The Benefits of Modern Shakespeare #12
Shakespeare is one of the most well-known playwrights of all time. People of all ages and even various ethnicities and races are familiar with his work. A large portion of this is due to the fact that his stories and plays are still being performed today. Some of these performances are attempts to recreate Shakespearian theatre exactly as an audience would have seen it during the sixteenth century. However, modernized adaptations are also extremely popular on stage as well as on screen. I think that these modern versions of Shakespeare’s work help keep his brilliant scripts and stories alive. Not that I think Shakespeare will ever cease to be performed; but I do believe that by adapting his work, audiences are allowed to reconnect to his plays.Many people believe that adaptations stray away from original Shakespearian theatre. I used to be such a person. I thought that by presenting a play written by Shakespeare it would be appropriate to recreate the experience from start to finish, with Elizabethan attire and English accents. However, I now see that modern adaptations allow modern audiences to relate to the stories of Shakespeare’s plays. An example of this can be seen when analyzing the film Ten Things I Hate about You with Julia Styles and Heath Ledger. This movie is basically the exact plot from William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew only set in a modern day high school. Because of this change of setting and circumstance, I was able to actually relate to the characters Kat and Bianca much more than I would have been able to had the movie been set in the Elizabethan period.
Ten Things I Hate about You is one of the many examples of Shakespeare’s work set in modern times. I think that it illustrates how modernizing his plays can sometimes help preserve them. That’s why I believe that performing one of Shakespeare’s plays in its original form may be interesting from a historical perspective. But it is through the production of modernizations that we are able to recreate the same emotional responses and experiences for the audience.
posted by Layne @ 11:56 PM
3 Comments:
I agree with your first comment about the reincarnation of Shakespearean plays into new forms will help his legacy live on. With each new adaptation, audiences are allowed to imagine different ways the Shakespearean plays might be performed and altered.
I never really thought about modern adaptations this way, but I agree with you - they are a way to help people relate to Shakespeare's work and become familiar with it.
Modern adaptations can also be a good learning tool - we looked at an adaptation of Richard the Third that was set in WWII. I've been able to better understand other works of Shakepeare's after see modern remakes - I believe that modernizing Shakespeare is an amazing tool.
I never really thought about modern adaptations this way, but I agree with you - they are a way to help people relate to Shakespeare's work and become familiar with it.
Modern adaptations can also be a good learning tool - we looked at an adaptation of Richard the Third that was set in WWII. I've been able to better understand other works of Shakepeare's after see modern remakes - I believe that modernizing Shakespeare is an amazing tool.
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