>> King Lear > > I'm still iffy about any plays being on "must read" lists. > > Nobody ever suggests reading the script for "Citizen Kane" - they say "go > watch it" so why do we constantly get told to read plays?
I'll take this one--Citizen Kane was not written for the stage. It was written for the screen. Entirely different medium. In the case of plays, especially Shakespeare a lot can be gleaned from your own interpretation while reading. Also, given that Shakespeare wrote in a time when a play was literally an all day event it is extremely rare (and i can't put too fine a point on this) that the entire play is ever performed. For instance, Henry V (the Branagh version) was a great movie, but only 1/3 of the play exists on the screen. Even Branagh's Hamlet clocking in at around 3 hours didn't put the whole story on the screen. > I LOVE "Hamlet" > but I can't argue with those that say it's hard to read... because I don't > think it was meant to be read. It's an instruction manual for the actors. > ;^) I agree and disagree with you. The reason I disagree is that the play was read first to determine whether the backer would pay for its production. If the play didn't read well, it didn't sell to the money guy. > Definitely see the play tho', especially if you get a chance to see it done > by a really good troupe. +1, i daresay, go see plays (of all types) any chance you get, even the bad ones are better than most movies these days... -- will "If my life weren't funny, it would just be true; and that would just be unacceptable." - Carrie Fisher ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:266267 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
