Taming Acts 2 & 3:

Only one scene in this act.

OK, if I HAD to teach Shrew (ugh) aside from focusing on how offensive I find it, I think I could play with the staging of this scene/would focus on this act. Bianca is bound somehow by her sister. The possibilities of how to stage this could be super interesting. Also how Bianca is played: is she a veritable Disney princess? is she Anne Aarwick from the queens pretends to be young and naive but is really a hellion? etc. Kate hits her sister in this scene. Is she really just a crazy bitch like everyone claims? Or has Bianca given her reason. WHO THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CHEER FOR IN THIS PLAY!?!?! You also get the distinct impression that Katherine is pissed at her father and feels incredibly abused and unloved by him.

I really get too angry trying to summarize so let's skip to a line i find interesting/cool:

"and where two raging fires meet together,

They do consume the thing that feeds their fury"

If that were really the theme of the play, if Petruchio really showed her the love Kate lacked in her father's house, and taught her how to play at her own life ignoring the world, i could probably be convinced to get on board- but it is NOT. Petruchio doesn't unite Kate's fire with his own but rather starves it out until its a pile of sad coals.

anyway, Petruchio has a soliloquy in this scene where he basically says he's going to pretend everything Kate does is great and completely ignore whatever it is that she's actually doing. How do we feel about this as a sociological principle in general? It reminds me of how some parents approach their toddlers- though i'm wondering if that kind of approach is ever successful...

After this soliloquy is, I will admit, a really well written scene. If this scene and the wits matched and fairly even playing field employed throughout most of the scene was how the play progressed again, i think i could be persuaded to give this show a chance. but i take issue with it being called the "wooing" scene as in the end he does NOT woo her here. and the whole threat of violence obviously really bothers me. the violence throughout this play from both men and women is unsavory- but after Kate strikes petruchio once he's provoked her with an oral sex joke, he responds with "I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again" I just stop laughing/even trying to get on board and the rest of the play, aside from possibly the pedant scene, is just not funny to me.

It drives me batty that Petruchio "convinces" everyone that kate is only mean in public and loves him privately so on with the marriage!

but not so batty as Baptista in his next breath deciding who can marry Bianca based on who has the most money to give her. RAGE.

Act 3

3.1

aka "the music lesson"

Lucentio and Hortensio are with Bianca "in disguise" as a music teacher and a Latin teacher. Lucentio "translates" his Latin to secretly talk with Bianca. There's a lot of dirty dirty jokes regarding Hortensio's instrument. We see Bianca is suspicious of both these men and has a bit of bite that she doesn't show in front of daddy. She leaves and Hortensio vows to look into this other tutor.

3.2

aka the would-be wedding scene. I actually think Kate's speech in this scene is potentially a really compelling part of the play. Particularly if she doesn't rail about this but you see how hurt she is by all her circumstances- Petruchio, her father, etc. in fact the stage direction in my "edition" (though i rarely trust stage directions) says that kate runs out crying and bianca follows her.Then biondello comes in with a crazy time town description of petruchio:

BION Why, Petruchio is coming in a new hat and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches thrice turn’d; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another lac’d; an old rusty sword ta’en out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, andchapeless; with two broken points; his horse hipp’d, with an old mothy saddle and stirrups of no kindred; besides, possess’d with the glanders and like tomose in the chine, troubled with thelampass, infected with the fashions, full ofwindgalls, sped with spavins, ray’d with the yellows, past cure of the fives, starkspoil’d with the staggers, begnawn with the bots, sway’d in the back, andshoulder-shotten, near-legg’d before, and with a half-cheek’d bit and a head-stall of sheep’s leather, which being restrain’d to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repair’d with knots; one girth six times piec’d, and a woman’scrupper of velure, which hath two letters for her name fairly set down in studs, and here and there piec’d with packthread.

BAP.

Who comes with him?

BION.

O, sir, his lackey, for all the worldcaparison’d like the horse; with a linenstock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hoseon the other, gart’red with a red and bluelist; an old hat, and the humor of fortyfancies prick’d in’t for a feather: a monster, a very monster in apparel, and not like a Christian footboy or a gentleman’s lackey.

After all this build up Petruchio enters. is he all that was in Biondello's description? Crazed but not all that the servant described? Even crazier? This is clearly a VERY fun choice for a costumer/director to play with. Maybe if I had to teach this play I would focus on that kind of choice and ask about what impression that gives us of Petruchio/why make those choices.

Beautiful moment:

when petruchio is scolded about his wedding apparel he replies

"To me she's married, not unto my clothes.

Could I repair what she will wear in me,

As i can change these poor accoutrements,

'Twere well for Kate, and better for myself..."

Most of the people then leave the stage for the wedding (since, as we talked about in Midsummer/R&J, weddings dont take place onstage.) and then Gremio comes back on to report what he's seen, with the startling news that 

"Tut, she's (Kate's) a lamb, a dove, a fool to him (Petruchio)!"

There's also report that Petruchio STRUCK THE PRIEST at their wedding.

"Such a mad marriage never was before"

Petruchio and Kate and the rest of the crowd re-enter after this description and Petruchio announces they will not stay for their wedding feast/reception, but instead head to his place at once. Kate insists that she will stay and Petruchio can leave by himself if he wants. she says "I see a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist" to which Petruchio replies that everyone else can stay and enjoy but she is coming with him because "I will be master of what is mine own. She is my goods, my chattels, she is my house, my household stuff, my field, my barn, my horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing; and here she stands, touch her whoever dare..." and then he and his servant draw swords to take Kate away from everyone else. And everyone just seems to laugh at Kate's fate and decide to go eat with Bianca and "lucentio" taking the place of the bride and groom. OH. MY. GOD. I. HATE. THIS. PLAY.

Side note: I was going to put pictures of some Taming of the Shrew productions/ posters/etc. but almost all of them in and of themselves disgust me. They scream of the NO means YES problem with society/ rape culture. Maybe in the end thats the real problem I have with this play. Maybe thats why productions that try to make petruchio "sweet" in his actions and "helping her" bother me even more than productions that play up the misogyny of this horrible man.

But Seriously, how much better is THIS for a wooing scene:

 

Taming act I: Let's get this rage out before the new year...

The next play is my LEAST favorite in the cannon. So take all my opinions/selections with a grain of salt. It's the one play i would gladly erase and replace with the modern counterpart.

PROLOGUE sc.1

Ah the frame story/structure where a drunkard is "tricked" by a bar host and a lord. Seriously that's how this play starts. a lot of people cut this section because it is awkward to keep consistent since it kind of disappears most of the play. Plus its like this horrible dark version of Prince and the Pauper where the Lord doesn't lose any status and the guy turned to a Lord has it ripped away as a cruel joke later and no one seems to learn anything except how they should tame their wives. See? Hate this play. I'm sorry I can't be impartial.

*Can someone look up st. jeronimy?

*ah, let's focus on this line... "What's here? one dead or drunk? See, doth he breathe"- has anyone noticed that Shakespeare's characters have a real problem with figuring out if someone is dead or not? I know, its probably because the whole stage convention and someone playing dead on stage looks like someone playing asleep onstage but nonetheless... its funny to read time and again that these people are so unsure/confusing dead vs. alive so often.

*So players show up and they are going to act Taming of the Shrew for the people in the frame story, but not without one of the all male players dressing up as a girl and pretending to be a real lady interested in the drunkard. There's potentially some interesting looks at gender construction in this moment but mostly it seems to be your typical hahahah guy dressed as a girl. that's funny. hahahahah homosexual potential is so awkward and hysterical  ha. ha. freaking ha. OK, i will give it one genuinely amusing note- the lord says if the guy playing the woman can't cry on cue he should just sniff an onion. nice.

Prologue sc. 2

Sly (the drunkard) is seen commanding servants as the scene opens. They area ll treating him like a Lord and he keeps telling him they are wrong, so then they start acting like he's a crazy man. The similar trope used in Comedy of Errors works much better in my opinion, remind me to blog about it when we get to that play. This is just straight up mean Gaslighting shit. I feel like if it started from the opposite end- if the drunkard started saying he was a lord and everyone else decided to play along to avoid his drunken rage maybe i'd like the frame idea more/find it less cruel. but to make a man crazy for knowing what he is and not paint those people as the bad guys- i dont like that. The servants reference all the great lordly things at Sly's command, including a picture of Io (ah, let's set the theme early- a woman who is literally turned into chattel in the form of a cow. argh.)

Due credit: I like this line:

"Or do I dream? Or have I dream'd till now?" -this whole dream vs. reality is a question Shakespeare continually addresses, right? we'll come back to this in later plays. if it seems like i'm not just remind me...

So then they send in Sly's fake wife after they've convinced him he's a lord, and predictably the first thing he wants to do with his wife is go to bed with her. but that would make the joke over pretty fast unless they can convince sly that wives should have male appendages, so they tell him he needs to wait a day or two because its such a shock to her he's in his right mind again plus he could put himself back into madness by exerting so much sexual energy.

another good line:

Frame your mind to mirth and merriment

which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life

If only i liked the merriment they present...

after some arguing about what kind of play they are going to present, drunky McDrunkerson and his fake wife are going to see, the frame story fades to the background and the actual play begins.

Act 1, Scene 1:

OK, much like the frame story, the actual play begins with relationship between servant and master before we translate that relationship to the gender parts of the play. Its very into hierarchy and the consequences of subverting that hierarchy and the need to reassert that hierarchy at the end (oops.. spoiler alert...)

The first character we meet is Lucentio, who was sent with his father's blessing to padua because it is the "nursery of arts"- ok, so he's come here to study and immerse himself in the arts. Maybe we can get behind this guy. Tranio, Lucentio's servant, responds to his intentions with the request that they not be Stoics and still party amidst all this studying- we'll come back to this thought when we get to Love's Labour's Lost. Lucentio seems open to Tranio's proposal that he only study what he finds fun/what he likes, including partying if that's a subject he enjoys. 

The two then meet the residents- Baptista, the father figure in the story comes in arguing with Gremio and Hortensio. Its interesting that Gremio is described as a "pantaloon" anyway, here's where we get the exposition- Baptista has 2 daughters and the younger one can't get married before the older one. And it seems that everyone wants the younger one. But Baptista tries to push the older one- Katherina onto either of the younger one's (Bianca's) suitors. Did i mention that both of his daughers are standing right there through this whole exchange? way to go dad. Kate says some saucy things, often passive agressive, but read the scene and think if she deserves this-

Katherine in this first scene is called: rough, devil, wench, stark mad, froward, fiend of hell, devil's dam, hell

Bianca meanwhile is complimented for her silence

More exposition: Baptista says he is looking for a music teacher for Bianca- well, maybe for both of them b/c he says children, but he speaks specifically of Bianca. and Gremio and Hortensio decide it is in both of their interests to find a crazy man to marry Kate so they can fight it out for Bianca.

OK, back to the strange status stuff: Lucio asks Tranio for help getting Bianca (how very roman comedy of him) and speaks in latin. the clever servant archetype times. they come up with this idea that Tranio will act as Lucio and pretend to be master to Lucio who is going to pretend to tutor Bianca so he can woo her. Biondello enters and wonders why the men have switched clothes, so Lucio tells him its to save his life since he killed a man since arriving--- suuuuuure.

The scene ends with going back to the frame story for four lines where we find Sly not paying attention to the play and wishing it were over. I wish it was over too, Sly...

1.2

oh goody. now we get to meet Petruchio and his servant Grumio. It seems to me from their first exchange that Grumio is either belligerent or stupid or both. And can we talk about how intentionally confusing it is that in this play there's a Grumio and a Gremio?! there's lots of master/servant violence. which i dont find funny. A small note that I didnt notice before, Petruchio tells his friend Hortensio that one of the reasons he's in Padua is that his father passed away. Also, can we just make it a rule that apparently, according to Shakespeare's examples, a girl should not get involved with a guy from Verona?! they don't have great track records... Hortensio thinks maybe Petruchio should marry Kate, since he's looking for a wife, but warns petruchio of Kate's disposition. Petruchio doesn't care. He just wants to marry someone rich. Now I ain't sayin he a GOLDDIGGER...

I have decided i really hate the character Grumio.

OK, I do think that now is a good time to address a common misconception about Petruchio that irks me. I have seen some productions where Petruchio is a crazy hick/country bumpkin and I think that is completely incorrect. He's from Verona. He speaks as a very smart well-educated man. And THAT to me makes him far more terrifying than a country ignoramus who does mean things to women because he's so out there and crazy. You would hope well educated men would know better.

Also, i am already annoyed by the foreign language bits in here. again, i really just hate this play... can I just re-watch 10 things I Hate About You instead of re-reading any more?!Brain flash, going to post from that movie. Which I dont own the rights to and should any legalese person try to come after me for all the movies i've posted on my blog please just go after whoever posted it on youtube instead. 

More tomorrow...

 

R&J Act 5: Much delayed but we all know what's coming...

ACT 5:

Ah romeo's dream speech- hammer of foreshadow central.

I'd like to take this moment to say that Balthazar is an AWESOME role He comes out of nowhere, royally screws everything up by telling romeo of Juliet's "death" and does it with AMAZING language.

Then she is well and nothing can be ill:

Her body sleeps in Capel's monument

And her immortal part with angels lives.

and then we move on to the apothecary that Romeo remembers lives nearby...

Thanks, again, to my obsession with Nickleby the apothecary scene always makes me cry, even just with the first line of 

who calls so loud

The apothecary also gets the badass line of

My poverty, but not my will, consents

My god I think everyone has a moment or two where they think this, huh? I wonder if that was the thought of the actors involved in this travesty... by the by in no way to I approve or even suggest you watch this video clip, let alone the whole movie... I have yet to experience the feature film, but if we are talking about cultural baggage we have to include this creepy and odd piece:

5.2

A very short scene. just long enough for Balthazar to not be the only character that screwed everything up. It turns out the friar who was supposed to deliver Lawrence's letter about how Juliet's death is FAKE got re-routed due to the plague. oops. Again, I love that Lawrence realizes he's screwed up and faces his consequences, heading to fetch Juliet.

5.3 

The final scene, and like most of Shakespeare's final scenes, potentially difficult to stage what with the corpse times and crow bars and whatnot.This scene is where Paris really tips the scales for me. He has some beautiful lines and images and I just dont think the guy would be visiting her tomb alone if he didn't truly care for her. I mean the man's dying words are:

If thou be merciful

Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet

After Romeo dispatches with Paris, there is even more light and dark talk than there has been this whole play- how did i never notice just how much of this there was before?!

Juliet waking up in the tomb with her dead love and her dead cousin and her dead would be 2nd husband- horror! and Friar Lawrence really screws up by being afraid enough of the prince to LEAVE HER THERE! so its really no surprise she offs herself. she was going to before and now there's been much more trauma. I think its admirable that the Friar even comes back to the scene.

Can we talk about how weird it is story wise that montague comes out and announces that oh yeah his wife died of grief?

And What do we think of the end of this play? I'm not sure I buy that with their death they end their parents strife- or maybe they end their parents but surely there are other members of these great households who are just more angry from these events? Or am I just really cynical with the world right now? And What do we think of the titular characters and their choice of death? Is it romantic? Cowardly? Stupid? All of the above?

OK, along with the end of R&J I leave you with the most horrifying cultural clash clip of all: Tromeo and Juliet. in no way do i support this film and in no way do i recommend you watch it. but if you do watch it- i recommend having a drink before and during.... and yes, you can find this whole horrifying movie on youtube...

Act 4: AT DOUBLE SPEED

On to Act 4-  shorter as was going to write ACT 5 tonight too... but you know what? Act 5 is just going to have to wait until my blissful week away from my computer aka LOVEFEST 2012 part 2. aka you can look for it next Sunday night and then i'll be back on my regularly scheduled timeline...

OK, 4.1

The act opens with Paris visiting Fr. Lawrence. Paris is already calling Capulet his father and explains he would have wooed Juliet more but "Venus smiles not in a house of tears."

Teaching moment: Dramatic irony- the audience is on the friar's dilemma but Paris is clueless. why is this important to focus on? because dear god we need some sort of humor right about now. I think that's why Shakespeare gives us this golden rhyming exchange:

PAR.

Happily met, my lady and my wife!

JUL.

That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.

PAR.

That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.

JUL.

What must be shall be.

FRI. L.

That’s a certain text.

Another reason i love the Friar- he screws up. Not only does he not suggest Juliet FOLLOW ROMEO TO MANTUA, you can tell that he is scared and fallible and does not want to admit that he married these two young people without any parental knowledge or consent.

Ok I promised a speedy post so on to the next scene:

4.2

Continuation oddity- last act Capulet said they would invite very few to the wedding on account of their mourning for Tybalt. NOW  he's hiring twenty cunning cooks! What happened? This is also a very strange comedic exchange between Cap. and the servants. Then Juliet comes back with the Friar's sleeping potion plan in place and pretending to be very contrite and open to marrying Paris. And I think if your Capulet can somehow win the audience back, even a little bit after threatening to banish Juliet, then this line is incredibly heartbreaking: "my heart is wondrous light, since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd" Poor dad. too bad you daughters going to die in the next 24 hours. and you're going to have to go through that TWICE. ooops. spoiler alert. (how does one spoiler alert one's entire blog?)

4.3

 Juliet sends her nurse and her mother away. The fact that she almost calls back the nurse kills me. 

Teaching moment: where to take the pause in the short line in Juliet's soliloquy . 

ah yes another fantastic Juliet soliloquy.  and i love how DARK and terrifying this is. 

O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,

Environed with all these hideous fears, 

And madly play with my forefathers' joints

And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud

CREEPTASTIC. and then she sees Tybalt's ghost. also creeptastic.  and her taking the potion is the end of the scene.

4.4

a very short scene and one that is often cut. The capulets and the nurse and some serving people run around preparing for the wedding and making awkward jokes. all I can think of as far as not cutting this scene is that the JOY for the anticipated wedding helps you feel much more crushed in the next scene...

4.5

I think you all know by now that the nurse discovering Juliet's death breaks my freaking heart. but i had to laugh a bit at how long it takes her to figure it out ONLY because it reminded me so much of The Maids Tragedy and the servingmen with the king...

this scene is a beast and if I were a director I think it would scare me. it is so strange because one by one the woes and mourning builds to chaos (a highlight for me: "MY SOUL AND NOT MY CHILD" says Capulet. SO GOOD." Then Friar lawrence quiets them all down while trying not to give his hand away in this whole plot, Capulet grieves some more with lovely poetry, and then everyone but the musicians leave- the musicians have this awkward word play with Peter, peter sings a song, and the scene ends with one of the musicians saying "Come, we'll in here, tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner" whaaaat?! No wonder people cut this. but i'm so intrigued to see a production that keeps it in and how audiences react.

 

OK, to make up for my being gone for a while and in honor of Girl Meet World being announced this week... here's two boy meets world clips having to do with R&J, in the first clip you can skip to 2:30 and listen to Feeney's wisdom on this play... in the second clip Eric gets his big break accidentally playing Romeo. ENJOY!

 

 

 

 

 

Bam. done. off to pack. because if my man were ever banished, i'd want to pack up and follow him. not take some sketchy sleeping death potion.

R&J Act 3: Why I'm obsessed wtih Juliet's Soliloquy

3.1
This act opens with Benvolio and Mercutio talking/joking about quarreling and speak of the devil- in comes Tybalt.

A line that particularly struck me is that of Mercutio:

"What, dost thou make us minstrels? And thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords..." 

yikes... I don't really have a comment other than I don't think that line registered with me before as in performance my ear always goes to the next bit about his fiddlestick...

Romeo enters and tries to play nice since he's related to Tybalt now, even with Tybalt saying he is a villain and that he hates him- I'm interested if Tybalt is really just a hot head or if there is some specific injury Romeo has done to him personally aside from just being a Montague? I am so intrigued that we don't really know what this quarrel is about or why it keeps resurfacing.

One of the clear examples of Shakespeare's genius: Romeo is trying to keep peace, Tybalt seems to have the embedded stage direction of actually walking away, and Mercutio eggs him on to fight again even while romeo and Benvolio try to stop it- yet somehow Romeo ends up with the blame of his death and we go with Mercutio on this because damn it for all his misogyny and dirty jokes and jerk-ness (or perhaps because of that) we love the guy and we're pissed he's dying. and the fact that he makes jokes about being a "grave man" while dying just makes it worse!

OH- maybe this is why I'm ok with being mad at Romeo, his friend is dying and what does he say?

"O sweet Juliet, They beauty hath made me effeminate" REALLY?! ugh...

Can anyone tell me why the hell Tybalt comes back again after he's slain Mercutio? I know, i know there's lots of answers to this question but any favorite? Because all my theories still don't hold enough weight to have it really make more sense than generality. And Romeo Kills Tybalt- but really, even if he didn't this play was going to get dark- (what would be the point of How I Met Your Mother if Barney died?!?) 

So suddenly out of NOWHERE everyone is in the streets and immediately knows there's been a fight- where they were before I don't know. If Mercutio was still alive he'd probably make a fantastic joke about this but he is DEAD so we have a bunch of actors who have to figure out how to make their entrances urgent enough that the audience will never question the theatrical magic of them appearing out of nowhere. and they enter rhyming none the less...

VOICE AND SPEECH exercise: Lady Cap has 5 O!s in 5 lines. the  versatility of the O in Shakespeare and the specificity an actor can give each one is an incredible exercise.

On top of all the Os, I find it fascinating that Lady Capulet is the main agitator in this scene instead of her husband. I think Lady C is one of the hardest roles in this show. She is not onstage that much but almost every time she is there is some extreme state or situation with little to no wind up to get there. 

The prince makes everyone STFU by proclaiming he "will be deaf to pleading and excuses" and then banishes Romeo on pain of death.

3.2

OK, never you mind what i said about Shakespeare showing his genius before. It is nothing compared to the prince's somber judgement being followed directly by a most hopeful, beautiful, perfect soliloquy. And luckily my Shakespeare app (yes, full disclosure, that is what I've been using to read back through so i can do it piecemeal between time at coffee shops, on lunch breaks and at home. Unless I have an interest in a specific line or passage- then i go compare and contrast with other editions) has the long version of Juliet's speech in all its glory. Let's break it down:

The speech starts with a bang- a trochaic foot for you scansion nerds, but also with an inherent urgency and drive as she asks the sun to hurry up and set already!

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner
As Phaethon would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.

Voice and speech moment: one of my favorite Linklater exercises is working with “w”. Not only does this letter force your mouth to make the shape of a kiss, it has the effect on my voice of making me feel incredibly vulnerable. (The Linklater exercise has actors ask “will you wait?” This is not to say that every one of the W words should be emphasized but it is certainly something for the actor to be aware of and play with. So I’m going to just keep bolding some them throughout the speech. I also think that actors can gain so much mileage out of the line ending here- the anticipation of what will happen if the sunlight is whipped to the west :breathe: night will come at last!

And now we get into deliciously sensual language that I wish I could even have been comfortable saying as a 13 year old- starting with the first thing she tells the night to do:
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night.

OK, first- this girl is just as excited to have sex as Romeo is. And I love that. And she is really thinking through the details of what its going to be like- she is not some wilting flower blushing virgin.

Second- if you’re reading this blog and you’re related to me ignore the next sentence- I am totally going to get Dan on board to start calling sex “our amorous rites”

But back to the text…

                              Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:
Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold,
Think true love acted simple modesty.

I love this section because it does show some trepidation- that she needs to be taught and she’s not sure how its all going to go, that night is a bit intimidating anthropomorphized as a sober-suited matron, that she needs night to hide her blushing and that she needs a few lines with the harsh sound of the letter B to rally courage before returning to the sensual land of vowels and “w” and “m” and “s” sounds. And I absolutely love the description “true love acted simple modesty” and then we get into the incantation-like repetitive calling- there’s also something incredibly sexual and primitive with all the “uh” and “oh” vowels

Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,

(now is a good time to point out that die in early modern times often punned on the idea that orgasms were a “little death”)
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.

DEAR GOD THIS SPEECH IS SO WONDERFUL! Shakespeare is sexy. That is all. Except it is not because Juliet snaps out of her night imagining and comes back to the present which is anticipation. Her next description hits me triple at this moment in life. I think I thought of this passage every week of my engagement wishing I was just married already. I am thinking this passage every day right now in anticipation of our honeymoon plans. And the idea of buying a mansion but not possessing it I literally think of every day at work since I’m working for a mortgage company right now and am beginning to understand how antsy that makes people. Finally, ironically enough, the lines starting with “So tedious is this day” through “may not wear them” were used as my facebook status the day before Dan got to Arizona winter of 2010- just days before he would propose.

O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possess'd it, and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd: so tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them.

And in the midst of all this anticipation in walks the bearer of bad news:

  

                            O, here comes my nurse,
And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.

And of course she is not going to enter with news of heavenly eloquence but with tidings of death. The incredible 180 just kills me. and Juliet's next lines are noticing that the Nurse has entered with the cords (ladder) for Romeo to use to climb into Juliet's room that night. Remember when I told you we'd get back to that? here we are... the Nurse throws the cords down as she says "He's gone, he's kill'd he's dead!" which of course Juliet takes to mean Romeo and the Nurse has no sense of this misunderstanding for quite a few lines until she finally clears up that Romeo killed Tybalt and is now banished.

The exchanges in this scene are full of rehtorical devices that could fill plenty of lessons for English teachers and actors alike.

Juliet gets another epic speech but since I spent so much time and space on the opening speech I will wait until i'm teaching or acting or directing to really break this one down, but if you want a really great monologue the "shall I speak ill of him that is my husband" is fantastic. There are so many turns and such an urgency. So many discoveries at line endings. so we'll just skip to what the line that reminds me of Hamlet:

that one word banished

hath slain ten thousand Tybalts...

...

"romeo is banished"' to speak that word

is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,

All slain, all dead"

Doesn't that remind you of Hamlet's proclamation that he loved Ophelia more than forty thousand brothers?

But poetry aside, will SOMEONE tell me why the hell Juliet doesn't just leave her homeland with Romeo and they can live poor and in love in a new land?? I know they are young but come on- its still a better option than the DEATH the two of them keep looking for?

Anyway Juliet decides that death can come via the rope ladder Romeo was to use. At least, thanks to my dear husband, I believe that is what the embedded stage direction is telling us pretty clearly and if Juliet is actively trying to strangle herself with the rope the nurse has good reason to quickly change her tune and agree to find Romeo instead of cursing him for Tybalt's death. though how the Nurse knows Romeo is with Friar lawrence i'm not sure- maybe just the logical place to look?

3.3

We find at the beginning of this scene that Romeo ran to Friar Lawrence before he knew anything of what the Prince's decree was. the Friar comes in and brings him up to speed. Romeo for some reason thinks banishment is worse than death. He also does not think of bringing Juliet with him since she has already vowed to be his wife and all (again, WHY NOT?!?!?!?) thankfully at least Friar Lawrence is there to give the smack-down- though it takes him a few lines to get Romeo to shut up long enough for him to deliver his talking to ("O then I see that madmen have no ears." ...: in fact it takes the knock at the door to shut romeo up and the news coming in from Juliet.

The nurse tells Romeo to BE A MAN

and his response is to stab himself- this is when Friar Lawrence lets loose- (Dear Katy Mulvaney, if we were making this out of puppets the clouds would open up and a god-like figure would say to Romeo: STOP BEING EMO!!!!! instead we get this):

Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
And stay thy lady too that lives in thee,
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet
In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose.
...
Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish;
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
...
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there are thou happy too:
The law that threaten'd death becomes thy friend
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:
A pack of blessings lights up upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her:
But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.

And thank god b/c the audience is dying for a laugh the nurse answers at the end of this speech:

Nurse

O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night
To hear good counsel: O, what learning is!
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

3.4

A short little scene which opens with the Capulets and Paris. Lord C. has the line "we were born to die" which very much echos the earth as womb/tomb sentiment friar lawrence talked about earlier. I think this scene is incredibly important because if lord Capulet did not essentially give his word that he would win Juliet then I don't think he would lose it so much in the coming scenes when she tells him no. I think this is not about his father's right to choose her husband because we saw earlier he wasn't going to force it, but about his word, his pride, his honor due to what he says in this scene. I also think the way Paris says the line "I would that Thursday were tomorrow" can win the audience's sympathy to the possibility of him marrying Juliet, which makes the tragedy that much more painful later. If Paris is truly moved by the possibility of marrying Juliet and not just as a pawn for whatever ties he wants with Capulet that line is just- amazing. especially considering that we all know juliet is upstairs waiting to get it on with Romeo. We are also all hoping they aren't doing it yet since Lord Capulet just asked Lady Capulet to check on her before bed- or maybe we are supposed to assume she forgets in her grief over Tybalt?

3.5

After the shot 3.4 we have the epic roller coaster of 3.5.

The R&J exchange that starts this scene is not only stunningly beautiful, it is also one of my favorite scenes. When Dan and I saw the ASC production of this show our first year in grad school, just as we were falling in love- the beginning of this scene set us into a fit of giggles because the I have to go yeah you have to go no wait don't go!!! progression was a little too familiar.

Plus there's this:

that's your R&J cultural noise moment for the day- if you haven't watched Shakespeare in Love recently do. and if you dont have time to watch the whole thing just skip to the part where she discovers there is something better than a play and they essentially do the it was the lark scene. It is beautiful. (I'm sure you are all smart enough to know this, but PLEASE don't take the movie as historically accurate. Tom Stoppard is a play/screen writer, not a biographer/historian.)

So... then we have even MORE foreshadowing and the hit you over the head bit from Juliet:

O God, I have an ill-divining soul!

methinks I see thee now, thou art so low,

As one dead in the bottom of a tomb...

DUN DUN DUN!

So Romeo leaves just in time for Juliet's mom to walk in the door- maybe this is the whole playing with time thing and the timelines with R&Js conversation overlap with the Capulet conversation with Paris we already saw? Anyway.. 

Going back to the love in a culture of violence theme... Juliet has this incredibly beautiful line after her mother assumes she is upset Romeo is alive after killing Tybalt, the response is "Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!" and of course we know that "vengeance" would actually be forgiveness of her husband. That gives me chills.

Lady capulet then talks about killing Romeo with poison (THE HAMMER OF HERE'S WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN STRIKES AGAIN!!)

Then there's this golden exchange:

Lady Cap. The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church,

Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

JUL.

Now, by Saint Peter’s Church and Peter too,

He shall not make me there a joyful bride.

Then Capulet joins the scene and things get really ugly really fast. I think this is one of the saddest, harshest scenes in the play, especially if you have seen an affectionate, fun, joyful Capulet in the first half, and especially if you see Juliet struggle with the idea of telling her father the truth of her marriage/hiding it in her riddled language about not marrying Paris.  This scene upsets me so much I don't even want to break apart some of the more beautiful moments, aside from what an awesome swear Capulet has when he says "God's bread, it makes me mad!"  and also to say that those of you who know me know I'm obsessed with the RSC production of Nicholas Nickleby and one of the most genius pieces in that performance is the way they blend this scene with Kate Nickleby's distress. Perhaps that's why I get doubly upset at this scene. IN a good way. It's supposed to make you feel, right?
The scene ends with Juliet and her Nurse, the Nurse encouraging her to marry Paris (WHY DOES NO ONE ENCOURAGE HER TO RUN TO MANTUA?!?!??!!) and then Juliet alone on stage saying that the nurse will no longer know her heart. UGH. Well now that we're all extremely depressed... here's one more additional absurd piece of cultural baggage that goes with this play in lieu of a picture. It is a clip from Romeo and Juliet Sealed with a Kiss. This movie is AWFUL. And creepy. the characters of Tybalt, the Prince, and Paris are all conflated into a creepy blobby green guy.... anyway, the akward/frustration displaces some of the sadness at least:

R&J Act 2: my unabashed love for Friar Lawrence...

Act 2 starts with another Prologue- which many productions tend to cut. I happen to love that the Chorus appears again. I love that we re-cap how obsessed with Rosaline Romeo was and I think its interesting that the chorus says DESIRE doth in his death-bed lie, and YOUNG AFFECTION gapes to be his heir. Assuring-or perhaps not and merely teasing depending on your chorus- the audience that this thing with Juliet is different.

Finally I just love the ending couplet:

But passion lends the power, time, means to meet

Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet.

2.1

I find this scene incredibly annoying and difficult to stage. the whole point of it is that Romeo is hiding from his friends and his friends are actually saying some pretty awesome stuff but no one cares because everyone is looking at hiding Romeo.

*have any other Shakespeare nerds noticed that King Cophetua is alluded to a lot? And by a lot I mean I remember this from Love's Labours and Henry IV.2

Reasons to love Mercutio: "THE APE IS DEAD"

For those of you that have not had the pleasure of hearing Tiffany Stern speak on apes at fairs- this allusion is even more amazing once you have and my description of her talk could never do it justice. Does anyone know if she's written an article on this? because I'd love to share it... basically they would train apes to "play dead" when they heard specific phrases and then "come back to life" when they heard other phrases i.e. "the Spanish armada!" :ape faints: "Queen Elizabeth in all her splendor" :ape is revived:

So... I think this scene is one of the dirtiest scenes in Shakespeare thanks to our good friend Mercutio and I marvel at the fact that we teach this to high school sophomores and try to make it "family friendly" 

Fun side story/rant: One of my brothers was studying this play last year and his teacher, who was young and fresh out of her undergrad/certification program decided that a good assignment would be to make this play "hip" by having all the students translate a scene into "text speak"- you know, with numbers standing in for words etc. etc. (Even though with the rise in smart phones/predictive text that kind of communication is on the decline) and my poor brother chose this scene and he and my mother called Dan and me to help with the project- I think they were both mortified when we talked through some of the lines. a recount of some of my favorite text-speech suggestions...

"I conjure Thee by Rosaline's bright eyes... quivering thight, and the demesnes that adjacent lie" became

 "I'll holler @ him bout Rosaline from her eyes to her lady bits"

I can't remember my text suggestion for the erection joke that follows, but I do know that when we got to the bit about Romeo sitting under a medlar tree and the line

"O, Romeo, that she were, O that she were

An open-arse, thou a pop-rin pear!"

my text translation was:

"what what in the butt" at which point my mom and brother declined any more help and I told them to tell his teacher that this was a DUMB assignment.... but I digress...

TEACHING MOMENT: one of my favorite lessons from Textual Culture taught by Professor Menzer was looking at this passage and how editors gloss the anal sex joke in various editions. It is amazing how prudish most editors are and it is an excellent example of how editors skew the way we read these plays.

The scene ends with Mercutio and Benvolio giving up their search for Romeo and heading home to bed.

Perhaps the most famous scene ever: The R&J balcony scene.

If you want to make an argument for this actually being a love story and not just stupid teens wanting to get it on as soon as possible/ Romeo substituting any pretty girl for Rosaline- look at the drastic improvement in Romeo's poetry from Act 1 until now. instead of absurd rhymes and teen angst we get:

"the brightness of her cheek would shame those stars"

and

"O that I were a glove upon that hand, 

That I might touch that cheek!"

and

"O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art

As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,

As is a winged messenger of heaven"

Newlywed moment: The line "be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet" really hit me reading it this time around. Because most women still give up their names when they get married right? What does that mean? And for Juliet it means even more than that right? Because in all likelihood she's not just giving up the name (though perhaps that is her hopeful thinking) but also the support of her family? It is strange to think of no longer being the name you grew up with, and I think we just assume it happens without considering the effects of being "newly baptized" as Romeo puts it a few lines later. and how interesting that by the end of her speech she is asking Romeo to give up his name- the shift of who is taking on which identity...

Performance note: I think its important to play up the potential creepyness of when Romeo answers Juliet and she doesnt know who he is yet. Or as our Sassy Gay Friend puts it- the stalker in the garden moment... before we move on back to sappy lover town...

So the delightful thing about this scene is that Juliet is relatively practical concerning Romeo's safety, marriage, etc. and Romeo is absurdly dramatic and epic about things. Juliet's practical let's not swear by ridiculous things speech is only made better by her romantic side a few lines later:

And yet I wish but for the thing i have.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep; the more I five to thee,

The more I have, for both are infinite

And if that is not how I feel about the awesomeness of marriage right now then I don't know what is. Love and abundance and gratitude are linked in the most beautiful way, aren't they?!

 You get to see a glimpse into how well they could balance each other since Juliet seems to have some success getting this guy to calm down and focus a bit and we will see in a few scenes how he brings out the epic imagery in Juliet we have yet to see.

Teaching times: OK, if Midsummer was a perfect play to teach rhyme scheme then R&J is the perfect play to teach foreshadowing. seriously. Both of them foreshadow how shortly their perfect love will last and how likely it is to end in disaster. Juliet talks about it being like the "lightning which ceases to be ere one can say it  lightens" (more light and dark a la yesterdays observations) and Romeo talks about how if its night maybe this is just like a dream- which means you have to wake up. we'll keep documenting these hammer to the head moments as we go along...

OK, wash of lovely emotions and insane foreshadowing aside, this is where i keep loving Juliet's language but can't relate to her timing- maybe because I thankfully live in a world where there's no need to rush into marriage. I certainly understand the never wanting to get married until you meet someone you want to marry sentiment. But not the- quick! decide if you want to marry me now or leave me alone forever mentality.  Clara's comment on yesterday's post about how very VERY young Juliet is taper's my bewilderment and also makes me that much more impressed with how SMART this little girl is. 

When Romeo tells her that she should send a messenger to him by 9 tomorrow, Juliet replies

"I will not fail, tis twenty year till then"

Isn't that fantastic? I am obsessed with the way Shakespeare plays with time and our conception of time. I will probably keep looking at this as well. 

More foreshadowing: Juliet wishes romeo to have "sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast" -very deathlike language only multiplied by Romeo's lines which repeat sleep, peace, and then go on to talk of rest, and ghostly sire's close cell.

2.3

Speaking of ghostly sire--- let's talk about who might be my FAVORITE character in this play: Friar Lawrence.

2.3 opens with an often cut to pieces yet stunningly beautiful soliloquy, it reminds me of Cerimon's speeches in Pericles.  I think this speech is incredible as not only does it have phrases such as "darkness like a drunkard reels" but it also has deep, disturbing lines like "The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb, What is her burying grave, that is her womb" if that doesn't encapsulate the sex and death themes of this play then please find me a line that does it better. There's also this incredible exploration of how plants that are poisonous are also healing- very much like the opportunities people in this play have to be poisonous and violent or loving. I saw this play done at the RSC on my summer abroad with Pepperdine and the director's vision/argument with that production was what love cannot live in a culture of violence. I think its much more interesting and moving to think about how somehow love can begin EVEN in a culture of violence. "two such opposed kings encamp them still/ in man as well as herbs, grace and rude will"

So after Fr.'s awesome speech, Romeo enters and what follows is how I wish all relationships between confessor and parishioner could be- the friar does an incredible job of cutting through any ifs ands or buts and is friendly yet direct with Romeo about if he is troubled, or if he has "not been in bed tonight" for some other reason... he already knows all about Rosaline and is concerned with Romeo's penchant for trying to fornicate with her. He demands Romeo stop beating around the bush with his answers and when Romeo tells him of his love for Juliet and asks the friar to marry them what is the response? 

HOLY SAINT FRANCIS (fantastic oath. and always funny.)

then he goes on to reprimand Romeo for changing affections so quickly. 

A little sampling of their awesome dialogue:

ROM.

Thou chidst me oft for loving Rosaline.

FRI. L.

For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.

ROM.

And badst me bury love.

FRI. L.

Not in a grave,

To lay one in, another out to have.

ROM.

I pray thee chide me not. Her I love now

Doth grace for grace and love for love allow;

The other did not so.

FRI. L.

O, she knew well

Thy love did read by rote that could not spell.

Seriously, if I am already too old to play Juliet then will someone PLEASE cast me as the Friar?!?! 

And finally the scene ends with some more foreshadowing: Friar warns Romeo: Wisely and slowly, they stumble that run fast.

2.4 We are back to my new favorite envisioning of How I Met Your Mother- Benvolio and Tybalt talk about a challenge Tybalt sent to Romeo (presumably for crashing the party now that Lord Capulet isn't there to stop him.

Highlight includes Mercutio's: 

Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead, stabb’d with a white wench’s black eye, run through the ear with a love-song, the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

The next bit about Tybalt is a fight choreographer's dream as it list a bunch of dueling moves you can incorporate into the later fight.
Romeo comes in and the banter gets dirty and there's a lot of hey look at me i'm manly and i'm showing it!! The thing I love about this exchange is that Benvolio sits there quietly and only chimes in with a zinger about erections.
Then enters the nurse with good ol' Peter the servant. I enjoy that this scene can either be deliciously flirtatious with the nurse  or else kind of edgy and creepy if she genuinely does not like the comments she is receiving from Romeos friends. Also: Mercutio sings in this scene. Has anyone ever seen a production that kept his strange little ditties? because I'd like to...
There are scores more sexual jokes- maybe if I teach this one day I should have the students play spot the THAT'S WHAT SHE (or he) SAID moments...
I also think that once the other boys leave and the Nurse is getting down to business with Romeo that you get a chance, amidst the humor and rambling, to see how much attention she pays and doting she does to/about Juliet. It is incredibly sweet and I think the Juliet/Nurse relationship depicts an incredible amount of love.
2.5
"Love's heralds should be thoughts
Which ten times faster glides than the sun's beams"
More anxiety over time here as Juliet waits for the nurse's return.
You also get a wonderful couplet about youthful Juliet's feeling about the pace of the elderly:
"But old folks- many feign as they were dead,
Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead."
The rest of the scene I'm afraid i'm going to give short shrift to because it is a delightful scene between the nurse and Juliet, as she teases Juliet before admitting that Romeo waits to marry her- but something my darling husband became fascinated with in this scene is that the Nurse tells Juliet she will fetch a (rope) ladder which Romeo can use to climb into Juliet's room so they can have their wedding night- note this because it will come up again later.

2.6
Romeo has some more foreshadowing saying "then love-devouring death do what he dare"
and the Friar warning him "these violent delights have violent ends... therefore love moderately: long love doth so..."
Juliet's words before her wedding speaks straight to my heart:
"They are but beggars that can count their worth,
But my true love is grown to such excess
I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth"
 

or as this guy put it I think Juliet couldn't be happier, wealthier, or more in love

The final line of the act is Friar Lawrence saying "you shall not stay alone Till Holy Church incorporate two in one" I love that he doesn't trust them alone for a second not to just jump on each other, and that he couches it in such lovely terms.
Those of you who haven't studied early modern theatre- it is worth noting that the wedding does not take place on stage because people at the time hadn't really figured out if that would actually make the actors married. If the words in front of witnesses were enough, even if they were only playing at the intention behind it and even if the priest wasn't a real priest. Betrothals/handfastings/weddings were a bit of a different process then so it was really important to an early modern audience that the actual vows not be shown onstage. (Especially considering Juliet was being played by a young boy...)
and that's Act 2.

Get ready for this comedy to end....

 

 

Today's picture is also your R&J cultural adaptation- Benvolio, Romeo, and Mercutio (played by Sean Lyons, Zac Hoogendyk, and Chris Kervick) in This Bridge Theatre's Shakespeare's R&J by Joe Calarco. The show essentially revolves around the idea that four Catholic school boys are changed by going through this play together- I highly recommend reading the script.