Lots of good stuff on the blogs in the past week. I’ve finally gotten around to trying to make some sense of it all. It seems to me that a lot of students, like Scotie, weren’t very impressed with the adaptations that made major changes (like Throne of Blood’s elimination of the Macduff character):

If I was ever to become a producer, and was given the task of adapting from a play, I would keep the same key parts. I think it’s ridiculous to get rid of Macduff. I would maybe change the village names, like uMabatha did, but the key parts of the play would be exactly the same

Also, I need to point out here that the comments on Scotie’s post are great–this, O future of America, is how it’s done…

And everyone had their favorites.

Kristen liked the Travesties, which

made the play easier to understand because it was put into a vocabulary that people are more used to, and it made the play a lot more comical.

Eliza dug Throne of Blood:

It was interesting to watch someone else’s interpretation from a totally different culture. The director did a really good job on the aspects of the set, and making it simple but entertaining for the audience. The mood of the play was also very similar to the mood of the actual Scottish Play.

And Lizzy, like Scotie, preffered uMbatha:

My favorite version of the Scottish Play was uMabatha, as it was so similar to the original version, but had examples of the African culture that I appriciate to a great extent. uMabatha expressed many instances of tribal culture and unique traditions that I find interessting.

Meanwhile, in a post about Romeo and Juliet, Madeline admitted that she’s not the best person to sit next to on an airplane:

I was sitting on the plane with a friend of mine and saw that the guy next to me was watching it on his computer and using head phones. My friend, gabby, had never seen the movie and we started to peer over his shoulder to watch along. Two hours later they guy looked to his right and saw two teenage girls sobbing as Romeo killed himself. As lame as it is, we watched the whole movie over the guys shoulder without sound and still managed to cry. (the guy was really weirded out).

Funny, yes, and a little disturbing, but it also made me think. Shakespeare gives us very little aside from dialogue (minimal stage directions, scenery descriptions, etc.) and we as actors and readers are supposed to construct the visuals from our imaginations. The fact that Madeline and Gabby were able to get the whole storyline of Romeo & Juliet just from the visuals speaks to something that I think is entirely different, though I can’t quite put my finger on it. Something about the power of Shakespeare to transcend all language, I’m sure.