I Still Don't Like Shakespeare
One thing that I forgot to mention last night is that I saw a DVD of a performance of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. It was one of the most hilarious performances that I've seen in ages. Basically, the idea is for three guys to perform the 37 plays of Shakespeare in about an hour and half with a lot of improvisation, audience participation and various other bits of hilarity.
A friend with whom I only talked on irc, back in 1993, invited me to go see one of their performances not long after I arrived on my first trip to Boston. I turned his invitation down, saying that I didn't like Shakespeare. I later regretted it, because I suspected that I would have enjoyed it. Now that I've seen the DVD, I'm sure I would have. To this day, I haven't met that friend in person and I don't think his DVD is available on Netflix.
In any case, I highly recommend and urge you to rent the DVD of the Complete Works of Shakespare (Abridged) at your earliest convenience.
I saw them in person in London. Very good stuff, particularly since they tend to work in current events into their routine.
ReplyDeleteI find that while I don't like all Shakespeare (and much of it is quite bad), really good Shakespeare is quite good. I saw a great Romeo and Juliet in high school, and Kenneth Branaugh's Much Ado About Nothing is quite a fine movie.
Yes, I'm sure that some productions of Shakespeare can be quite good. It's just that most of the ones I've seen haven't been that great and I haven't enjoyed reading any of the plays either.
ReplyDeleteI put Much Ado About Nothing on my Netflix queue. Thanks for the recommendation!