let's defy augury

Kenneth Branagh isn't a good idea a shakespearean side blog just as full of shit as i am main blog: the-fallen-sparrow

[sonseulsoleil]

anyways the version of much ado about nothing starring catherine tate and david tennant as beatrice and benedick is a Classic. david tennant’s benedick is FULL chaotic dumbass, and catherine tate’s beatrice is past being full of rage and is completely done with everyone from the very beginning. plus, they just work off each other so well. 

not to mention the costumes and props. benedick in drag? BENEDICK IN JORTS AND A SUPERMAN SHIRT? beatrice wearing a suit? beatrice swaggering around with a beer in her hand, while benedick sips on pink, fruity cocktails? benedick writing his love song to beatrice on one of those stupid little electric keyboards? unparalleled artistry. 

[carbonmonoxidepoisoning]

nothing makes me happier than this moment

[sonseulsoleil]

oh absolutely ICONIC. and the fact that he gives his whole monologue after whilst covered in paint. “love me? [beat, looks down at his paint covered self] why?” truly how shakespeare intended it 

I also love this. what a way to kick things off. 

[Image Descriptions: Three images of David Tennant as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. Two gifs of him wearing cut-off jean shorts and a superman shirt, smearing paint all over his chest and face. One still image of him sitting in a golf cart covered in union jacks with his feet up on the steering wheel, sort of hanging off the thing. He’s wearing a military uniform. This is Benedick’s entrance in the play. End description.] 

[thewollfgang]

#anyone got a link?

Part One

Part Two

Enjoy!

[tragicdanishlesbians]

hey nerds comment and vote so i can actually make a damn decision

so in my shakespeare seminar i’ve got a big final to write and i’m going over a number of topic ideas (most were given to us, the last one’s my own and I still have to get it approved)

- textual instability between quarto and folio - national/racial stereotypes in shakespeare’s texts - male friendship/erotic desire  - troubled endings of plays (i’d tack on a gendered angle to this) - cosmology is shakespearean texts

i’m trying to be productive but y’all my mental health is doing that thing where it tanks into the core of the earth

plus i really like all of these topics and i’m indecisive as shit

[shimmervee]

be sure to leave out milk and cookies for brutus tonight

[sharp-tender-shock-deactivated2]

is it a dealbreaker if a guy is anti-stratfordian?

absolutely. anti-stratfordianism is the shakespeare scholarship equivalent of being a republican

[hxasinthus]

“the average person speaks 100,000 words per day” factoid incorrect. the average person speaks 7,000 words per day. hamlet, who literally never shuts up and speaks 1,000,000,000 words per day, is an outlier and should not be counted

[tragicdanishlesbians]

listen full offense as a director of two years i don’t care about making productions tonally sensical at all i just really want to have a production of midsummer where the fae are literally demonic and hozier is oberon and florence is titania and lorde could be puck and they just will straight up murder people if they want idk

[valtsv]

the best hamlets are hamlets played by women because only a woman can deliver the line “i am very proud, revengeful, ambitious” as it’s intended to be spoken no you cannot change my mind

[gentlytamping]

also! he stops being pretty misogynistic and instead it’s internalised misogyny - there’s nothing as gut-wrenching and honest as watching a woman say the “frailty, thy name is woman” line/get thee to a nunnery speech/get angry at her mother

[tragicdanishlesbians]

To celebrate my triumphant and glorious return to tumblr, here’s some good Shakespeare content about my directorial prowesss

[tragicdanishlesbians]

Also hi sorry i disappeared we had a wild ass time this summer and semester that involved a big ol suicide scare BUT IM FINE NOW. This bitch is back to talk about shakespeare like some dumbass.

[valtsv]

me talking about hamlet: dumbass edgy bastard goth

some academic: hamlet is a terrible person, a bad friend and son, and a coward

me:

[mukuharakazui]

i hate “accurate” shakespeare productions where all the actors are white guys. the reason women didn’t act in his plays was because it was illegal in that time obv due to misogyny, and we don’t want that to carry over. there were characters of colour that shakespeare specifically wrote. for example, othello was a part for a black actor and yet there r MODERN productions of othello where othello’s actor is a white dude in blackface.

shakespeare would be thrilled if he knew that modern productions of his works featured diverse casts, complete with not only female actors, lgbt actors, and actors of colour, but interpretations that have been tweaked to showcase modern issues that black communities, gay people, women, etc. face.

if you want to do something, do it. a midsummer production where they’re all lesbians? a romeo and juliet production depicting racial tensions? a twelfth night production where viola is and is played by a trans women? shakespeare’s ghost will give u a thumbs up. (plus his works are out of copyright so u can do whatever the hell you want with them whether he’d want you to or not.)

[tragicdanishlesbians]

reblogging this because i’m tired of people saying “i’m fine with x playing y but IT HAS TO MAKE SENSE AND DONT CHANGE THE HOLY GOSPEL”

no thanks. i’ll do what i want and direct a diverse company and change language and meter to my will. shove your high horse shakespeare up my ass 😘

[schmergo]

Tell me how you picture one or more of the following characters: Hamlet, Romeo, and Prince Hal/Henry V

Just for fun! 

[parkerscupcake-deactivated20190]

send me some “cast your mutuals as characters from..” asks!

they can be about any movie or tv show!

[tragicdanishlesbians]

Your cross stitching is so good! I crochet and I want to get good enough that I can crochet people and I definitely want to make the characters from Shakespeare’s plays.

Aw, thank you! This made my night c:

Good luck! Crochet is such an awesome form of art, best of luck to you in improving your craft, seeing crochet Shakespearean characters would be so cool!

[aprilslady-deactivated20181029]

Benedick at the beginning of Much Ado: Beatrice is a bitch and I don’t like her Benedick at the end of Much Ado:

[necromancy-savant]

So this exists and it’s beautiful but I still need to make one with all 37 (plus some bonus non-Shakespeare Early Modern plays). 

[hogwartshousefriends]

Me: *reads my first Shakespeare play*

Me: *has no idea how to like things in moderation*

Me: Guess I’ll devote my life’s study to this.