O Will!

Hello,
Yes today is William Shakespeare's B-Day. My first experience with Shakespeare was actually completely by conduit. Of course I had heard of the Bard before then-I lived in a very literate household. My dad had a Complete Works that was large, old, and wonderfully illustrated. Luckily I still have it. It's the best gift he ever left me. But I didn't feel old enough to crack it open until the summer of 1989. At 10 year's old I got my mom to take me to see Dead Poet's Society. One of the key sections of that movie involves scenes and speeches from A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of the main characters Neil Perry plays the character of Puck in a stage production. We really only see him in one scene from the play which is Puck's farewell speech. This quickly became one of my favorite pieces of Shakespeare.

So after seeing the movie I decided that I would find out what this play A Midsummer Night's Dream was all about. Thus began my first experience with this silly, delightful fun comedy. I think it's still my favorite of these, although I also love Much Ado About Nothing. I guess we'll consider it a tie. Consequently when I was in high school I was a huge drama geek. I actually played supporting parts in both plays, always bringing on the funny. The next summer in 1990, a production of Midsummer was going on up at Sundance in an outside amphitheater. My parents took me to it for my birthday that very summer. It was my first Shakespeare play in it's entirety and I remember enjoying it immensely. I've seen a couple of versions of it since then, even played in one, but nothing matches that first time. I didn't know that the jokes were coming. When Bottom and his players perform in Act 5 it was entirely new and hilarious.

That same summer my mother and I went and saw a movie version of Hamlet. This was the Mel Gibson version and with hindsight it's not very good in my opinion. The best I've ever seen is Kenneth Branagh's epic 4 hour film which I love entirely. At the time though it was my first experience with Shakespearean tragedy. At the age of 11 I didn't get it. All I could understand was that in the end everyone dies so what's the point. I figured that I was missing something, so I picked up an ancient copy of Shakespeare's 4 Tragedies. This contained Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and Richard the Third. I remember trying to read Hamlet and Julius Caesar, but not being able to finish it. Of course later in high school I grew enjoy both these plays but at age 11 it was still over my head. Perhaps I get an A for Effort.

This brings me to my favorite history play. I've always had a rough time with the histories. Sometimes they read like dramatic reenactments that are more aimed at appeasing those who were in power. Rather than show history as full of human beings Shakespeare uses many paint-by-number archetypes. I'll cut Will some slack, it's hard to make Henry VI interesting. So I was filled with trepidation when I learned that we would be seeing Henry IV Part One at the Shakespeare Festival in 1995. I went with a school group and there wasn't much choice because of the schedule. So we went and shockingly this became my favorite Shakespeare play. Henry IV P1 is a great heroes journey tale. In the play we see party boy Prince Hal become the soldier king Henry V. Along the way he has to shed/reject his old friends which include the wonderful John Falstaff. There's comedy, fighting, and internal struggling all in one play. If you haven't read/seen it you really should.

(BTW if you've seen Branagh's film version of Henry V he lifts scene's from Henry IV P1 for the flashback scenes. Also parts of the movie My Own Private Idaho are loosely based on the first half of Henry IV P1. Again note that I said "loosely.")

Anyway Happy B-Day Will Shakespeare! You are the gift that keeps on giving, Book Slave.