Richard III
anniemal and I watched Ian McKellen's 1995 version of Shakespeare's Richard III, set in a facist 1930's England. It took us quite a long time because we both had laptops handy to look at McKellen's website with the screenplay and commentary. I'd seen this production once before, but this time I had a much better idea what was going on. (You'd think that just having a copy of the play at hand would have sufficed, but it's easy to get lost after they drive a tank through the wall. There's lines that were cut, scenes that were rearranged, and at least one bit borrowed from another play.) Now we had names for all the characters in each scene, and background info on what the relationships were between the important ones. With the characters identified, I was able to connect the minor players who don't turn up much, and who often went unrecognized before. (Not recognized as to who they were in the first place, and/or not recognized later as being someone who had appeared earlier.) There's a tremendous amount to read on the website, and this was a very disruptive way to view a play, but there's a lot to be said for understanding much more of the side plots and intrigues when it's over. Now we want to find time for another straight-through viewing.