I should go shake my ears, shouldn't I?

[capri0mni]

It all started when alto2 infected me with this meme:

Your Score: Problem Plays

You scored 44% = Tragic, 55% = Comic, 21% = Romantic, 19% = Historic

You are the "Problem Plays!" The Problem Plays are a group of Shakespeare's plays that cannot be readily identified as either Tragedies or Comedies because they have an equal amount of both. The Problem Plays often present the protagonist with a situation that must be overcome, but after a toilsome journey, the hero almost always comes out on top! Often called "tragicomedies," the Problem Plays contain elements of dark psychological drama, light-hearted comedy, and a bit of romance. This means you are most likely a well-rounded individual with a perfect balance Tragedy, Romance, and Comedy in your life. While you may experience some hard times along the way, odds are you will fight through them and come out on top!

Link: The Which Shakespeare Play Are You? Test written by macbee on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(macbee)

"Well, 'one of the Problem Plays' is all right," thought I, "as long as that includes The Winter's Tale. I quite like The Winter's Tale; All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure, not quite as much." (I mean, they're both fine plays, as thought-provoking dramas go, but I wouldn't like to have the personality of either).

So then, I hopped over to Wikipedia, just to see what someone(s) said about that ("Some" include The Winter's Tale in that group of plays, but it's not unanimous).

Then, from the article on Problem Plays, I hopped over to the Winter's Tale article. And down toward the bottom, in the section on notable productions, was this sentence: "In 1980, David Jones (director), former Associate Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company chose to launch his new theatre company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with The Winter's Tale starring Brian Murray supported by Jones' new company at BAM.[5]". And the more I think about it, the more certain I am that I was in the audience for one of those performances. That was the year I was 16, and that would have been the year I was in tenth grade, when Don Fried was my English teacher, and had us studying Shakespeare. We weren't reading Winter's Tale for class, but he thought it important that we see Shakespeare acted, live, and if we did, we'd understand it (mostly), so we had a field trip into The City to see a Matinee. And I am pretty sure it was at the BAM.

Anyway, that got me all squeeful, remembering sitting in the audience, and thinking about how The Winter's Tale needs more defending, especially against the charge that Shakespeare didn't change much at all from his main source, except for a few changes in the names, and a few new characters.

So, now, I've got it into my head to read the entire source novel for the play (Pandosto, by Robert Greene) -- 20,000 or so words of 1595 English, with efs for esses, and all, so I can be sure of my points -- for no other reason than research for an LJ post. See what I mean?

I'm mad. A real Jennet!

Hee-Haw!

Comments

[pedanther]

Othello
(You scored 41% = Tragic, 55% = Comic, 17% = Romantic, 39% = Historic)

"You are the Tragedy of Othello: the Moor of Venice. Set in the beautiful "city on the sea", Othello tells the story of a Moorish general and the disastrous consequences that arise from jealousy and lies. What your score tells us about you is that you are most likely a very cunning person, who is able to get people to do what you want. People come to you for sage advice, and to confide in you their deepest secrets. Always the opportunist, you may, however, exploit this fact if an opportunity presents itself for your own personal gain. You're not all bad, though. Like Othello, you are probably very devoted to your friends and family and most likely very courageous. While a bit of an outsider, you are able to gain people's confidence and admiration. We certainly admire you!"

Most of that's rubbish, of course.


But I'm reminded that I have a recording somewhere of a spoof of Othello that was done for English radio many years ago: Bill Oddie plays Othello, with a broad rural English accent (he is, you see, a Yorkshire Moor...)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute -- Othello is more comic than tragic?!

I am beginning to wonder if the maker of this quiz has actually read any of the play, or just read they synopses.

L-/

And who's this "us"? is this Macbee using the royal plural?


(he is, you see, a Yorkshire Moor...)

*groan*

That's a Pun that Shakespeare would probably aprove of, though.

Oh, and that same English teacher in high school kept a little box of promotional twofer tickets on his desk, for his students to pick up if they were interested. So Mom and I went to see Othello in The City, with James Earl Jones in the title role.

[pedanther]

I think it's more a sign that the percentage scores and the play are actually two different results, separately calculated, rather than two expressions of the same result. The Othello result seems to be based on specific aspects of the questions (like "Intellect or emotion?", or "A few close friends or many vague acquaintances?"), not whether I gave the "comic" answer or the "historical" answer or whatever.


I remember reading that when the BBC was doing its complete works of Shakespeare in the 1970s, the director of their 'Othello' wanted to cast James Earl Jones, but the English actors' union wouldn't let him. (The ended up casting Anthony Hopkins, covering him in brown makeup, and telling anybody who asked that he was an Arabic Moor, not an African one.)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

(The ended up casting Anthony Hopkins, covering him in brown makeup, and telling anybody who asked that he was an Arabic Moor, not an African one.)

So it's more socially acceptible to offend people of Arabic descent than those of African descent?

*sigh*

Are you familiar with Michael Wood's program, In Search of Shakespeare? Throughout, Wood speaks and acts as if he's presenting facts, but it's really more speculation. Still, that speculation is interesting.

Here's a bit of the blurb/synopsis of the third of four episodes:

Finally we meet black Elizabethans, at a time the government was discussing their repatriation. And in Leicester Guildhall (where Shakespeare's company actually played) we see him stage a play where the hero is a black man: "Othello."

Unfortunately, that's a bit that I missed (was traveling to the Galifrey One con when it first aired, and I missed that part of the ep. on repeat). So I don't know if Shakespeare meant Othello to be African or Arabic.

Anyway, here (http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/theshow/theshow266.html) is a link to the full blurb.

[pedanther]

I expect they knew better than to try offending people of African descent in the makeup department - this wasn't that long after Laurence Olivier made that mistake.

It should be pointed out that the objection of the English actors' union to Jones was not that he was black, but that he was American. (Or, to put it perhaps more cynically, that he wasn't a member of the English actors' union.) They'd have been fine with black Englishman, but apparently there wasn't one available - or, at least, none that the director felt was up to the role.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

They'd have been fine with black Englishman, but apparently there wasn't one available - or, at least, none that the director felt was up to the role.

Oh, I understand that...

But that just underlines a different sort of racism. Such asL How hard did they actually look for a black actor? And/or why are there so few blacks in the British Actors Union (this goes back, too, the perrenial DW comment about how all Timelords are white ;-)