excellent Shakespeare list. big gap around his 'miracle year'. intentional? irrelevant?
also, just watched the BBC Coriolanus. Alan Howard, Joss Ackland. some damn fine actors we've lost. Alan Howard especially i think was somewhat underrated
Has anyone found Mark Rylance's Richard II performance on video!? For the life of me I can't find it but the internet says it exists. There are also some snippets on YouTube...
I’m going to put this comment right here as it’s a bit tangential to tomorrow night’s discussion of The Dream, but… this is the play performed by the travelling Shakespeare troupe in Emily St John Mandel’s excellent novel Station Eleven. Turns out that what a small town audience of survivors needs twenty years post- apocalypse, is a spellbinding performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
ah interesting, there is some related performance history that I learned about recently, it has been popular in authoritarian countries, where the Maying as an escape from Theseus has been seen as quite profound
I'm excited for this schedule (so maybe I've answered my own question), but I'm wondering if there's a particular reason for this slate of plays, in this order. Was there a particular theme or scheme that I've missed?
The point that you and Tyler made so strongly in that conversation - that you might get to know and understand Shakespeare better by reading and re-reading than by seeing the plays in performance - hadn't ever occurred to me. I grew up experiencing Shakespeare, despite reading *many* plays, as something that we acted out badly at school and you needed to see in the theatre. It wouldn't work except in performance - apart from Coriolanus and Antony & Cleopatra and Volpone, which I deep dived into at eighteen. But most things seemed a bit insipid in the light of Greek tragedy and Homer, which was electrifying. (Did Classics.)
So I think I had parked Shakespeare in a siding labelled 'drama, odd genre I don't understand'. Whereas it was easy to discover the C19 novel, then C20 poetry, and their wonders.
Perhaps this was just a case of inheriting a particular mindset in a particular place and time. But I wonder how many people see Shakespeare as a necessary part of the canon, not as fabulous reading for grownups. Like reading the King James Bible. I hasten to add, I did some home schooling for my kids and we did read. and wrote about, lots of Shakespeare.
So - I've missed a lot of my favourites, but still looking forward to your upcoming Shakespeare year, especially Richard II and Coriolanus and Cymbeline.
oh sorry I see. I don't see it as an endpoint, but certainly as a high point. Can there be an endpoint to Shakespeare? The Romances seem like a reaction against Lear and Coriolanus. Two terribly dark plays about parental tragedy, unrelenting determinism that created a dead end----so he founds ways to tell those stories with compromised resolutions, hacking back to redemption through luck, chance, sorrow, and persistence. I don't think that's an endpoint either though...
Henry a question - which editions do you prefer at the moment? I have a stack of Arden editions. They are great for studying but the footnotes are so extensive that they be a bit interrupting. I'm looking for something a little leaner.
Maybe try RSC or Cambridge? Cambs good for performance history. Oxford is quite lean but I don’t like them. The old penguin classics were perfect. Very few glossary notes , cheap paper, no intro. Alas.
Am much looking forward to tuning in (at least hopefully so!) for 'The Scott' from Sydney, Australia at 4.00am (our time) tomorrow morning, while thanks to the splendid Henry Oliver for his ongoing and ever omnipresent 'St Crispin's Day speeches' in defense of the humanities, with the rest of us, I trust, holding firm in support of him on those Agincourt fields that the barbarians have regrettably now colonised! With best to all, Marcus Adamson (International Shakespeare Association member).
alas, us California boys go to church at 11. shucks
excellent Shakespeare list. big gap around his 'miracle year'. intentional? irrelevant?
also, just watched the BBC Coriolanus. Alan Howard, Joss Ackland. some damn fine actors we've lost. Alan Howard especially i think was somewhat underrated
I felt we covered it this year and I wanted to stick to 10 plays. If I was going to add one more it would be MFM.
Has anyone found Mark Rylance's Richard II performance on video!? For the life of me I can't find it but the internet says it exists. There are also some snippets on YouTube...
I’m going to put this comment right here as it’s a bit tangential to tomorrow night’s discussion of The Dream, but… this is the play performed by the travelling Shakespeare troupe in Emily St John Mandel’s excellent novel Station Eleven. Turns out that what a small town audience of survivors needs twenty years post- apocalypse, is a spellbinding performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
ah interesting, there is some related performance history that I learned about recently, it has been popular in authoritarian countries, where the Maying as an escape from Theseus has been seen as quite profound
Do the links get sent automatically to subscribers? Keen to join on Sunday.
Yes it’s going out soon
I'm excited for this schedule (so maybe I've answered my own question), but I'm wondering if there's a particular reason for this slate of plays, in this order. Was there a particular theme or scheme that I've missed?
Chronology
That's a really good answer Henry. Thank you.
The point that you and Tyler made so strongly in that conversation - that you might get to know and understand Shakespeare better by reading and re-reading than by seeing the plays in performance - hadn't ever occurred to me. I grew up experiencing Shakespeare, despite reading *many* plays, as something that we acted out badly at school and you needed to see in the theatre. It wouldn't work except in performance - apart from Coriolanus and Antony & Cleopatra and Volpone, which I deep dived into at eighteen. But most things seemed a bit insipid in the light of Greek tragedy and Homer, which was electrifying. (Did Classics.)
So I think I had parked Shakespeare in a siding labelled 'drama, odd genre I don't understand'. Whereas it was easy to discover the C19 novel, then C20 poetry, and their wonders.
Perhaps this was just a case of inheriting a particular mindset in a particular place and time. But I wonder how many people see Shakespeare as a necessary part of the canon, not as fabulous reading for grownups. Like reading the King James Bible. I hasten to add, I did some home schooling for my kids and we did read. and wrote about, lots of Shakespeare.
So - I've missed a lot of my favourites, but still looking forward to your upcoming Shakespeare year, especially Richard II and Coriolanus and Cymbeline.
Those are three great plays to b e sure
Sorry, in the wrong place. This was a response to your reply about Lear and the Romances.
I realise I missed the boat with last year, but did you do a book club session on Lear?
we did not, too harrowing
Okay, makes sense.
So Lear is to be approached finally, as a sort of endpoint of understanding?
it is not on the list for this year.... no idea if we will do more Shakespeare next year or not...
No, I meant in your view of how one reads Shakespeare.
oh sorry I see. I don't see it as an endpoint, but certainly as a high point. Can there be an endpoint to Shakespeare? The Romances seem like a reaction against Lear and Coriolanus. Two terribly dark plays about parental tragedy, unrelenting determinism that created a dead end----so he founds ways to tell those stories with compromised resolutions, hacking back to redemption through luck, chance, sorrow, and persistence. I don't think that's an endpoint either though...
Bother, my reply's gone up in the wrong place. I was responding to your reply here.
Henry a question - which editions do you prefer at the moment? I have a stack of Arden editions. They are great for studying but the footnotes are so extensive that they be a bit interrupting. I'm looking for something a little leaner.
Maybe try RSC or Cambridge? Cambs good for performance history. Oxford is quite lean but I don’t like them. The old penguin classics were perfect. Very few glossary notes , cheap paper, no intro. Alas.
Thank you. I shall investigate.
Will this be going ahead for 2026 by any chance?
Next years schedule?
Am much looking forward to tuning in (at least hopefully so!) for 'The Scott' from Sydney, Australia at 4.00am (our time) tomorrow morning, while thanks to the splendid Henry Oliver for his ongoing and ever omnipresent 'St Crispin's Day speeches' in defense of the humanities, with the rest of us, I trust, holding firm in support of him on those Agincourt fields that the barbarians have regrettably now colonised! With best to all, Marcus Adamson (International Shakespeare Association member).
I am really cosidering it for this year, timing is a bit inconvinient