When in Wittenberg

Micaela, they/them, Shakespeare and Performance MLitt at Mary Baldwin University. Main: badgerjolras

[attackofopportunity]

Falstaff? You mean Blorbo from Queen Elizabeth I’s shows?

[butchhamlet]

see it’s like. titus andronicus is bad but it does happen to be good. in contrast to troilus and cressida, which is good, it just happens to be bad

[brechtian]

all-women productions of shakespeare plays are so enlightened not for necessarily any feminist reason i just really like it when women kiss and duel each other to the death

[currentlycryingaboutlancelot]

don’t get me wrong I love Benedick and Beatrice so so much, but I never seeing anyone talking about how wonderful Hero and Beatrice’s dynamic is?? Hero has a reputation for being this sweet angel but if you look at her lines, even though they’re short and flowery, she’s always ALWAYS teasing her cousin. she knows EXACTLY what going on in her head and she knows it the whole time. Hero’s literal first line is her like rolling her eyes and saying “yeah my cousin is talking about Benedick. again.” don’t get me started on Hero’s ridiculous garden performance to make Beatrice to realize she’s in love with Benedick. she’s so underratedly funny and Beatrice LOVES her. she loves her!! she’s the first one to notice Hero is fainting at the wedding, she’s the first one to call for help, she probably catches her in her arms as she’s telling everyone that she knows her cousin better than anyone, that they share a room together! they’re never separated! they probably stay up every night with Hero trying to drag emotion out of poor Beatrice who covers everything she means in six layers of jokes!! Beatrice tells her uncle she swears on her soul that Hero is innocent after he disowns her in front of everyone they know. Beatrice doesn’t think twice about this, she doesn’t care about the consequences, she doesn’t worry about whether the only family she has will disown her, too. she just does it. and when none of that works, Beatrice asks Benedick to fight for Hero’s honor. that moment is so, so pivotal for Benedick and Beatrice. it’s crucial. but you can’t understand how much it means unless you understand how much this girl loves her cousin first.

[darkcomedies-deactivated2022042]

the most insane double casting i’ve heard of is ophelia and horatio being played by the same actress. the implications of that drive me crazy

[darkcomedies-deactivated2022042]

not even like “omg gaaaayy” implications because that’s inherently going to be there in this casting and it’s tired. i’m talking about power. i’m talking gender VS class. i’m talking about being devoted to someone despite the fact that they can’t be saved. i’m talking about watching the monster you’ve chosen to side with cradle the body of the woman he all but directly killed and realizing you and her have a lot in common. i’m talking about how horatio follows ophelia offstage after she goes mad

[butchhamlet]

aufidius calling coriolanus “the anvil of his sword” is so… it’s so… naming another person as the tool that made you into the weapon you are. acknowledging that your rival has had a greater hand than anyone else in shaping you the way metalworkers craft swords to be beautiful and deadly. i’m going to lie down

[butchhamlet]

FISTING EACH OTHER’S THROATS???

[danishprince]

my measure for measure opinions can all be summed up as Duke Vincentio Is Bad. yeah angelo sexually blackmails isabella and that’s unforgivable, but…the duke was the one who put him in that position in the first place. like he deadass says, “i have on angelo imposed the office; / who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home, / and yet my nature never in the fight / to do in slander”—he charges angelo to basically do what he (the duke) wants and then yeets himself into his stupid friar disguise because he doesn’t want to get blamed for either the corruption in vienna that he’s caused or the inevitable backlash that’ll occur when angelo enacts his orders. what a coward! fuck that guy!!

[curseworm]

u guys have been getting violent delights before ur violent ends ??

[binary-bird]

are you still doing the palette meme? how's your phillip the bastard? him + 9

PHILIP

still in the process of reading King John, but so far I’m enjoying his character!

[harry-leroy]

There is just a small, tiny part of me that wants Henry VI to be the Chorus of H5 because he’s heard that story nine million times and gahh my heart would break seeing that

[ardenrosegarden]

With the chorus’ lines of “Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King of France and England, did this king succeed; whose state so many had the managing, that they lost France and made his England bleed” as a sad him saying that he knows it’s his fault.

[butchhamlet]

philip “no filter” faulconbridge

[butchhamlet]

THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY THEY DID NOT ASK YOU

[watertightvines]

TRULY iconic of the Duke of Cornwall to respond to Edmund with “sorry your father’s a traitor, but if it’s any consolation, you can call me daddy ;)”

[ardenrosegarden]

Shakespeare Appreciation Week: Villain Appreciation

Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile, And cry ‘Content’ to that which grieves my heart, And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, And frame my face to all occasions. I’ll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall; I’ll slay more gazers than the basilisk; I’ll play the orator as well as Nestor, Deceive more slily than Ulysses could, And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.

[suits-of-woe]

not to compare richard iii and hotspur cause hotspur doesn't deserve that but there is an interesting parallel between them in how they both essentially act as war machines for their families, how they win their fathers' approval through violence but don't get to play on equal footing with everyone else in matters of peace. how richard goes from wartime hero of the house of york to peacetime villain without really changing all that much. how hotspur too goes from the kingdom's hero to its enemy when the overthrow of richard ii is over but he can't bring himself to submit to henry just to keep the peace.

i'm definitely not saying hotspur would have gone full richard if he had lived past shrewsbury, that's not him at all, but it is hard to imagine what he would have done, right? i think a huge part of both of these tragedies is these men going from heroes to enemies because the whole world's been telling them they were made for waging war and they don't know how to thrive doing anything else.

[suits-of-woe]

ALSO this is especially interesting given neurodivergent hotspur (my beloved) vs richard as physically disabled and the differences in how they're treated.

because everybody loves hotspur. even his enemies can't stop talking about how wonderful he is. but despite all the apparent admiration no one takes him seriously and he's not allowed to make decisions on his own, he's just expected to be that war machine and die for a cause because it's not like he would be given any real power if the rebels actually won. he's loved but not respected.

whereas richard is allowed to wield power, but that doesn't stop him from being seen as a monster. even his allies, the second he goes against them, go straight to his appearance and his disability in how they talk about him. he can brute force his way into respect, but after his family is dead, he'll never be loved.

[strawbeb]

it’s not ‘talking to myself’ it’s called a soliloquy you fuck

[butchhamlet]

[butchhamlet]

[butchhamlet]

[butchhamlet]

kind of want to do a list of all my nd shakespeare character headcanons but said headcanons run the gamut from “i wrote a 3,000 word post justifying this” to “idk i just think it’s true. sorry shakespeare didn’t beam this info into your brain ig”

[butchhamlet]

for the record the ones i can remember are

hotspur (he’s autistic he just is. also he pretty much canonically has ptsd)

hamlet (everything in the world is wrong with hamlet he is the world’s poor little meow meow and he is on every page of the dsm. but i think we all know i’m partial to an ocd hamlet myself)

malvolio (i think he’s VERY easy to read as either autistic or ocd or both. i might have mentioned this once or twice)

romeo (inattentive adhd. it’s about the way he’s rarely paying attention and always lost in his own thoughts and very emotionally sensitive and prone to getting attached to and forgetting about people way too fast)

jacques (i hc them as autistic; it’s about the alienation from the rest of the community + everyone finding them funny but bizarre)

cordelia (it’s about the honesty and ignoring or choosing to buck social conventions. obviously these aren’t solely nd traits but i wanna see an autistic cordelia)

beatrice (she’s autistic theo’s brain is huge)

lady macbeth (i can reclaim the ocd handwashing stereotype because i myself am a crazy bitch who has that compulsion)

puck (he’s adhd because my friend with adhd played him and also i just think it tracks w the energy)

lear’s fool (they’re autistic shakespeare’s ghost told me)

[skeleton-richard]

It’s kinda hilarious that I’ve become the source everyone points to for ND!Hotspur. I love it.

[more-antiqueroman]

These are all entirely correct but might I also suggest