We saw the following plays:

( Love's Labours Lost )

Anyone who has reason to be fond of the murder of the Duke of Clarence really ought to check this video out.

I just realized that this has been sitting on my hard drive since I got back on Sunday. Since we're moving tomorrow and likely to be internet-less until Tuesday, I figure I should probably post it now, even though I think I'd originally been planning on saying a little more ( Read more... )

Play: The Tempest
Movie: The BBC version
Reason for choosing movie: While other versions exist, this was the one preferred by the collective intelligence of Netflix.
Tropes noticed: Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter, The Chessmaster, The Magic Goes Away, Parental Marriage Veto (subverted), Author Avatar, Invisibility, Deadpan SnarkerMoments of WTF ( Read more... )

Play: Henry VIII
Movie: The BBC version
Reason for choosing movie: No other versions exist.
Tropes noticed: Politically Correct History, Kangaroo Court, Corrupt ChurchMoments of WTF: Both Anne and Cranmer had periodic--and very odd--periods of translucency while standing in front of windows. The sucking up via gratuitous foreshadowing. Also, a ( Read more... )

Play: A Winter's Tale
Movie: The Royal Shakespeare Company version
Reason for choosing movie: I don't remember--I'd thought we were watching the BBC version...
Tropes noticed: Kangaroo Court, Littlest Cancer Patient, Moses In The Bullrushes, Time Skip, Paper Thin Disguise, Faux Death, Title Drop, Lampshade HangingMoments of WTF: The excessively ( Read more... )

Play: Cymbeline
Movie: The BBC version
Reason for choosing movie: No other versions exist
Tropes noticed: Faux Death, Berserk Button, God Save Us From The Queen, Sweet Polly Oliver, Mistaken For Cheating, Wrongful Accusation InsuranceMoments of WTF: Cloten failing to count to three. The random shots of birds (including a fight scene that we didn't ( Read more... )

Play: Pericles: The Legendary Journeys
Movie: The BBC version
Reason for choosing movie: No other versions exist
Tropes noticed: Easy Evangelism, And Knowing Is Half The Battle, Only Mostly Dead, Deus Ex Machina (literally!), Friend To All Living Things, Mary Sue, Idiot BallMoments of WTF: The entire plot of this play is made of weapons-grade WTF. ( Read more... )

Play: Timon of Athens
Movie: The BBC version
Reason for choosing movie: No other versions exist
Tropes noticed: The Daria (more or less), Shaped Like Itself, Stock Aesop ("money is the root of all evil"), Pride Before A Fall, Buried TreasureMoments of WTF: The conversations that happened way in the background. Timon's gravestone containing the ( Read more... )

I ran into some guy on the internet with a top-ten list of Shakespeare plays (with the implication that the ranking was based on Literary Significance, though he wasn't too specific about his criteria). He omitted Lear, which struck me (and a number of his commenters) as absolutely crazy. I decided to look at some real data on performance ( Read more... )