If you have watched a Shakespeare play and said to yourself, “What are they saying?” or “What’s going on?” or “Why don’t they speak English?”, you are not alone, and should not have high school flashbacks either. The play is the thing! Just prepare for it. I did my research back when we first subscribed to Chicago Shakespeare Theater all those years ago. The hands-down best resource to prep for the play is ‘Stories from Shakespeare’ by Marchette Chute. The title of Marchette’s work says it all in the word “Stories”. These are great stories and we want to hear the words, watch the action and learn to tell them again and again.
Most people can probably share a common High School English class experience of reading an assigned Shakespeare play. Mine was ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ I’ve since come to believe that these richly layered, intensely crafted plays were not meant to be read, and that is why the torturous memories of my first exposure to Shakespeare still linger. That said, I am thankful to have found that at 15 years old, I was able find real truth and a peak at the genius that Sir Will shared with the world in the eloquence and cunning of Portia v. Shylock.
After many years as subscribers to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, we are down to only one or two of the histories before we can say we’ve seen the entire canon. This is not like saying, “Shakespeare Bucket List – Check!” The guy’s works are enduring and wouldn’t still be staged all over the world every day and night if he was a one hit wonder. Seeing a Shakespeare play more than once is like looking at a bright object through a prism. It is every changing and beautifully fascinating. Proof of that can be found as the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth brings a celebration of Hamlet to be performed in every nation on earth within 2 years. http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/globe-theatre/hamlet-globe-to-globe
But back to the plays, because, the play is the thing. Hamlet: “I’ll have grounds, more relative than this—the play’s the thing. Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”
Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 603–605
