3.35 Coriolanus (1608) in Full

Times are tough in the big city these days. The common folk congregate in the streets agitating for more food and better care from the state, but the wealthy elite offer only platitudes and patronizing lectures on trickle-down economics. The ruling class has more important things to worry about than some sickly, starving commoners; there's a big election coming up, and they have power bases to consolidate so that the status quo remains comfortably quo. 

It's eerie how Shakespeare could so accurately predict the socioeconomic doldrums and all-for-nothing political situation of the early 21st century while botching the setting by placing his story in pre-imperial Rome rather than America — fortunately, Donna Northcott covers ably for Shakespeare by modernizing the dress and keeping the Eternal City as backdrop in her bracing staging of Coriolanus. It's a show that suffers slightly from a fitful first act but overall is an artistic triumph.

Reginald Pierre, as Coriolanus

Along with Reginald Pierre, Betsy Bowman, as Virgilia

Reference: St. Louis Shakespeare's rendition of Coriolanus offers modern-day metaphors.

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Coriolanus

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.35) and publication year (1608), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.36 The Winter's Tale (1610) in Full

The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have re-labelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W. Lawrence, consider it to be one of Shakespeare's "problem plays", because the first three acts are filled with intense psychological drama, while the last two acts are comedic and supply a happy ending. Directed by Jeremy Cole.

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Brilliantly juggling drama, comedy, romance and suspense, The Winter's Tale is filled with twists and turns, laughs, surprises, and fascinating characters (including one of the first feminist roles ever written) – all this, and Shakespeare’s glorious poetry, as well. 

It’s no wonder the Observer wrote that “this tragi-comi-romance is possibly Shakespeare's most emotionally complex and breathtakingly theatrical play.

Reference: The Winter's Tale.

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The Winter's Tale

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.36) and publication year (1610), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.34 Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1607) in Full

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Director David Jones used a lot of long shots in this episode to try to create the sense of a small person taking in a vast world.  Annette Crosbie thought of Dionyza as an early version of Alexis Colby, Joan Collins' character in Dynasty.

Reference: Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

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Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.34) and publication year (1607), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.29 King Lear (1606) in Full

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2009 Emmy Nominee Ian McKellen recreates his recent stage performance of the tragic monarch in a special television adaptation. Directed by Trevor Nunn, the telecast includes nearly all the original cast members of the sold-out Royal Shakespeare Company production that premiered in Stratford-Upon-Avon in April 2007.

Reference: King Lear, Great Performances on PBS.

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King Lear

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.29) and publication year (1606), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.25 Twelfth Night (1601) in Full

Kenneth Branagh takes on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with the Renaissance Theatre Company. The exemplary cast includes Richard Briers as Malvolio, Frances Barber as Viola, Caroline Langrishe as Olivia, Christopher Ravenscroft as Orsino, and James Saxon as Sir Toby Belch. The original music for this production is by Paul McCartney and Pat Doyle.

Reference:  Kenneth Branagh's Twelfth Night.

Director John Gorrie interpreted the play as an English country house comedy, and incorporated influences ranging from Luigi Pirandello's Il Gioco delle Parti to ITV's Upstairs, Downstairs.  Gorrie also set the play during the English Civil War, hoping the use of cavaliers and roundheads would help focus the dramatisation of the conflict between festivity and Puritanism.  Gorrie wanted the episode to be as realistic as possible, and in designing Olivia's house, he made sure that the geography of the building was practical and made sense, and then shot the episode in such a way that the audience becomes aware of that geography, often shooting characters entering and existing doorways into rooms and corridors.

Reference: Twelfth Night, Or What You Will.

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Twelfth Night, Or What You Will

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.25) and publication year (1601), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.18 The Merry Wives of Windsor (1598) in Full

Director David Jones originally wanted to shoot the episode in Stratford-upon-Avon but was restricted to a studio setting. Determined that the production be as realistic as possible, Jones got around this by having designer Dom Homfray base the rooms on real Tudor houses associated with Shakespeare; Falstaff's room is based on the home of Mary Arden (Shakespeare's mother) in Wilmcote, and the wives' houses are based on the house of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna, and her husband, John Hall. For the background of exterior shots, he used a miniature Tudor village built of plasticine.  Homfray won Best Production Designer at the 1983 BAFTAs for his work on this episode. Jones was also determined that the two wives not be clones of one another, so he had them appear as if Page was a well-established member of the bourgeoisie and Ford a member of the nouveau riche.

Reference: The Merry Wives of Windsor.

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The Merry Wives of Windsor

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.18) and publication year (1598), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.20 Much Ado About Nothing (1599) in Full

Director Stuart Burge initially thought about shooting the entire episode against a blank tapestry background, with no set whatsoever, but it was felt that audiences may not respond well to this, and the idea was scrapped.  Ultimately the production had a style referred to as "stylized realism"; the environments are suggestive of their real life counterparts, the foregrounds are broadly realistic representations, but the backgrounds tended to be more artificial; "a representational context close to the actors, with a more stylized presentation of distance."  Jan Spoczynski won Designer of the Year at the 1985 Royal Television Society Awards for his work on this episode.

Reference: Much Ado About Nothing.

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Much Ado About Nothing

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.20) and publication year (1599), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.22 Julius Caesar (1599) in Full

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Director Herbert Wise felt that Julius Caesar should be set in the Elizabethan era, but as per the emphasis on realism, he instead set it in a Roman milieu.  Wise argued that the play "is not really a Roman play. It's an Elizabethan play and it's a view of Rome from an Elizabethan standpoint." However, of setting the play in Shakespeare's day, Wise stated "I don't think that's right for the audience we will be getting. It's not a jaded theatre audience seeing the play for the umpteenth time: for them that would be an interesting approach and might throw new light on the play. But for an audience many of whom won't have seen the play before, I believe it would only be confusing."

Reference: Julius Caesar.

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Julius Caesar

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.22) and publication year (1599), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.38 The Tempest (1610) in Full

The Tempest is a 2010 American fantasy film based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare, featuring Helen Mirren in the principal role of Prospera. The film is directed by Julie Taymor and premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2010.

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The role of Prospero was originally taken by [Sir] John Gielgud, but contractual conflicts delayed the production, and by the time [producer Cedric] Messina had sorted them out, Gielgud was unavailable.

Reference:  The Tempest.  

One of the things I love about The Tempest is Miranda's bristling innocence and natural desires:

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!

I might call him
A thing divine, for nothing so natural
I ever saw so noble.

Another thing I love about the play is WH Auden's tour de force poetic commentary - The Sea and the Mirror.

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The Tempest

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.38) and publication year (1610), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.27 Measure for Measure (1603) in Full

Film Adaptation

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Director Desmond Davis based the brothel in the play on a traditional Western saloon and the prison on a typical horror film dungeon.  The role of the Duke was originally offered to Alec Guinness. When he turned it down, the role was offered to a further thirty-one actors, before Kenneth Colley finally accepted the part.  The set for the episode was a 360-degree set backed by a cyclorama, which allowed actors to move from location to location without cutting - actors could walk through the streets of Vienna by circumnavigating the studio eight times.  For the interview scenes, Davis decided to link them aesthetically and shot both in the same manner; Angelo was shot upwards from waist level to make him look large, Isabella was shot from further away so more background was visible in her shots, making her appear smaller. Gradually, the shots then move towards each other's style so that, by the end of the scene, they are both shot in the same framing.

Reference:  Measure for Measure, Behind-the-scenes.

Kate Nelligan, as Isabella 

I was enamored with actress Kate Nelligan, who suffused my view of Isabella in the play with a longing and a romance.  Drawn so, I was glad for the Duke's machinations.  He deftly turned the amorous, ill-intentioned Angelo from having forbidden sex with Isabella, to having sex with his estranged but lawful wife.  It is this seedy scheming that makes "Measure for Measure" a dark comedy.    

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Measure for Measure

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.27) and publication year (1603), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.23 As You Like It (1599) in Full

"As You Like It" is a 1936 film, directed by Paul Czinner and starring Laurence Olivier as Orlando and Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind. It is based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was Laurence Olivier's first performance of Shakespeare on screen.

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"As You Like It" is one I have pegged for a Shakespeare Talks! on gender and identity.  Consider this:  In Shakespeare's time, young men played the role of women.  In this case, it's Rosalind.  Who pretends she's a man, in an effort to get close to, and woo, Orlando.  Once they've built up a friendship, she persuades him to do a role play, with her (secretly disguised as man) as lady (which of course she is already).  You get the picture.

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As You Like It

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.23) and publication year (1599), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.16 The Merchant of Venice (1596) in Full

Film Adaptation

The 2004 adaptation follows the text very closely, only missing occasional lines. The director, Michael Radford, believed that Shylock was Shakespeare's first tragic hero, who reaches a catastrophe due to his own flaws:  Thus the film does not show Shylock purely as a villain, but partly also as a victim. It begins with text and a montage of how the Jewish community is abused by the Christian population of Venice. One of the last shots of the film also brings attention to the fact that, as a convert, Shylock would have been cast out of the Jewish community in Venice, no longer allowed to live in the ghetto.

Reference:  The Merchant of Venice (2004 film).

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The Merchant of Venice

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.16) and publication year (1596), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.7 Richard III (1592) in Full

Director Jane Howell also saw the unedited nature of the tetralogy as important for Richard himself, arguing that without the three Henry VI plays "it is impossible to appreciate Richard except as some sort of diabolical megalomaniac," whereas in the full context of the tetralogy "you've seen why he is created, you know how such a man can be created: he was brought up in war, he saw and knew nothing else from his father but the struggle for the crown, and if you've been brought up to fight, if you've got a great deal of energy, and physical handicaps, what do you do? You take to intrigue and plotting."

Richard III falls under my umbrella of Shakespearean villain extraordinaire, alongside Iago and Lady Macbeth.  But this production from the BBC Television Shakespeare suggests I ought to read those Henry VI plays to get a better grip on him and perhaps recast his character.  Alas, these plays are among the few I haven't read, yet.

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Richard III

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.7) and publication year (1592), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.24 Hamlet (1599) in Full

Film Adaptation

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Shakespeare's immortal "To be, or not to be" takes on a whole new meaning (and medium) as classical stage and screen actors David Tennant and (recently-knighted) Sir Patrick Stewart reprise their roles for a modern-dress, film-for-television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) 2008 stage production of Hamlet.

Reference:  Hamlet.

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Hamlet

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.24) and publication year (1599), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.  

3.14 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595) in Full

Film Adaptation

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A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1935 American film of William Shakespeare's play, directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, and starring Ian Hunter, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland, Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell, and Victor Jory. Produced by Henry Blanke and Hal Wallis for Warner Brothers, and adapted by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr. from Reinhardt's Hollywood Bowl production of the previous year, the film is about the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors, who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the story is set. The play, which is categorized as a comedy, is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world. Felix Mendelssohn's music was extensively used, as re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The ballet sequences featuring the fairies were choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska.

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A Midsummer Night's Dream

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.14) and publication year (1595), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.  

3.13 Romeo and Juliet (1595) in Full

Film Adaptations

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Romeo and Juliet is a 1968 British-Italian romance film based on the tragic play of the same name by William Shakespeare. 

The film was directed and co-written by Franco Zeffirelli, and starred Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. It won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design; it was also nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.  Laurence Olivier spoke the film's prologue and epilogue and reportedly dubbed the voice of the Italian actor playing Lord Montague, but was not credited in the film. 

Being the most financially successful film of a Shakespeare play during that time, it was popular among teenagers partly because the film used actors who were close to the age of the characters from the original play for the first time. Several critics also welcomed the film enthusiastically.

I've seen many productions of "Romeo and Juliet," but the Zeffirelli one is my favorite. 

Behind-the-scenes.  Rebecca Saire was only fourteen when the production was filmed, an unusually young age for an actress playing Juliet (even though she is only thirteen in the play itself). During publicity for the production, Saire gave several interviews in which she criticised director Alvin Rakoff, stating that in his interpretation, Juliet is too childlike and asexual, much to the horror of the series producers, who cancelled several scheduled interviews with the actress in the lead up to broadcast.

Saire's criticism notwithstanding, I have a special fondness for the BBC productions, because they came on TV just as I had discovered Shakespeare and was falling in love with his plays.

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Romeo and Juliet

Note.  The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.13) and publication year (1595), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.28 Othello (1603) in Full

Film Adaptation

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Othello is a 1995 film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Oliver Parker and stars Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Irène Jacob as Desdemona, and Kenneth Branagh as Iago. This is the first cinematic reproduction of the play released by a major studio that casts an African American actor to play the role of Othello, although low-budget independent films of the play starring Ted Lange and Yaphet Kotto  predated it.

Fishburne and Branagh are standouts as the accomplished hero and as the scheming Iago.  "Othello" is a Fall of Man drama - at the hands of evil, that is.  The fact that Iago undoes Othello so methodically and effectively is breathtaking.

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Othello

Note.  The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.28) and publication year (1603), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.31 Macbeth (1606) in Full

Film Adaptations

High school was very much a time of mathematics, chemistry and Spanish.  But university was a radical shift to psychology, philosophy and literature.  For example, I studied Shakespeare, Drama and Poetry, each, for a year.  I excelled in the hard sciences, but I gravitated to the arts and did just as well there.

As a student at Northwestern University, then, I was enthralled to find out about the BBC Television Shakespeare.  "Macbeth" aired in 1983.   

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This 1997 production was directed by Jeremy Freeston, and stars Jason Connery (yes, son of the famous Sean) as the murderous Scottish King and Helen Baxendale as his eviscerating wife.  I especially liked the cinematography and soundtrack of this film.  So, for example, at points in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's evil deed, the camera goes hand-held (i.e., shakes) and we feel their balance- (i.e., order-) jarring purpose.

The couple unravel mentally and emotionally, each in their own ways, so I would've preferred that the Freeston captured this through more disheveled clothing, more disjointed speech, more horrific expressions.  Macbeth, for instance, seemed too put-together, still, after having just stabbed Duncan to death.  In fact, he was absolutely horrified at what he had done.

In all, this was a captivating production, and it impressed me with how compressed the plot was.  "Macbeth" was one of his shortest.  The descent from celebrated war hero, to beheaded murderer was rapid indeed.

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Macbeth

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.31) and publication year (1606), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.