Shakespeare Sucks

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:01pm

This American Life's Ira Glass Tweets "John Lithgow as Lear tonight: amazing. Shakespeare: not good. No stakes, not relatable. I think I'm realizing: Shakespeare sucks.”

Here’s Glass, again: "Same thing with the great Mark Rylance shows this yr: fantastic acting, surprisingly funny, but Shakespeare is not relatable, unemotional."

Thoughts?
Ira Glass hates Shakespeare

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:08pm

My eyes are rolling so far into the back of my head I can't see the keybaord oj; j'

[LucyEth]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:12pm

With all due respect to Ira, to say that there are no stakes in Shakespeare is an asinine remark. Okay, say it's not your thing and it pisses you off how much work you have to do as an audience to follow what's going on, but to deny that there's drama in the plays? Or miss how universal are the themes and emotions he touches on? Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but sometimes it's best to keep one's mouth shut.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:18pm

To say the stakes aren't high enough in a particular production is a totally valid criticism. To say there are no stakes in something like LEAR is...well...I usually think there are no true right or wrongs when evaluating art. But dammit if Ira Glass didn't just find one.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:19pm

So Ira Glass is an idiot after all.

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:23pm

Roscoe is correct!

[little_sally]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:25pm

There's a reason Shakespeare's work is still performed, taught, and studied hundreds of years later.

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:30pm

To be fair, we won't know until 2400 or so if Ira produced something as enduring. People might still be savoring the tale of Dishwasher Pete then.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:32pm

What the hell is he talking about, anyway? The cast and performances of Lithgow's LEAR and Rylance's TWELFTH NIGHT were "amazing, surprisingly funny, fantastic acting" but Shakespeare evidently had nothing to do with the amazingness, apart evidently from writing the plays he was seeing.

Anyone claiming that Shakespeare is "unemotional" is just beyond hope, especially having apparently seen a performance of KING LEAR where John Lithgow was "amazing." It is not humanly possible for KING LEAR to have "no stakes" or be "unrelatable" unless Ira Glass just has no experience of life outside his little glass recording booth.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:43pm

Shakespeare is the gold standard in acting, tried learning Shakespeares text, how hard it is to absorb that olde English.

Hamlet is regarded as the greaest and hardest role in theatre.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 4:57pm

Well, he got your attention.

What Shakespeare needs is Patti LuPone--and the Skivvies.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 5:08pm

With Ira, "amazing" is a word he uses to describe something that he has seen. Or watched. Or read. Or heard about. Or eaten. It has no actual value and should not be taken as a positive comment.

[The Glenbuck Laird]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 5:44pm

Who is this Ira Glass of whom we discuss?

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 7:30pm

It is one think to think that he work doesn't appeal to you, as some people do, but to say that he "sucks" is blatantly untrue. In terms of pure technical craft, there has never been a better playwright and there is a good chance that there never will be. Well it's a good thing that Ira Glass will never harbor a fraction of the talent of many people alive today, let alone the mastery that is Shakespeare.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 7:39pm

I think when a person's go to adjective for anything is "amazing" you can discount everything else they say.

[Michael Kras]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 10:00pm

Shakespeare's work is as emotionally full as it comes. As an actor, you have to go HUGE with Shakespeare... It simply doesn't work otherwise. And as long as you understand the text deeply and are faithful to the scansion/meter, it does most of the work for you. Some of the most emotionally exhausting acting work I've done has been Shakespeare. He is, and always will be, the most brilliant playwright who ever lived. His text is genius in so, so many ways... So much so that it practically gives the actor EVERYTHING.

Updated On: 7/29/14 at 10:00 PM

[sabrelady]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 10:19pm

" it would find a lot of fans in high-school English classes."

That was my 1st thought- was this some grade 8-9 high skule kid that wonders why they just can't speak real English in Shakespeare?

They say even bad publicity is good so i guess he got what he wanted ( whut PJ said)

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 7/29/14 at 10:38pm

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/30/14 at 12:21am

I'm so sick of the equation that says "get them talking about you" and "you win"!

Fortunately, not everybody is a Glassian philistine.
Kids explain Shakespeare's Hamlet

[JayG 2]

Posted: 7/30/14 at 12:34am

Okay, I know who Shakespeare is, but who is Ira Glass? No, really. Should I have heard of this person in passing? Is he a celebrity along the lines of the Kardasians? (SP?) Who is he???

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/30/14 at 12:41am

One day they will invent away to quickly look things up.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 7/30/14 at 1:06am

I think everyone's reaction here is much to do about nothing (ha! get it?).
Updated On: 7/30/14 at 01:06 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/30/14 at 1:14am

I get that you probably use literally figuratively.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 7/30/14 at 8:20am

I get that you're an old bitter person who doesn't like the fact that he let the parade pass him by and thinks he's king of BWW. Making fun of Wicked fans still as fulfilling for you now as it was ten years ago?

Updated On: 7/30/14 at 08:20 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/30/14 at 8:38am

Me? I've changed a lot in the last ten years. You? You got the Shakespeare quote wrong. (Get it?)