[Sca-cooks] _Shakespeare for Dummies_

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Laura C. Minnick:
>Stefan, Nichola is very right- and not just because I adore Branagh. (Ok-
>clarification- I think his work is awesome in the old sense of the word.
>Amazing talent. As a person? He's a cad. I'd never date him, cute as he is.)

Why does this remind me of Elaine May as Barbara Musk (I _think_ that
was her name) in the classic name-dropping sketch with Mike Nicholls?
"Pope John XXIII, ladies an' gennelmen, Pope John is one hell of a
man!" [Applause] "Yes, Jack, he certainly is! ...Although I,
personally, have never dated him... everyone I know who has, agrees
he is one hell of a man! Now how about that Albert Schweitzer?"

>I highly recommend the 4 titles listed above. Also, the most recent
>_Twelfth Night_, with Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes and Imogen Stubbs
>is very good. And if you can get ahold of it, there is a tape out of a
>production of _King Lear_ from about 1982-84ish, a tape of a stage
>production IIRC. Olivier in the lead, shortly before he died. It is the one
>role of his that I thought capped the rest of his career. It was brilliant.
>(And Diana Rigg plays Regan!)

Pretty hard not to see that as a heavy recommendation, but then Diana
Rigg, even now, also should have been cast as both Bertie Wooster's
Aunt Agatha Gregson (unless it was Sian Phillips, who might have been
even better), _and_ as Professor McGonnigal of Harry Potter usage.
Maggie Smith just isn't bitchy enough, but then most of the casting
for that was rather... bland.

>Some of my former colleagues would wince at approaching Shakespeare through
>film first, but hey- you do what works. Reading it in a stuffy classroom
>under flourescent lights is not picnic. No wonder Edmund Blackadder kicked
>the bejeesus out of Will!

I always thought the best Shakespearean portrayals went to a fair
amount of trouble to maintain the rhythm of iambic pentameter, almost
singing the parts.

Adamantius
--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER