Strange and funny Shakespeare interpretations you've seen

[aces25]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 2:18pm

What are some outrageous Shakespeare interpretations you've seen?
Have you ever seen a tragedy made comedy intentionally?

[TBone]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 2:58pm

Would R&J set in "Star Wars" - complete with light sabers (sp?) count?

[PUPPETMAN]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 4:33pm

I saw a touring company of ROMEO with an oriental lady playing Juliette. It was impossible to understand anything she said because of her accent. Really strange.The producers were listed as the National Shakespeare Company.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 8:57pm

Personally didn't see it, but I've heard of a production (I believe Macbeth.) where at the end of the scene the dead people would roll themselves off stage.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 9:14pm

Hmph. The recent production of Cymbeline at Lincoln Center. Lordy.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 9:24pm

A production of Twelfth Night where all of the characters were singers or rock stars. Olivia was Madonna, Viola and Sebastian were Donny and Marie, and Orsino was Elvis.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 9:49pm

Midsummer Night's Dream done as Dallas.

Hamlet jumps out of a grave, poses on the edge of the stage and delivers "To be or not to be" as a comic monologue.

[Dre2387]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 10:02pm

Measure for Measure set in the Wild West. With all original dialogue. and a lot of underscoring.

During Angelo's monologue, I swear to god he was going to break into song with all the underscoring building up under him.

[maya5892]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 10:06pm

I didn't see it personally, and I forget what Shakespeare play they did, but I know my friend's high school did when in the Spanish Soap Opera style.

[karen24]

Posted: 2/9/08 at 11:45pm

In 1975, when I was in high school, my parents took me to a production of "King Lear" in Stratford, CT, in which all of the actors were wearing bearskins, furs, etc., and the set seemed extremely barren and dark. I'm pretty sure Morris Carnovsky was playing Lear. I couldn't stop focusing on the weird costumes, and the evening seemed ENDLESS. I think I read somewhere later that even for Lear, it was an extremely long evening. Maybe now I would appreciate it better, but at the time I could barely sit through it.

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 2/10/08 at 3:13pm

She's The Man

[moonys_autumn]

Posted: 2/10/08 at 5:24pm

Two Gentlemen of Verona... with a car chase. :)

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/10/08 at 5:28pm

An all-lesbian Love's Labours Lost. Sounds good? It was awful.

[fosca3]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 3:02pm

I saw 'Hamlet' at York College a couple years ago. While Claudius was praying, a red laser-scope light started dancing around his face and settled on his forehead -- it was Hamlet in the back of the theatre with a rifle

And Rosencrantz and Guildenstern wore awful flowered Bermuda shorts and sunglasses

(they were going for the whole 'time is out of joint' thing, and all the characters wore all different periods of clothes, to fit their characters. Claudius looked exactly like King Vitaman - the cereal)

It was wonderful

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 3:06pm

"While Claudius was praying, a red laser-scope light started dancing around his face and settled on his forehead -- it was Hamlet in the back of the theatre with a rifle"

This made me laugh.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 3:08pm

William Hurt's Oberon in James Lapine's 1982 Delacorte production of Midsummer. He looked hot as hell in his bare-chested fairy costume, but what the hell was he doing????? There are videos of this production floating around, you gotta see it. It also has a young Christine Baranski as the funniest Helena I have ever seen, Emmanuel Lewis as the Indian boy and a female Puck you want to beat with a lead pipe.

[Shawk]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 3:19pm

Firstly, I saw "The Taming of the Shrew" set in a bowling alley in Bakersfield, CA. Bianca was a cheerleader, Petruchio had a motorcycle and looked like Elvis, and everyone would break into (well, the sound system would break into) songs from the 50s and 60s (for example, "You Don't Own Me" for Kate).

I also saw a Reservoir Dogs-esque MacBeth, where everyone had guns and "mobster" accents, and the three witches were homeless women who climbed up a chain-link fence.

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 3:24pm

Obviously, Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr Abridged.

--and--

Much Ado About Nothing set in 1940's Cuba - very interesting yet cool