I've been working with a Shakespeare group in Burbank (Shakespeare at Play) for the past several months and have done a few workshops and shows with them. (I realized recently that I've been seriously submerged in Shakespeare when I used the phrase "fulsomely false" in my recent post on the movie Invasion, and didn't even notice I'd used it till days later.) The most recent show we wrapped was As You Like It, a part of their Summerfest 2007.
When I heard that HBO was doing a version of As You Like It, I couldn't wait to see it. HBO, known for its quality programming and movies, Kenneth Brannagh who's shown that he knows Shakespeare (between his incredible Henry V and entertaining—despite Keannu's wooden Don John—Much Ado About Nothing). Fine actors in the main comedic roles (Alfred Molina as Touchstone and Kevin Kline as Jaques) and a pack of British actors to handle the majority of the rest of the play… what's not to like, right? (Ah, what fools…)
Sadly, to my great surprise, almost everything. First and foremost, I think they forgot that they were doing one of Shakespeare's comedies! There was a great deal of drama and some exciting moments as the bad duke usurped the good duke's throne (stuff that happens off-stage, and before the play begins, in the text). But then we're treated to another 2 hours of actors moping around, emoting and being painfully dramatic and "faithful to the text" without bringing one moment of joy and nearly no comedy to the venture. (Dani's likened it to watching Hamlet, only not as funny.) There was one moment, early on, when Celia was having fun and remembered she was in a comedy, but it was almost like watching Alan Rickman in Robin Hood (come on, you know the one). She stood out from the rest of the cast as if she was in the wrong movie. And there were occasional glimmers of comedy from Touchstone and Audrey. But if they'd managed to lose the comedy there, then I'd have been concerned for everyone's mental state in the production.
The other problem I had was a lack of "discovery" within the play. We're in rehearsals for Twelfth Night right now, and one of the points our director has stressed is that none of our characters has read the play… they're supposed to be experiencing each of these things for the first time, every time. So there needs to be a sense of discovery to the lines you're delivering, as if you just HAD that thought, or that reaction, that very instant, not like you're simply regurgitating the words that actors have been declaiming for centuries. (This is hardly a revolutionary acting concept.)
But declaiming is exactly what we got. When Jaques sits down on a rock to recite "All the world's a stage" (arguably, one of the most famous monologues in Shakespeare), I never got the feeling that this was a new idea for him. Rather it sounded like exactly what it was… a memorized piece of text that the actor was attempting to imbue with all the passion and pathos it deserved. Don't get me wrong… Klein did an excellent job with the text. But he never brought it alive for the character or within the context of the scene. And he was hardly alone in this problem. Rather, most of the cast suffered from it at some time or another.
Overall, I found the production long-winded, tedious and overly dramatic. Hardly a ringing recommendation for a comedy. I couldn't wait to delete it from the DVR.
When I heard that HBO was doing a version of As You Like It, I couldn't wait to see it. HBO, known for its quality programming and movies, Kenneth Brannagh who's shown that he knows Shakespeare (between his incredible Henry V and entertaining—despite Keannu's wooden Don John—Much Ado About Nothing). Fine actors in the main comedic roles (Alfred Molina as Touchstone and Kevin Kline as Jaques) and a pack of British actors to handle the majority of the rest of the play… what's not to like, right? (Ah, what fools…)
Sadly, to my great surprise, almost everything. First and foremost, I think they forgot that they were doing one of Shakespeare's comedies! There was a great deal of drama and some exciting moments as the bad duke usurped the good duke's throne (stuff that happens off-stage, and before the play begins, in the text). But then we're treated to another 2 hours of actors moping around, emoting and being painfully dramatic and "faithful to the text" without bringing one moment of joy and nearly no comedy to the venture. (Dani's likened it to watching Hamlet, only not as funny.) There was one moment, early on, when Celia was having fun and remembered she was in a comedy, but it was almost like watching Alan Rickman in Robin Hood (come on, you know the one). She stood out from the rest of the cast as if she was in the wrong movie. And there were occasional glimmers of comedy from Touchstone and Audrey. But if they'd managed to lose the comedy there, then I'd have been concerned for everyone's mental state in the production.
The other problem I had was a lack of "discovery" within the play. We're in rehearsals for Twelfth Night right now, and one of the points our director has stressed is that none of our characters has read the play… they're supposed to be experiencing each of these things for the first time, every time. So there needs to be a sense of discovery to the lines you're delivering, as if you just HAD that thought, or that reaction, that very instant, not like you're simply regurgitating the words that actors have been declaiming for centuries. (This is hardly a revolutionary acting concept.)
But declaiming is exactly what we got. When Jaques sits down on a rock to recite "All the world's a stage" (arguably, one of the most famous monologues in Shakespeare), I never got the feeling that this was a new idea for him. Rather it sounded like exactly what it was… a memorized piece of text that the actor was attempting to imbue with all the passion and pathos it deserved. Don't get me wrong… Klein did an excellent job with the text. But he never brought it alive for the character or within the context of the scene. And he was hardly alone in this problem. Rather, most of the cast suffered from it at some time or another.
Overall, I found the production long-winded, tedious and overly dramatic. Hardly a ringing recommendation for a comedy. I couldn't wait to delete it from the DVR.
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