Thanks a lot for replying. You have a very balanced and thoughtful view on the subject. I've never seen it on a traditional bare stage but if I'm ever in London or Austin at a convenient time (been to both places a long time ago, but didn't see a play) it would be great to see that.
I don't go to stage shows that often, but when I do, it tends to be at modernist theatres that have certain things in common with Elizabethan, ancient Greek and Asian traditions.
Few props, anything that needs to be moved is moved in front of the audience, between acts, actors enter and exit through regular doors and are just plain more a part of the audience's environment than what became the standard European stage.
As far as movies, I tend to enjoy Shakespearean movies that are set in different (real or hypothetical) times and places than the time periods the originals were set. It gives the illusion that there is some sort of fantastic Shakespearian parallel universe.
I liked the Richard III set in a fictitious Fascist Britain in the 30s or 30s-like civilization. I also (stone me if you must, LOL) like the 1996 Romeo + Juliet for the vibrant setting and the very fact that the actors were trying to and in my opinion often succeeding in speaking Elizabethan English conversationally.
Sometimes they used their potentially awkward deliveries to enhance the hesitation, confusion or overwhelming emotion of the character, making me feel what it would be like to flirt with my father's worst enemy right under his nose, reveal that I had broken into my love's private courtyard (you really would have to choose the perfect moment) getting caught in the middle of a deadly street fight because some idiot had to bite his thumb, etc.
The 2000 version of Hamlet set in a contemporary Manhattan like our but where corporations are ruled directly by families, can get away with obvious murder instead of sneaking around and of course, speak Elizabethan English was very classy, but kind of dull for Hamlet.
Throne of Blood (Japanese Macbeth) is my favorite adaptation that changes the language and culture completely and even changes the value system by making the assassination of the Duncan surrogate karmic retribution for his own violent rise to power.
As far as costume drama movies, I do still love the 1968 Romeo and Juliet everyone saw in school, even if it's a little too sanitized, it was very touching. The version of Othello with Lawrence Fishburne was beautiful, but I agree with a lot of critics that it failed to establish Othello's character and made him a helpless victim of Iago.
Maybe Shakespeare was a more profound thinker than I give him credit for, but I don't so much think he "invented" the (modern, self-motivated, self-conscious) human as reflected it. He was living at the beginning of the modern era and was clearly fascinated by the increasing influence of the private self, personal ambition, assertiveness and defiance of tradition.
This puts him in opposition of the fatalistic classical ideas about drama, as well as stories of the time where fidelity to conventional morals was rewarded or disobedience punished. He walked a fine line between rebelliousness and preserving the status quo.
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