gwynnega

Shakespeare meme (started by rydra_wong and rachelmanija). Mostly these are productions I've seen on TV/video/DVD (I haven't seen a lot of live Shakespeare). References to "the BBC Complete" refer to the late 1970s-1980s BBC series. I remember watching a lot of the BBC Complete plays in the audiovisual lab at UCLA when I was studying Shakespeare at summer school with my favorite UCLA teacher Professor Allen. I'm not mentioning movie versions unless they're the only versions I've seen.

All's Well That Ends Well: haven't seen.

Antony and Cleopatra: I think I've seen the BBC Complete version?

As You Like It: the BBC Complete version.

Comedy of Errors: I think I saw the BBC Complete version.

Coriolanus: Maybe the BBC Complete version?

Cymbeline: haven't seen.

Hamlet: The BBC Complete version and David Tennant version.

Henry IV, 1 and 2: The BBC Complete version, The Hollow Crown version.

Henry V: The Hollow Crown version.

Henry VI: haven't seen.

Henry VIII: haven't seen.

Julius Caesar: just the Brando movie, I think.

King John: haven't seen.

King Lear: BBC Complete version with Olivier as Lear and John Hurt as the Fool. Also the 1970s Great Performances version with James Earl Jones as Lear.

Love's Labours Lost: haven't seen.

Macbeth: BBC Complete version.

Measure for Measure: I don't think I've seen it.

Merchant of Venice: Al Pacino version.

The Merry Wives of Windsor: Saw it live in Los Angeles a few years ago. (My friend Steve Moramarco was in it.)

Midsummer Night's Dream: BBC Complete version.

Much Ado About Nothing: the Branagh movie.

Othello: BBC Complete version with Anthony Hopkins as Othello and Bob Hoskins as Iago.

Pericles: Haven't seen it.

Richard II: BBC Complete Version. Hollow Crown version.

Richard III: Maybe just the Al Pacino film (Looking for Richard)?

Romeo and Juliet: Just movie versions, I think: Zeffirelli, Baz Luhrmann, George Cukor.

The Taming of the Shrew: I've tried to avoid it, but I've seen at least part of the Burton/Taylor version on TV.

The Tempest: live with Anthony Hopkins in Los Angeles (1979?).

Timon of Athens: haven't seen it.

Titus Andronicus: the Julie Taymor film.

Troilus and Cressida: I don't think I've seen it.

Two Gentlemen of Verona: haven't seen it.

Twelfth Night: the BBC Complete version.

Winter's Tale: haven't seen it.

I keep forgetting to post about the wonderful 1974 version of King Lear I watched last weekend. With James Earl Jones as Lear, it's as terrific as one would expect, and Raul Julia gives a bravura and very sexy performance as Edmund. One reason I'd wanted to rent the DVD was because the show is packed full of actors I know primarily from soap operas, which shows how many classic soap actors came from the theater (back in the day when many soaps were shot in NYC). In the 1974 production, Douglass Watson (Another World) plays Kent, Tom Aldredge (Ryan's Hope, The Sopranos) is a marvelous Fool (though John Hurt is still my favorite Fool), and Rosalind Cash (who spent the final years of her life on General Hospital) and Ellen Holly (famous for her ground-breaking "passing" storyline on One Life To Live) are wonderful as Goneril and Regan.

One character in Lear I've never thought much about is Oswald (aside from the bit where he dies at the end of "I Am the Walrus"!), but Frederick Coffin's Oswald is hilarious and steals pretty much every scene he's in. I looked up the actor, and it turns out he too had a bit part on Ryan's Hope (as a police artist) in 1980. Naturally.

On a related note, today I learned that Brent Spiner had a bit role on Ryan's Hope in 1981--he plays a doctor who treats Kim for pneumonia. I just saw the ep, but I didn't notice it was him, drat it!

It is Henna Day, and I have a headache. But having the cold henna on my head seems to be helping somewhat.

This morning I made a marvelous brunch: scrambled eggs with kale, leeks, white cheddar and a bit of salsa. I'm taking a break from the Dark Shadows rewatch to catch up on the eps of Slings & Arrows I haven't seen (well-timed for Shakespeare's birthday).

I've recently read:

Julie Cohen--Girl From Mars
Alice Notley--Homer's Art (chapbook)
Alice Notley--Sorrento (chapbook--reread)

It looks like our latest massive rainstorms are done (in time for the Superbowl, for those who care--I'm not one of 'em). I just popped out to Trader Joe's (packed full of people shopping for Superbowl parties), and before I could leave for TJ's, found the Garage Kitty parked behind my back left tire, waiting to spring into meowing action. So she got tuna. She seems to be holding up despite the cold, wet weather.

I woke up this morning thinking about chapter 27 of the Jo book. That's the final chapter of the book, though I'm still in the midst of chapter 25. So today I've written about 550 words of chapter 27, plus tinkered with chapter 25. After dinner (little burgers from TJ's), there will be more work on chapter 25.

I've been watching the BBC miniseries of Portrait of a Lady, which is unaccountably like watching paint dry--but I can't stop watching, because Richard Chamberlain is marvelous as Ralph Touchett, and I love Beatrix Lehmann and Rachel Gurney. But why does it suck so badly (aside from having one or two of the more egregiously bad faux-American accents ever)? It's written by Jack Pulman of I Claudius fame! Hmph.

I've just watched a '70s TV production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! featuring young Richard Backus and young Victor Garber! And the other night I caught part of the Leslie Howard version of Romeo and Juliet. Howard managed to make his Romeo appealing (though he was at least twenty years too old for the role) and Basil Rathbone was a fantastic Tybalt, but I was amazed by what pains they took to make John Barrymore's (ha! I just wrote John Berryman!) Mercutio appear heterosexual. Maybe I'm too used to John McEnery's very in-love-with-Romeo Mercutio from the Zeffirelli film, but I did a double take every time John Barrymore flirted with the bevy of dialogueless women who'd apparently been put there solely for that purpose.