random acts of shakespeare.

As I stated in a post a few weeks ago, I want to summarize my contact with Shakespeare through the week. I'll try to make these random Shakespeare posts over the weekends. And now, I'll begin.

One. My husband and I watched Titus, and although I've never read the play, I can without a doubt say that this has to be the most brutal and tragic of all Shakespeare plays. Although there was the visual elements that aided in making the drama more extreme, I tried to focus mostly on the language and the story so that I can make the claim that Titus Andronicus is darker than any Shakespearean tragedy I've ever read. Other than that, I thought it was a very interesting film with a lot of interesting visual elements. I would be interested in reading this play at some future date too. The film really sparked my interest in what seems to be a very heavy play.

Two. Yesterday I accompanied my husband and my parents to see BYU's experimental theater's Much Ado About Nothing. I thought it was very entertaining, and the audience seemed to really be enjoying all the bantering too. One thing that my husband pointed out was that this production of the play focused more on Hero and Claudio's relationship, which is not what I would call the highlight of the entire play, so that was interesting. Something that I was impressed with was the renditions of the actual songs from the play. That was great hearing "Sigh no more lady" in 40s style music. Fun stuff. Overall we all enjoyed the play, and I thought it was worth it to see a student's version of one of Shakespeare's great comedies.

And these, ladies and gentlemen, are some random acts of Shakespeare.

shakespeare through the week.

Even though I've decided on a focus for research for the remaining of the semester, I thought I would still do a bit of Shakespeare randomness on the weekends; sort of a culmination of Shakespearean oddities of any sort I find during the week. This week I only came across two items.

One. While searching the Shakespeare section of the HBLL, I came across a dissertation (at least I'd like to think it to be) on "Shakespear:" How embarrassing, right?

Two. I read Psycho yesterday for my Gothic literature and film class, and I found a happy note from Mr. Bates:

Norman finished shaving and washed his hands again. He'd noticed this compulsion in himself, particularly during the past week. Guilt feelings. A regular Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare had known a lot about psychology. Norman wondered if he had known other things too. There was the ghost of Hamlet's father, for example (Bloch, 94-95).

Well Norman, you were right about one thing at least...Shakespeare did know about ALL sorts of things!

just because.

Since this very well might be my last post on Hamlet, I'll just go ahead and share these finds now.