The Friendly Shakespeare differs from other books on Shakespeare in that it is not a work of academic criticism, a handbook to help students write term papers, or a coffee table book extolling the beauties of the Bard with glossy pictures of Anne Hathaway's cottage. Its aim is to introduce the reader to the Shakespearean spirit in all its forms, from the commercialism of Stratford to the lyricism of Romeo and Juliet. (Preface, A Note to the Reader, xii-xiii)The Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard, by Norrie Epstein has been sitting on my bookshelf for an embarrassingly long time. I have loved Shakespeare since seventh grade since Mrs. Hladky, a stern grey woman who taught the accelerated classes, assigned Othello and took several seventh graders on an overnight trip (O! Brave woman!) to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to watch the play.
Oops, lost my train of thought. I just spent a half an hour on the Shakespeare festival website trying to decide when to take teenaged lovely lady to see Romeo and Juliet. In the Elizabethan theater. The last time I saw a play in the Elizabethan theater I was 16 or so, and my mom and I stopped in Ashland on the spur of the moment and got last-minute tickets to Cymbeline. We had to rent blankets because it was chilly out. So I'm thinking that waiting for cheap-seat October to take lovely lady might not be a great idea.
Back to The Friendly Shakespeare. The reason it's been sitting on my shelf for so long is that somewhere between seventh grade and graduating college, I decided that Shakespeare is wonderful but hard. Shakespeare is for smart people, ultra-intellectuals, people who understand things. So, while I've got a few lovely Shakespeare books on my shelf, rather than being lovingly well-worn, they were always on the mental "Yeah, I should read that" list. The elder of the lovely ladies and I decided that it would be nice to explore a little Shakespeare this year, and as I frantically combed through Shakespear resources and read about teaching Shakespeare to young people I realized that I wasn't intimidated by Shakespeare, I was intimidated by what I thought were the expectations of Shakespeare readers. His works aren't meant to be analyzed and picked to death until you wish your brains would just leak out your ears so that you don't have to endure one more second of tedium. As indicated in the quote above, Epstein's book is an antidote to that kind of thinking about Shakespeare.
The obvious first step to falling back in love with Shakespeare was just getting out the plays and reading some of them again, and checking out videos from the library and setting the Tivo to record anything that has to do with Shakespeare. Having a young person to teach, particularly a young person who thinks "Ooo!" instead of "Ugh!" when I say "Let's start some Shakespeare!" is a huge boost too. I started by giving lovely lady some Friday afternoons off from regular schoolwork to watch Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream. As for reading and learning about Shakespeare, The Friendly Shakespeare was a great place to start falling in love with Shakespeare all over again. It's a book written by someone who loves Shakespeare for people who want to become more familiar with Shakespeare without being overwhelmed or preached at or bored to death.
On reading The Friendly Shakespeare, Epstein writes, "Don't feel compelled to read this book from cover to cover: It's meant to be dipped into and browsed through at your leisure, because Shakespeare should never be a duty." Though I've read straight through, the book is certainly structured in such a way that dipping and skimming and skipping around is encouraged. I mean this next comment in a most complimentary way: The Friendly Shakespeare is a sort of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader for Shakespeare lovers-- The entire book is divided into small sections, each only a few pages long, most interesting, and none of which take long to read. Topics addressed include general comments on and themes found in Shakespeare's plays, a separate section for each individual play (excepting a few that Epstein elected to skip), individual characters from the plays and the actors who played them from Richard Burbage on, the sonnets, Elizabethan history and politics, and more. Some favorite topics so far: Hints on Reading Shakespeare Aloud, A Glossary of Shakespeare Invective, Why Is Shakespeare Boring?, and Hamletology. The text is interspersed with quotes by famous writers, literary critics, actors, directors, and others who have something interesting to say about Shakespeare and his works. It's been a perfect re-introduction to Shakespeare, his life and works, and there's interesting information about Elizabethan life, politics, language and culture as well.
I mentioned setting our Tivo to record all things Shakespeare. Last week loving husband and I watched Shakespeare Behind Bars, a documentary following a production of The Tempest put on by prison inmates, and a film version of Hamlet set in the year 2000, starring Ethan Hawke as Hamlet. Both fascinating.
Shakespeare Behind Bars is more about the behind bars part than the Shakespeare, but it was a fascinating glimpse into prison life, the prison theater program, and how the prisoners approach Shakespeare and his themes. The Shakespeare Behind Bars website touts the film as inspiring and about human triumph. Both loving husband and I agreed that the film (and the Shakespeare production itself) did afford the men dignity and allowed us to see them as people beyond their crimes. The themes of redemption and dignity certainly ran throughout the film. And the film also gives us a clear view of the crimes that the men have committed that got them to prison in the first place. We came away with as many questions as we did inspiration. Good questions, not easily answered. The documentary was well-done. It's worth watching.
Hamlet. In light of my new resolution to enjoy rather than feel that I have to analyze and intellectualize, it was wonderful. It's set in the year 2000, but using Shakespeare's original language. I enjoyed it. I understood it. Ethan Hawke was good as Hamlet. I had a hard time with Bill Murray as Polonius, but maybe that's just because Groundhog Day and What About Bob? are stuck in my head. The adaptation to modern times was brilliant-- cell phones, faxes, limos, video. Another movie well worth the time spent.
1 comment:
This sounds really great. Last week on my blog I reviewed the Shakespeare Stealer series of books.
They have gotten me curious to dip into Shakespeare again, and am contemplating doing just what you've suggested--watching some movies, and reading up on him, so this book sounds great. Then I'll read a play and try to enjoy it as you said.
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