Theatrical Adaptation

Violence

Shakespeare has a lot of violence in all of his plays. All of them. Including Richard III. Well, what would you expect from a play about a guy trying to get the throne from his family? That he’s just going to ask them? No. He’s going to fight for it, even if it means killing both his brothers, his nephews, his wife, and his friends. So it comes to no surprise that this man was the most hated person.
But when you think about it, how sensitive are we to this type of violence? I know back in the “olden days” they loved violence, especially live executions. Has it changed now? Not exactly. I mean, sure we don’t have live executions anymore, but we still have movies and video games in which there is a lot of death, blood, gore, and whatever other term would be appropriate for this situation. But we don’t think to ourselves “this isn’t real” like we would when seeing Richard III. We don’t stop and say “oh, that’s not what is really happening. He’s not really bleeding.” No we don’t, but I believe that is because we are so into the show, into the game, into the movie, that the thought of it being fake never crosses our minds. We are too busy trying to understand what is going on to worry about whether or not it’s real. A show like Richard III is not going to change our views on violence. Even after seeing multiple versions of the show, I still have the same perspective on violence in movies—as long as the good guy wins, or there is a good story line, then I am hooked. When there is violence in a movie, I don’t think about the realism. I’m too busy thinking “Oh, the good guy has to win! He has to beat the bad guy and be the hero of the movie! SHOOT HIM!”
I know that with video games, the person playing knows that the game is fake, and going to a movie I know the movie is fake, too, but at the same time, the first thought in my mind when seeing a Shakespeare show is “what the crap is going on?” not whether or not it’s real.

posted by LilmissKS @ 1:55 AM