Tlingit Shakespeare

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by barefoot serpent

saw it last night:

OMG... we're just underachievers making up for lost time.

... thought I was gonna die!

Did you see the director's interview at the end:
"We basically made this movie for stoners who just read the Cliff notes.!"

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Well, it's in English, so I can read the words, but someone is going to have to explain what this means?
Italics, theirs.

I'm gobsmacked. What is Macbeth reimagined?

Like Ian McKellen's Richard III in a WWII-ish setting.

[seakdivers]

I have no idea of what this whole Tlinget/ Shakespeare thing is about - they are probably from Juneau or Ketchikan, not Sitka.

I like the ode to my BBQ!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thank You.

[Cloud]

what, you don't think the Tlingit people can relate to madness, murder, and betrayal?

I'm just happy to see Shakespeare played at all, and happy that disparate cultures can embrace it.

[Aliantha]

What about Romeo and Juliette? That's been redone so many times it's not funny. Along with many many many other shakespeare plays.

Every mills and boon novel is a taming of the shrew (just about).

Not to mention that practically every high school student has to create their own interpretation of one or the other of shakespeares plays.

I'm not sure what the problem is here. It's interpretational theatre. That's an expression of self, or in other words, art.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I'm gobsmacked. What is Macbeth reimagined? Somebody takes Macbeth and changes it so it's not Macbeth? wtf? Why?
If they say were doing an original work, they won't sell as many seats, but name dropping will draw a crowd?

It could be worse.

It could be in Klingon.

Shakespeare being so well known has caused any number of theatre directors to feel the need to do something about the same old play seen over and over and over again, so they change the setting presumably to underline the universality of the themes. The "modern day" reimagining has been about done to death, but sometimes, a quirky film like Scotland, PA, takes things to a totally new level. Shakespeare is about the story and the emotion, not about the tights and doublet. Even Hamlet, which you'd think would be sacrosanct, has gotten the modern update treatment more than once. Akira Kurosawa steals a plotline from Shakespeare and he's brilliant, a bunch of guys in furs and feathers do it and it's mindboggling?

When you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way, from your first cigarette to your last dyin' day

I'd actually kind of like to see the Tlinglit Macbeth.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Cloud

what, you don't think the Tlingit people can relate to madness, murder, and betrayal?

Of course they can, they've been dealing with whites for hundreds of years.

I'm just happy to see Shakespeare played at all, and happy that disparate cultures can embrace it.

Why? Is this to their benefit in some way? Is no culture complete unless a smidgen of Shakespeare is shaken, not stirred, in to the mix?

Originally Posted by Aliantha

What about Romeo and Juliette? That's been redone so many times it's not funny. Along with many many many other shakespeare plays.
Every mills and boon novel is a taming of the shrew (just about).
Not to mention that practically every high school student has to create their own interpretation of one or the other of shakespeares plays.
I'm not sure what the problem is here. It's interpretational theatre. That's an expression of self, or in other words, art.

But why have these same plays been done to death? Why are they interpreted ad nausea? It's an expression of self to rehash the same thing again? You can't do it uniquely enough to be entirely original, because it's been done by so many, and still be recognizable as Shakespeare.

Originally Posted by wolf

Shakespeare being so well known has caused any number of theatre directors to feel the need to do something about the same old play seen over and over and over again, so they change the setting presumably to underline the universality of the themes. ~snip~
When you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way, from your first cigarette to your last dyin' day

I think your on to it, there.

OK, what is the value of Shakespeare? Why are the plays the subject of such adulation, the subject of countless lectures and the top dogs for actors?

They are old? No, lots of old writings aren't nearly revered.

The costumes? Nope, that even changes from production to production that are trying to maintain as much authenticity as possible.

The language? Strange sentence structure, words and spelling are pretty unique to that time, but if you're going to reimagine them, that uniqueness is lost.

The characters? Yeah, but if you reimagine the characters into a new time, place, and background, they aren't the same characters.

Plot/story line? Yes, those are timeless, founded in oral traditions, of the Minstrels and storytellers. They describe the basic truths about people, what they respond to, what makes them tick and the human condition.
I don't know if Willie was the first to put these basic plot lines on paper? Maybe he did it in a more entertaining way that anyone else had done. Or maybe he was in the right place at the right time, with a head full of plots and a command of the language, when the public was ready.

Yeah, I guess that must be it. When a theatrical production touches on any of those basic plot lines, Shakespeare gets credit, or name dropped, even though nothing else about the production, even remotely parallels Willie's originals.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Yeah, I guess that must be it. When a theatrical production touches on any of those basic plot lines, Shakespeare gets credit, or name dropped, even though nothing else about the production, even remotely parallels Willie's originals.

Um, if they are deliberately reimagining Shakespeare, then he should get credit.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Um, if they are deliberately reimagining Shakespeare, then he should get credit.

If I melt down a Ford into an ingot, then stamp out a Chevy, Ford should get credit? They have similar design elements, 4 wheels, engine, doors, etc.

[Griff]

'oH vam [a] [dagger] [which] jIH legh qaSpa' jIH


I need a better translator.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Griff

'oH vam [a] [dagger] [which] jIH legh qaSpa' jIH


I need a better translator.

They're working on it.

[Happy Monkey]

What makes you think that is what's happening? It's still Macbeth, as far as I can see.

[DanaC]

What makes Shakespeare so great is that his plays work, half a millennia after he wrote them. They deal with universal and fundamental human truths (that and knob gags)

Reinterpretation is just that.....it's taking the essence and applying it to a new setting, or using it to illuminate something in the now. I don't see it as a problem. I've seen some stunning ...and also awful...reinterpretations of Shakespeare's plays, both as straight drama, musical presentations and even a mime....(don't ask). I think it's great, that hundreds of years after MacBeth was first performed in England, a culture wholly alien to that England is drawing from that tradition and melding it with their own. Brilliant. Hope it works

BTW--for my money--Faust would be played by either Christopher Walken or Harvey Keitel.

ooooh.....Walken definately.

[Cloud]

I'm really frustrated with this thread. I don't understand what you are on about, Bruce, frankly. If you don't understand the value of Shakespeare, why do you care?

And I just flat out disagree that it stops being Shakespeare, or meaningful, if it is reinterpreted, no matter how outre. Furthermore, you might as well get over your distaste (or whatever it is), because he will continue to be reinterpreted, forever, if humanity is lucky. No one is making you see the thing, after all. I was actually disappointed when I found out my trip to DC was not going to intersect with its run.

I also really, LOATHE arguing for argument's sake, although I know a lot of people get into it. I was hoping this thread would die so I wouldn't feel the need to post again in it.