the Shakespeare-related material in The Office—deeper than the broadcast episodes or even the deleted scenes.

This time, we're heading to the Season 8 webisodes. 

In "The Girl Next Door," we're presented with a music video that Ryan and Kelly and Erin have made. Not far into it, we get another of several references to Romeo and Juliet in The Office . . . together with a more-unexpected use of Antony and Cleopatra:

Romeo and Juliet are used—as they often are—as shorthand for the most desirable romantic relationship imaginable. Then Antony and Cleopatra are brought in for the same purpose.  And then we get the pay off. Here are the relevant lyrics of the clip above:

Kelly's Role: 

I'm just the girl next door,
But that's how it goes:
You only see me
As one of your bros.

Erin's Role:

I'm rich and I'm skinny
And I have high self esteem.
People say that I could be
A pageant queen.

 

Kelly's Role:

We could be just like Juliet and Romeo—
Cleopatra and Mark Antony

Both Together:

Or Marc Anthony and Jay Lo!

Once ShakespeareGeek explained to me that the last line was about the 2004 to 2014 marriage of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, I saw the humor in that. To my credit, though, I had already picked up on the Shakespeare by that point.

It's in Kelley's character to understand Shakespearean romantic couples by means of a contemporary and (to her) more relevant pairing.

But the overall message is clear: Keep searching for Shakespeare! He may turn up in the most unexpected places.

[As a side note, the song itself is reminiscent of some mid-twenty-oughts Taylor Swift.]

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the season from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

Book Note: The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet

Bloedel, Peter. The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet. In Random Acts of Comedy: Fifteen Hit One-Act Plays for Student Actors, edited by Jason Pizzarello. Playscripts, Inc., 2011.

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By circuitous routes that I can't quite remember at present, I chanced up The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet.

It's a madcap comic romp through the world of Shakespeare's tragedy performed in the style of Dr. Seuss (while loudly denying that that's what it's doing).

I'd like to see a performance, but I'm hesitant to recommend it. I've read a fair number of things in the style of Dr. Seuss, and the most successful ones rigorously adhere to the Dr. Seuss rhythm.  It's very difficult to do at all, and it's even harder to do well—yet it can be done. When it isn't, we're basically left with rhymed couplets that fall flat rather than flying glibly and energetically above a world of words.

This one doesn't do that. To make the rhythm work, you must stress unstressed (and often unstressable) syllables, and it all bogs down.

Here's a quick sample that includes their version of the play's infamous prologue:

I don't mind the zaniness of the plot, and I like the way they keep the ending from being tragic—but it has to start with perfection in the rhythm of Seuss.

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Shakespeare in FoxTrot's Some Clever Title: A FoxTrot Collection Blah Blah Blah

Amend, Bill. Some Clever Title: A FoxTrot Collection Blah Blah Blah. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2016.

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Welcome back for another FoxTrot Friday!

The volume Some Clever Title: A FoxTrot Collection Blah Blah Blah is the third of the Sundays-only FoxTrot books. 

There are fewer comics in those volumes, which means less opportunity for Shakespeare to find his way in. 

Yet there are a number of possibilities in this one! The first has an allusion to Hamlet:

Hamlet has to be cruel only to be kind to his mother; here, the mother is considering whether to be cruel or kind to her son.

The next one is more about Shakespearean costuming than the text of Shakespeare:

Martin Goldthwait is going for "muse" here, but I'm reading Puck or the person representing As You Like It's Hymen, the god of marriage ceremonies or (at a pinch) Julius Caesar.

The last in this collection is one I've written about before (for which, q.v.), but it loses nothing in the retelling.

Thanks for joining us for FoxTrot Friday. We shall see what the future holds.

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Click below to purchase the book from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).