tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40113302461243897162024-03-05T04:59:12.671+00:00Shakespeare on ToastBen Crystalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09162246043481369659noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011330246124389716.post-69610654814219265452015-01-18T21:00:00.000+00:002015-01-22T21:33:38.604+00:00Interplay #8 - Pericles in the Original Pronunciation <div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=4722&grupp=21474&artikel=5958262" target="_blank"><i class="">Interplay #8</i> - Pericles in the Original Pronunciation</a> - will be a world premiere - in three very different ways.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhVIycnVAoX_LCOwTXwz6Pi0DEvowtWIA8mc5a-hyTKjbw5ehDIdWvIr3m12NjuzzhlkJJjTnScaZw-K_zevrRaFpHHkkpnqos1lGD69CmwTqBOCNFDkAJMKVsJiw_clGNqNXPf5_p88bKmht2IEMiVVZNCAbbF00xoEKOGBmZZp4I_Gio=" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Berwaldhallen.jpg" height="266" style="-webkit-user-select: none; display: block; margin: auto;" width="400" /></a></div>
<span class="" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It’s the first contemporary production of Shakespeare’s late-play <i>Pericles</i> in Original Pronunciation, the accent his actors spoke in, based on research by the renowned linguist, scholar (and my father) Prof David Crystal, OBE, at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2004.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="">Original Pronunciation, or OP, is considered by modern audiences to be easier to understand than Shakespeare spoken in a modern English accent. </span><i class="">The Tragedy of Pericles, Prince of Tyre</i><span class=""> was an collaboration with a young colleague of Shakespeare's in 1608, and an exploration with his actors of voyage, self-discovery, romance and reunion.</span></span></div>
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<span class="" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It will be underscored using a modern reworking by Max Richter of one of Vivaldi’s most famous works: a recomposition that remains faithful to the original score, while taking riffs or themes and ‘tinkering' around with them. My Shakespeare Ensemble has a similar process in theatre: our exploration is to recreate - as fully as we can - a modern incarnation of Shakespeare’s company of actors, who worked together full time for two decades. They would have been Shakespeare’s understanders as has not been seen before or since. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="">Shakespeare would have adapted his company to today's laws. An example: in this modern world I believe Shakespeare would have welcomed female actors to his company, illegal in his day. I believe he would have let us cut his text to the best ’two hours’ traffic’ - a time-frame suggested in the Chorus to </span><i class="">Romeo and Juliet -</i><span class=""> just</span><i class=""> </i><span class="">as his own company once did. And I think he would have welcomed faithful innovation to tell his stories as clearly as possible - a quality in our productions we feel counter-balances the concept-driven Shakespeare that has popularised the world. This production of Pericles will not be set on the moon, on a cruise-ship, or in the 1920s: the setting will be the Berwaldhallen, the audience above and around us, with a chamber orchestra nestled with us, on stage.</span></span></div>
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<span class="" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We will rehearse in our usual manner, as our Elizabethan counterparts used to: each actor only receiving their 'cue-script' - the words they say, and their cues for when to say them - but never reading the entire play. So we will rehearse together, but will not speak the play whole to each other until we perform it for the first time in front of our audience on the 29th January. </span></div>
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<span class="" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Instead, we will explore how we can best serve both the music, this new-old accent we call OP, and the text - the latter filled with 'Dumb-Showes', non-verbal scenarios of action that takes place, all narrated by the Chorus figure of Gower, the Medieval English poet Shakespeare reincarnates to tell this most wonderful of stories.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="">And finally, Interplay #8 will take the name of SRSO conductor Daniel Harding’s Festival, </span><i class="">Interplay</i><span class="">, quite literally, and explore those magical moments when the musicians follow the actors, the actors follow the musicians, or the rarer times when both are led by something Other, and unwished for, there comes an <i class="">Interplay</i> between us. </span><span class=""><br class="" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is going to be quite a night at the <a href="http://berwaldhallen.ebiljett.nu/EventList" target="_blank">Berwaldhallen</a> this January 29th. Do come & join us.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ben Crystal</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Shakespeare Ensemble</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Further details via the <a href="http://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=4722&grupp=21474&artikel=5958262" target="_blank">Swedish Radio Symphony Website</a></span><br />
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I'm currently directing <a data-mce-href="http://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_winters_tale_0" href="http://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_winters_tale_0" target="_blank">Winter's Tale</a> for the E15 MA final project.</div>
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The remit given was: 90mins, in the round, ensemble, Shakespeare-deconstructed.</div>
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Being somewhat of a fan of simple, on-the-nose, straight-forward, non-concept Shakespeare, I was with it right up until the last one. But, always a fan of a challenge, and right before <a data-mce-href="http://tiny.cc/OPMacbeth" href="http://tiny.cc/OPMacbeth" target="_blank">taking OP to the Globe's new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse</a>, I liked the idea of going to the other end of my comfort zone, and completely ripping Shakespeare apart while still working the rehearsal techniques I've been developing with my ensemble, which relies on solid verse speaking combined with an extensive physical methodology and attention to stagecraft.</div>
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Now, I'm used to cutting Shakespeare, but the extant play of Winter's Tale is 3362 lines long.</div>
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Full of meaty, image-rich verse written at the height of Shakespeare's metrical prowess the dialogue sparkles so close to speech, and the prose seems to be like prosaic verse, or poetic prose, like some parts of <em>Pericles</em>.</div>
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The accepted standard is 1,000 lines of Shakespeare spoken per hour, so after forming and training the ensemble, the challenge was to devise out 80 minutes (always nice to finish under time) out of the flu play, which meant we were allowed a maximum of 1100 lines or so.</div>
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<li>Do we lose Bohemia? (yes, almost entirely)</li>
<li>How do we solve the bear? (we decided it should be scary...)</li>
<li>What do we do with the statue, when you're in the round?</li>
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The last was a noodle-scratcher, but while prepping for the SWP events at the Globe next month, which will all be candlelit, I thought about how <em>they</em> would have solved the statue issue at the Blackfriars, back when Winter's Tale was first performed.</div>
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It's easier in a huge proscenium theatre. Put Hermione deep upstage, as far away from the audience as possible, and if she moves it'll be imperceptible. But in the Blackfriars, or the Globe's <a data-mce-href="http://tiny.cc/OPeventsSWP " href="http://tiny.cc/OPeventsSWP" target="_blank">Sam Wanamaker</a>, the slightest movement would read from the back row of the upper gallery.</div>
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But. It's candlelit. The flickering light makes statues come alive, I thought.</div>
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So we've forged a rather beautiful, candle-lit, Tale, with a melting statue of wax. Continuing the exploration of the Chorus in modern Shakespeare over the last year, I've used the Chorus of Time to fracture the play, as we follow this tragedy-with-a-potentially-good-ending.</div>
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It opens on Saturday 28th in the<a data-mce-href="http://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_winters_tale_0" href="http://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_winters_tale_0" target="_blank"> Cockpit Theatre</a> (north of Marylebone, central London) and plays on in rep until 4th July:</div>
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<a data-mce-href="http://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_winters_tale_0" href="http://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_winters_tale_0">The Winter's Tale, Cockpit Theatre</a></div>
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Do please come if you can.</div>
Ben Crystalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09162246043481369659noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011330246124389716.post-40499411346948987742014-03-18T09:24:00.000+00:002014-03-19T12:18:59.966+00:00Shakespeare Week // The Telegraph // March 2014<div class="Body">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">A version of this piece was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationadvice/10704891/Get-young-involved-in-Shakespeare.html" target="_blank">published online in The Telegraph</a>, March 19th 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">This March, I’m an ambassador for <a href="http://shakespeareweek.org.uk/" target="_blank">Shakespeare Week</a> (no sash,
unfortunately). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">I've been acting, writing about, producing, teaching, and
running workshops on Shakespeare for the last 15 years, and I’m often asked why
should we teach our younglings his works? </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">I can answer with my own experiences. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I did terribly at
Shakespeare in English Literature, and struggled to get essay marks higher than
a C. But years of character parts in musicals had finally gotten me noticed by
a director, who was starting up a repertory company, and I started acting
Shakespeare at the beginning of my A-Levels. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By the time I had left for
university I had acted in two Shakespeare plays, and auditioned for the National
Youth Theatre and the Manchester Youth Theatre (both unsuccessfully and then
successfully) with monologues from the canon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Acting Shakespeare - Ariel, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Tempest</i> - outside in a new stone amphitheatre with perfect
acoustics, for the most part to an audience new to the play, and for many of my
fellow am-dram actors the first time we’d got to roll those words round our
mouths, softening with time like a gobstopper, in front of an audience. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was
there I had my Road to Damascus moment, for the biblically-minded out there, or
caught my first Shakespeare wave, for the surfily-minded out there. It was the
first time it made sense.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Out there, covered in gold makeup, freezing my under-developed
ginger pectorals off in the September North Welsh rain, Shakespeare made sense,
and I fell hard and fast in love with acting his words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From that moment on, I’ve never had too difficult a time
understanding Shakespeare, acting it, teaching it, explaining it to others, or
writing about it. I can take </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">apart</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> a speech in a dozen different ways,
and I spend a lot of my time working out how to articulate how we are guided by
Shakespeare towards the way he might have wanted it to be spoken, and then
attempting to articulate all this in the printed word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I still have little to no idea how to analyse a piece from a
literary-critical point of view. I have a feeling I’d still get a C, despite the
15 years experience. It makes sense to me watching it in a theatre (even if the
production’s bad) and it makes sense to me when I’m acting it, or helping
others work out how to act it. I struggle to make it make sense on the page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The key fits the lock, the engine growls, the car roars into
life, when acted. It’s what the words were written for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Shakespeare is the reason I don’t work a 9-5. He’s
the reason I’m miserable sometimes, and he’s often the reason I laugh hard.
He’s the reason I earn less money than I could, and he’s the reason my life is
sometimes a shambles. But I get to work with the best English language
playwright most days of my life, and I consider myself blessed for that.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shakespeare
teaches me something new about life every time I speak it, because I’m a day
older than the last time I looked at it, and so the words resonate differently
to me. A 13 year old girl can tell me more about what it</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: FR;">’</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">s
like to be Juliet than I can ever teach her. And the sooner you discover that
speaking Shakespeare is fun, the sooner you can pick up one of his scripts
(something that has been worked on in a similar way by thousands of artists
before you). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then, if you learn the words by mind, and find a way to speak them
by heart in such a believable way that you activate that special part of your
audiences</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: FR;">’ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">brains and engage their suspension
of disbelief, and maybe make them laugh or cry - well, what a wonderful thing
to do.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And for so
long, like so many others, I hated his works. We need to cut off the Medusa
head before the snake-hair sprouts, because by the time students get to
secondary school, an antipathy towards Shakespeare has often already set in,
almost by osmosis.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In reaching
out to over 1500 primary schools, Shakespeare Week is the perfect project to
encourage our younglings to speak and love Shakespeare, free from analytical
study. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Come on board, join in, bring a treasure chest of writing to the next
generation of Shakespearians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">-----------------------------</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">My Top 5 Ways to Engage Kids in Shakespeare</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p><b> </b></o:p></span></h3>
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Quote it!</span></h4>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Whether it be telling your son he's a tower of
strength, or your daughter does something all of a sudden, you're quoting
Shakespeare. He brought over 1,000 words and phrases to the English Language
that we still use today.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/phrases-sayings-shakespeare.html" target="_blank"><span class="Hyperlink0"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/phrases-sayings-shakespeare.html</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Globe it!</span></h4>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Take your children to one of the touring productions
c/o Shakespeare's Globe. Legs might get tired standing at their home on the
South Bank in London, but you can take a picnic and sit in the sun to enjoy the
riotous, fun touring productions. This year it's the romantic comedy <i>Much Ado
About Nothing</i>.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span class="Hyperlink1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/globe-theatre/much-ado-about-nothing-2014">http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/globe-the<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"></span>atre/much-ado-about-nothing-2014</a></span></span><!--[if !supportNestedAnchors]--><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4011330246124389716" name="_GoBack"></a><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shout it!</span></h4>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Boy did Shakespeare know how to insult people! By
comparison, our vocabulary is fairly four-letter limited. <i>Shakespeare's Insult
Kit </i>(c/o Chris Seidel) is a harmless, inventive and fun way to introduce your
kids to the richness of his words. Get to it, thou artless, bat-fowling
bugbear!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<a href="http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html"><span class="Hyperlink2"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4687ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<span lang="IT" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: IT;">Explore it!</span></h4>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Pick a play. A nice fun one like<i> A Midsummer Night's
Dream</i>, or a dark and bloody one like <i>Macbeth</i>, and explore some of those rich,
vivid characters. Go to a nearby park or wood and pretend to be Witches and
Faeries for half-an-hour. It's what Shakespeare's actors would once have done.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">See it!</span></h4>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Whether it be a Manga cartoon adaptation, or
<i>Shakespeare's Animated Tales</i>, some of the Bard's best works have been given a
modern flavour. While simplified - and no replacement for The Real Thing - my 8
year old nephew adores them!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.mangashakespeare.com/"><span class="Hyperlink3"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #4687ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">http://www.mangashakespeare.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ben Crystalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09162246043481369659noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011330246124389716.post-35379272721259458312013-10-09T12:37:00.001+01:002013-10-09T12:37:47.840+01:00FHM piece - Shakespeare & flirt-texting
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In September 2013, I was asked to write a piece for FHM on the Dos and Don'ts of text-flirting, and what the great writers had to say. Here's the piece in full:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For
a flirty text how important is brevity? How long is the ideal length?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Try too hard, she'll
think you desperate. Don't try hard enough, she'll think you weak. Say too much
and you'll bore her, joke too much and she'll think you're a clown. And always
remember, as Shakespeare said, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Brevity
is the soul of wit.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So anything longer than
a Tweet (140 characters) is too long. This is a wooing, not PhD thesis. Be
brief, simple, to the point. Too many relationships start, continue and explode
with texts. A text message is the means to the end - being in the same room
together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How
best to make yourself seem intriguing? What sort of language is best to use?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Shakespeare suggests<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";">Speak low if you speak love<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The modern meaning of
'low' is <i>gently</i>, <i>briefly</i>, and with <i>humility</i>.
From the heart, in other words. You'll never know how far a simple line like <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You
looked beautiful today<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">will take you until you
try it. And definitely don't brag about yourself along the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It's
hard to be humble when you're as great as me<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">kind of line. It'll get
you ignored faster than junkmail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And
what sort of language is best to avoid?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">As Lord
Byron once wrote<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">So, we'll go no more a roving<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> So late into the night,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Though the heart be still as loving,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> And the moon be still as bright.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Translation - never
text late at night, and certainly not drunk. And do NOT take Charles Bukowski's
advice to elicit a response:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #131313; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">If
something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good
happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to
make something happen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Is
it in fact better to send texts which you HAVEN'T poured over for hours? If the
text seems like the result of hard work does that put people off?</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I've spent what seemed
like hours over how to phrase an initial text to a woman I like:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hey,
how're you?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hey
how are you?! X<br />
Hey, how's it going? :-)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hey,
howzit? x<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hi,
I want to see you!!! XXX<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One kiss or none? Two
or one big X? A smiley like :) or like :-) ?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irony is hard to get
across without a voice backing it up, and sarcasm is practically impossible. Avoid
both. Leave out the smileys, drop the <i>howzit</i>
and <i>goin'</i> type slang, never use more
multiple exclamation marks, and show willing with a final 'x'. So don't think
too long or too hard, and try not to follow Oscar Wilde's poetic technique:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<i>I worked all day on a poem. In the
morning I added a comma. In the afternoon I took it out again.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Spending an hour on a
three word response will end with her thinking you're mad or ignoring her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh, and for goodness
sakes, make sure you haven't left in any spelling mistakes. Women want men to
love not boys to teach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Is
it wrong to overload your flirty texts with adjectives? Will it make the
writing seem clumsy?</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Women like to be
complimented, but take advice again from our Bard Shakespeare:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";">Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So I probably wouldn't
take Edmund Spenser's line, making actual make direct reference to your lady's
assets. Lips, breasts and, indeed, paps should probably be left out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Her lips lyke cherryes charming men to byte,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Her brest like to a bowle of creame vncrudded,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Her paps lyke lyllies budded,</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Direct, and to the
point seems best, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge tried:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">You lie in all my many
Thoughts, like Light<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This
sounds basic, but it's important: how to write something romantic?
Something that a girl would actually think was attractive and not creepy/lame?
What have the great romantic writers in the past shown us with regards to
manipulating (in the nicest possible way) the hearts of the opposite sex.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Surprise and romance is
key. I'm a romantic, and while some women can be surprised by what is generally
considered a long-dead tradition, a touch of direct sweetness can go a long
way. A lot of writers played hard, fast and loud. But softly softly catchee. As
the 17th century poet Andrew Marvell once wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Had we but world enough, and time,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> This coyness, lady, were no crime.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That said, it didn't
stop Shakespeare. He wrote a pretty desperate run of 17 sonnets trying to
convince someone to procreate, arguing it would be a sin for his love's beauty
not to continue:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Look
in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Now
is the time that face should form another</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Don't be lewd, rude, or
be too forward (save that for after you've taken each other's clothes off).
Whatever you say, the response you're looking for is 'Ah' rather than 'Ew!'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
thing that everyone wants to avoid in texts is sounding desperate. But is there
a GOOD way to express desperation? If you're desperate to see someone, and you
express it in an appropriate way, can it actually be quite attractive?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Don't be like Thomas
McGrath, you'll scare them away - especially the kind of I'LL DIE WITHOUT YOU
talk of death:<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">You'll look at least on
love's remains, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">A grave's one violet:
Your look?-that pays a thousand pains. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">What's death?-You'll love
me yet!</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Other lines probably best avoided, even if you think
they sound great in your head: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">That's so funny! You
remind me of my mother / ex-girlfriend.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Gotta go, off to drink my
weight in cider!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">God I hate romantic
comedies.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Even a well-meaning <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">I'd like to take you
shopping<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Can be mis-interpreted as 'You've no style / you're
overweight / you dress like my Gran'.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Honesty and, <i>to thine own self be true</i> (Shakespeare
yet again) seems to be the way forward. You don't have to be a poet, or hugely
original. If you've never felt this way before, and you had a great night, then
tell her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I've
never felt this way before. Thanks for a great night.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If she likes <i>The Devil Wears Prada</i> and you actually
don't mind watching it, it really is ok to admit it (to her, perhaps not your
friends down the pub). Wearing your heart on your sleeve, as in the most famous
of love poems, Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, is a great piece of double-thinking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Shall
I compare thee to a summer's day?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sounds like a good line
doesn't it? But nah, he goes on to say, summer is too hot, itchy, boring, and
it ends. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But
thy eternal summer shall not fade...<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You're better than a
summer's day. With you it's summer every day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Take an (autumn) leaf
out of e.e. cumming's book:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Your slightest look
easily will unclose me<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Or indeed, women perhaps know best. The great love
poet Emily Dickinson:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 24.0pt;">Were I with thee, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 24.0pt;">Wild nights should be <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 24.0pt;">Our luxury!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 24.0pt;">If you're texting, it's unlikely the object of your
affections is across the room. And our current Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy,
takes us straight to the heart of the matter:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;">I want you and you are not here...</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;">Wherever you are now, inside my head you fix me
with a look... </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;">I hold you closer, miles away, inventing love</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Ben Crystalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09162246043481369659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011330246124389716.post-41933756730691620102013-08-05T17:26:00.001+01:002013-08-05T17:26:41.099+01:00Programme notes for Branagh's Macbeth<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<h4>
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">In January 2013, I held my breath and sent Ken Branagh the draft of my <i><a href="http://springboardshakespeare.com/" target="_blank">Springboard Shakespeare: Macbeth</a></i>. With his production planned for the <i>Manchester International Festival </i>in July that year, I hoped he might flip through it. </span></b></h4>
<h4>
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">I was called a week later. He had been reading everything he could lay his hands on about this dark play, and apparently so much of what I'd said in my book matched his ideas. Would I consider writing something for the production's programme?</span></b></h4>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>The following is the text they printed, part of which I adapted from my <a href="http://springboardshakespeare.com/" target="_blank">Springboard Shakespeare series</a>...</b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The
be-all and end-all<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Actor and
writer Ben Crystal sheds a 21st-century light on the darkness of the Scottish
Play<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Macbeth: </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">image-famous
for witches, a floating dagger, and the midnight murder of a Scottish king.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Beyond these, it’s a blood-soaked play with
unspeakable brutality – throat-slitting, decapitation, the killing of an
innocent mother and child (nothing less than horrific), the murder of people
while they sleep, the splitting of someone from stomach to jawbone with a
sword, and a few other deaths that make the on- and off-stage body count at
least a dozen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There are bloody ghosts, witches, and figures from
the Greek underworld, all ideas that would have brought terror to the minds of
Shakespeare’s audience. Characters hallucinate, are drugged, and are so terrified
of their leader that they flee from their home and country. Some are so opposed
to the dictator-like, tyrannical killing of innocents that they raise an army
and go to war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Pixies, faeries
& ghosts</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For Shakespeare’s audience at the Globe in 1606,
the presence of witches and the main plotline of killing a king were topical as
well as terrifying. <i>Macbeth</i> was first
performed in a period of persecution now known as the European Witch Craze, during
which many women (and men) were put under trial and executed under suspicion of
witchcraft. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In 1603, the Scottish King James VI acceded the
English throne as King James I. A few years earlier, he had written a book
about witches. And in 1605, a few months before <i>Macbeth </i>was first performed, he survived an assassination attempt
by Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators. (Indeed, the word ‘assassination’ was
coined by Shakespeare for this play. As I say, topical.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The King or Queen was officially considered to be
God’s voice on Earth and the removal of the rightful monarch meant anarchy,
that the skies would darken and fall. Superstition was so powerful that the
existence of pixies, faeries and ghosts were a commonly held belief, while an
equally religious world thought earthquakes were the punishing Hand of God. Written
in that fearful time, this is a play that asked questions about political and
social instability: about how far someone will go for power, and what that can
cost... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Macbeth</span></i></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
and the canon<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As he did for many of his plays, Shakespeare took
the basic plot for <i>Macbeth</i> from
Raphael Holinshed’s <i>Chronicles</i>, a
history of Britain. The second edition of <i>Chronicles
</i>appeared in 1587, around the time Shakespeare came to London to begin his
theatrical career.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In some respects, the play is a re-run of his earlier
<i>Richard III </i>(written c.1592)<i> </i>and <i>Julius
Caesar </i>(c.1599): the first half features a slow build-up towards the murder
of the rightful leader, with the second half concentrating on the emotional and
psychological fallout of such actions. It’s a structure that has inspired many
imitations on stage and screen; Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film <i>Psycho</i>, for instance, follows a similar
path.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Othello</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">,
<i>King Lear, Macbeth</i>, <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>, <i>Pericles</i>, <i>Coriolanus </i>and <i>The Winter’s
Tale </i>followed – titanic works, each exploring the fall of a good man, but
from a slightly different angle each time. Othello suffers at the hands of another,
Lear is foolish, and Leontes (in <i>The
Winter’s Tale</i>) is susceptible to jealousy, as we all are. However, like
Richard III before him, Macbeth becomes a tyrant, a killer of innocents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Macbeth is an incredible character. He experiences
a rocket-rise to absolute power via murder, then plummets into absolute
disaster, a roller-coaster ride turned runaway train. He’s the loyal soldier
who embraces his inner darkness, reaching a point of near-insanity through
megalomania, paranoia and greed, and who swings from uncertain weakness to a
Superman-like conviction of invincibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The
Macbeths<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If Aragorn in <i>The
Lord of the Rings </i>had taken the Ring and Arwen had turned to Mordor, he
would have become Macbeth, and she, Lady. Macbeth, essentially, takes the Ring.
Whatever his actual years, he doesn’t seem to have acquired the wisdom that
usually comes with age to see past the Witches’ equivocation; instead, he
believes the Witches and is terrified by Banquo’s Ghost. He becomes paranoid to
the point of excluding everyone from his side, apart from a character called
Seyton (pronounced, like the devil, ‘Satan’).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the second half of the play, Macbeth feels like
a man with nothing left to lose. However, pity for him is often reignited
during his final encounter with Macduff, as all the pieces of the puzzle fall
into place. He makes for a great and dramatic figure: someone who’s profoundly
aware he’s trapped in a downward spiral and decides to plunge headlong down
anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lady Macbeth is different. We watch as she embraces
her own darkness and see her being left far behind her husband, having
encouraged him to engage with his own inner demons, before losing her mind in a
living waking-dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Macbeth</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
is a tragedy driven forward not by a solitary figure but a married couple. Some
productions have made the Macbeths an overtly sexual couple, while others have
tried to suggest that their strength – or ensuing disintegration – comes from
having lost a baby. They only have a few scenes together, but in that time, we
need to believe they’re a couple in a strong relationship, that they could plot
and carry out a murder together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">MACBetH
Does MURDeR sLeeP</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I like Macbeth. He’s a weird animal, the character
of a warrior with a very poetic heart. The verse Shakespeare wrote for him is
muscular and erratic, and its imagery is incredibly powerful. From the
terrifying:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To the child-like rhyming:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I will not be afraid of Death and Bane<b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Till Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To the near-suicidal:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I ’gin to be a-weary of the Sun<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And wish th’estate o’th world were now undone.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To elegiac reflection:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Creeps in this petty pace from day to day <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To the last syllable of recorded time.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There’s a hauntingly tragic moment when, having
murdered Duncan, Macbeth tells his wife:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Methought, I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Macbeth does murder Sleep’...<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He’s describing the medical condition of insomnia<i> </i>– a term that isn’t recorded in English
until 1623, when ‘insomnie’ was defined as ‘watching; want of power to sleepe’.
Oddly enough, bearing in mind what happens to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, the
four stages of the rare condition called fatal familial insomnia are now known
to be as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">1 – Up to four months of
sleeplessness; panic attacks, phobias and paranoia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2 – Around five months of
severe panic attacks and hallucinations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">3 – For up to three months,
a complete inability to sleep followed by rapid weight loss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">4 – Over the next six
months: dementia, a lack of physical or verbal response to others, and
eventually death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Other symptoms of long-term sleep loss include menopause
in women and impotence in men. Both are fascinating possible character choices,
especially considering Lady Macbeth’s reference to losing a child. She lambasts
Macbeth’s manliness, prompting him to respond, ‘<i>I dare do all that may become a man</i>’, and, after seeing Banquo’s
Ghost, his proclamation that ‘<i>I am a man
again</i>’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Shakespeare’s lines<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Shakespeare
writes prose<i>, </i>a
theatrical reflection of everyday speech, and he writes poetry, organising a
character’s speech into rhythmical lines of verse. He uses this verse to direct his actors, bringing out the
traits of their characters through the type of lines they speak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In <i>Macbeth</i>,
the distinction between prose and verse, and between different kinds of verse,
has a hugely dramatic role. Most of the characters in <i>Macbeth </i>speak in verse – only 6.5 per cent of the lines in the play
are prose. The play has this rhythm pounding through it like a heartbeat,
albeit an irregular one that changes its pace. Drops of earthy base prose are scattered
throughout, stopping and starting the rhythms like a jazz trumpeter
improvising.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We hear the Porter, the Scottish Doctor and Lady
Macbeth’s Waiting-gentlewoman speak in prose, as well as Lady Macduff and her
Son; the Witches, too, from time to time. Prose, closest to everyday speech, is
the medium that Shakespeare’s lower-class characters normally use. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Scottish noblemen and the Witches both speak in
verse, but they do so in very different ways. The noblemen use the form of
verse that was most popular in Shakespeare’s lifetime: iambic pentameter. This is
a rhythmical line with ten syllables, made up of five (‘penta-’) stronger beats
and five weaker ones, with the stronger beat every second syllable: de-<b>DUM </b>(known as an ‘iambic’<i> </i>rhythm). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Iambic pentameter is the type of verse closest in
rhythm to spoken English, and its weak-strong beat pushes the speaker towards
the more important syllables in a line. We hear it when we first see Macbeth,
who says to Banquo:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So <b>foul </b>and <b>fair </b>a <b>day </b>I <b>have </b>not <b>seen <o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This length of line of can be easily said with one
intake of breath, and the regular heartbeat-like rhythm makes it easy to commit
to memory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The less-than-human characters are different. When
Shakespeare breaks from that iambic rhythm, he’s telling us, aurally, that
there’s something different about the characters, or that what they’re saying
is especially important. The Witches speak in short lines of four <b>DUM</b>-de beats, a type of verse called trochaic
tetrameter. We hear it in the opening lines of the play:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In <b>thun</b>der <b>light</b>ning <b>or </b>in <b>rain <o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This rhythm, so different from the rhythm of
everyday speech, is a very subtle but effective way of making the characters
seem even more other-worldly than they would if Shakespeare had written their
speeches in prose or regular iambic pentameter. The repeated four-beat lines
convey a hypnotic sound that drums into our ears. The effect is especially
noticeable later in the play, as the Witches concoct their spells...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Comedy
and tragedy</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As well as being one of Shakespeare’s shortest
plays, <i>Macbeth </i>is also one of the
darkest. It’s often played as a tragedy with little to no comedy; even the main
‘comic’ part, the Porter, can be played as a dark, tragic demon-figure. But as
with all of Shakespeare’s plays, there’s an inherent balance of comedy and
tragedy written in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He knew, as the classic image of theatre (the ‘persona’<i> </i>mask) implies, that comedy and tragedy
work best next to each other. Balance is key: if you make an audience laugh, it’ll
be easier to make them cry, and vice versa. So don’t be surprised if this
production delivers unexpected laughs, or if it has a black comedy focus,
instead of feeling like a ‘pure’ tragedy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Themes…
and variations<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When the drunken Porter shows up to open the castle
gate, he speaks of an ‘<i>equivocator</i>’,<i> </i>someone who intentionally misuses one
word for another to deceive the listener. At the time of <i>Macbeth</i>’s first performances, equivocation was on the minds of
Shakespeare and his audience. Father Garnet, a Jesuit priest, was hanged in May
1606 for his part in Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605. At his trial,
he was famously discovered to have sworn evidence to be true that he knew in
his mind was false – so trying to equivocate his way out of guilt. The idea of
equivocation underpins the play. The prophecies the witches give to Macbeth
seem to be straightforward but turn out to have a double meaning – lies
masquerading as truths – and eventually doom him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Shakespeare’s works are often discussed
thematically, but such discussions don’t tell the whole story. It’s characters
that make themes, not themes that make characters. Underneath the speeches are
characters that think and feel like any living person. And that’s the starting
point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Shakespeare didn’t set out to write a play about a
particular theme. Macbeth doesn’t reach for the crown to explore the theme of
ambition. He simply is ambitious, and therefore we read that theme into the
play. Similarly, Lady Macbeth is a strong woman, so it’s also a play about
feminism. It can equally be read as a play about the current conflicts around
the world, democracy or any number of other subjects. The marvellous thing
about Shakespeare’s plays is that we can use them to reflect or refract
virtually any modern political or sociological theme: freely channelling
ideologies through his writing as if he wrote his plays to be sponges, sucking
up whatever part of life we bring to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ben Crystal </span></i></b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is
an actor and the author/co-author of several books on Shakespeare, including </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://springboardshakespeare.com/" target="_blank">SpringboardShakespeare</a>: Macbeth<i> (Arden Shakespeare)
and </i><a href="http://www.shakespeareontoast.com/" target="_blank">Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard</a> <i>(Icon Books). He Tweets at @bencrystal<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Ben Crystalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09162246043481369659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011330246124389716.post-17058593558744396002011-06-04T13:46:00.000+01:002011-06-04T13:46:34.119+01:00Interview with Sir Richard Eyre, Hay Festival, May 28th 2011<div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US"><i>While working and speaking at the <a href="http://www.hayfestival.com/">Hay Festival</a> last week I interviewed Sir Richard Eyre, who ran the Royal National Theatre for ten years, published excerpts of his diaries of his time there in his <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/National-Service-Decade-Richard-Eyre/dp/0747565899">National Service</a>, and was at the Festival to interview his wife, the producer<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0083804/"> Sue Birtwistle</a>, on the challenges of adaptation. I grabbed half an hour with him...</i></span></div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">There was a look in his eyes that made me speechless. Not a good way to start an interview, I grant you, but goosebumps shivered up my arms, I put down my pen and forgot about the dictaphone in my bag. </span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">He stared into the middle distance, watching the scene play out in his memory. "Heart-breaking..."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">We'd been talking about his last production as artistic director at the National Theatre, directing Ian Holm in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King Lear</i>. As a student, I'd queued for hours to get a ticket on the last night. It remains one of the best Shakespeare productions I've seen. What is his favourite line from the play? That look again. "There's something about 'it smells of mortality.' And the simplicity of Lear's lines to Cordelia at the end, 'So we'll live / And pray, and sing, and tell old tales... Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out'..."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">A table away from us, in the green room of The Telegraph Hay Festival, his wife, the producer Sue Birtwistle sits talking with a friend of theirs. Richard had spent the last hour interviewing her about the task of adapting the phenomenally successful <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974077/">Cranford</a></i> series and the <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112130/">Pride & Prejudice</a> </i>that brought the world's attention to Colin Firth.</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">"I'm a gentlemen, so I'm not going to say how long ago it was, but she was wearing suede trousers... so I suppose I'm saying it was her legs I noticed first. And I was her landlord," he grins. "And we've been together ever since."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">Do you often work together? "No. We did once on the film of <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0148376/">Lear</a></i> we made after the run at the Cottesloe Theatre had ended. I directed and Sue produced." Was it difficult? "No," he says, flicking a smile over towards her, "but the thing is, it's impossible to get away from it. It's there at the breakfast table, at dinner..."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">Their paths cross, artistically though. In their talk, Sue had described one of the joys of producing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cranford</i> had been forming a Company of stellar actors that had to be kept on contract, sometimes for up to 17 weeks, taking turns to play the lead and the background artists in each others' scenes. "Her experience reminded me of my ten years at the National," he says. "Keeping a Company, working with actors you trust again and again."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">I cautiously ask him if he misses the building. "Yes, everyday." In his diaries of his time there, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">National Service</i>, he described the task of planning a repertoire of 17 shows a year for three theatres as 'three-dimensional chess in the dark', and writes starkly of the pressures such a task brings.</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">"Yes, but what was it Diderot said? Happiness is white? When you keep a diary you don't feel the need to capture all the moments of pleasure, 'Oh what a wonderful day,' that sort of thing. You use it to unload. But it was a wonderful time, I loved it, that creative freedom."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">And ending your tenure with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lear</i>? "It's his greatest play." But you staged it in the smallest space. "I'd always planned to put it on in the Cottesloe. And Ian hadn't acted Shakespeare for 28 years - we wanted it to be an intimate experience for the audience."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">Is there a Shakespeare you haven't done yet that you'd like to? He stares into the middle distance again. A few moments, as the wind whips up and rattles the green room tent. "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Twelfth Night</i>... I will do it... But you need the perfect cast."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">I admit I used to severely dislike that play, until I was cast in it. Now, I love it. It's a perfect blend of comedy and tragedy. He agrees. Then turns the tables. "Who did you play?" It was my first professional Shakespeare gig, and I had the immortal line of Orsino's servant, agonising over how I should phrase 'Will you go hunt, my Lord?' </span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">He laughs. "When I started out as an actor I played Mountjoy in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Henry V</i>. I had to give a speech to the army, standing onstage with the audience beyond, who couldn't see the hand gestures my troops were making, trying to put me off my lines..." He pauses. "You know, I think Shakespeare might have spent some time in the army, in Europe."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">You mean during his 'lost years'? "Yes..." Shakespeare goes off-record in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1585 and surfaces seven years later in London, a working actor and playwright about to hit the big time. The theories of what happened to him are legion. "I'm fairly sure there are army references in every play." And there's that curious character, Parolles, in the somewhat odd play <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All's Well That Ends Well</i>. "Exactly. There are little details scattered throughout the canon. It fits." </span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">What about the conspiracy theorists? With the epic blockbuster director Roland Emmerich bringing out <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1521197/">Anonymous</a></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>later this year, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Da Vinci Code</i> type of film revealing the hidden 'truth': that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare, and others were responsible for the works. He leans back in his chair, sweeps a hand through white locks. Glares now at the middle distance. "Ha, it infuriates me. It's ridiculous. Just because Shakespeare wasn't of the right stock, he can't have written these plays. It's maddening."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">And in 400 years time they'll doubt a desk clerk came up with the theory of relativity? He laughs, the glare gone. "Quite."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">Do you care for the recent trend to add big lights and sound, turning Shakespeare's plays into a multimedia event? He raises an eyebrow at me. "It's not my sort of thing... But you can do anything to Shakespeare, I can't bear people who say you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> do this with him, and you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mustn't</i> do that. Shakespeare will endure, he's resilient. Look around the world, he works in any language. If we don't keep playing around with him, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">then</i> we'll lose him."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">An excited scream goes up from a gaggle of young interns. Rob Lowe is due to arrive soon, I explain, to give a talk. "Yes, I know, he and his wife are friends of ours. I directed him in a film of Tennessee Williams' <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108247/">Suddenly Last Summer</a></i>. We had dinner the other night. He hasn't spoken at this sort of thing before. He was panicking about what one wears to a literature festival."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">Wellies and a scarf? "Definitely."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">I ask him where he thinks we are with contemporary theatre, what with all the funding cuts, and entire grants being taken away from long-established theatre companies. He had discussed with Sue earlier onstage the difficulties she had faced raising finance for such an epic undertaking as bringing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cranford </i>novellas<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>to the small screen<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>even with Judi Dench attached.</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">He nods. "It wasn't reality, or a quiz. Drama will always suffer. But I'm hopeful. Incredibly hopeful. Ironically, it seems to be healthier than it was ten years ago. People want immediacy. I mean look where we are," he says, sweeping his hands out around us, "a literature festival, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thousands</i> of people coming here, wanting that interaction, that spark."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">He stands to leave, they have to get back to London. So we come and we engage and we want our hearts to be broken? Again and again?</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US">That stare again, but softer this time. He nods. "Yes. Well, I hope so..."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div>Ben Crystalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09162246043481369659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011330246124389716.post-35095465313314507382011-03-09T15:48:00.021+00:002011-03-09T17:31:52.771+00:00True appreciation...<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Telegraph's <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8360072/Shakespeare-a-true-appreciation-can-only-come-from-reading-the-plays.html">Ed Cumming wrote a piece</a> late last week in response to Dame Helen Mirren suggesting students shouldn't be introduced to Shakespeare by reading. He wrote </span></div><blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"...a true appreciation can only come from reading the plays... though formally speaking he wrote plays, Shakespeare has his position because he is the greatest poet in our - and possibly any - language... it is baffling that we are still having this argument... After all Shakespeare's colleagues Heminges and Condell had already worked it out when they composed the preface to the First Folio. 'Read him therefore, again and again,' they wrote..."</div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">It is indeed baffling.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I'm lucky that I spend much of my life working with Shakespeare, either as an actor, a writer, a workshop leader or teacher. I shift the focus away from the persistent view of his writings, that they are books to be read, and more seen as plays to be performed. I find ways to make them accessible without dumbing them down, breaking them open by putting them back into context.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">When the actors Condell and Heminges in the First Folio (the book containing all of Shakespeare's plays, but not his poems) bid us 'read him therefore, again and again' they could have meant 'take into account', or 'make something of', two equally valid definitions for the word 'read'.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">It makes more sense: 80% of people back then couldn't read. They were used to seeing his plays performed, to hearing them; and later with their memories echoing, reflecting on what they had seen and heard. What better way to 'make something of him therefore, again and again' than by providing a manual for future generations to re-stage his plays.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Each one is a guide on how to perform an incredible story. They were written by an actor, for the same group of actors, who worked together for over twenty years. Shakespeare's company became so well versed in their master playwright's ways they would have had no trouble understanding what was written.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">They would, after all, be introduced to the new play by receiving only their character's lines, and would have had little notion of what it would be to 'read the whole play'. If they were to, it would be as a skilled chef might describe the taste of a dish from looking only at the recipe, or a musician hearing Mozart's Requiem simply by reading the score. But these skills take years to develop, and require technique, passion, and practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Dame Helen Mirren was on the right track. Reading Shakespeare is hard. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">It would be wrong to argue that his plays shouldn't be put under great literary scrutiny, but as a means of introducing people to them, it can be off-putting. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Shakespeare rightfully holds a fixed position in our English Literature heritage, and on the syllabus, but the balance between literature and theatre has long needed to be redressed. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Why isn't Shakespeare first introduced to us in schools by drama teachers? </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">There has been a growing</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> move away from teaching Shakespeare first and foremost as a work of Literature, and a</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">pproaching the plays in their natural environment rarely fails. Meeting characters who are speaking out their thoughts, feelings, and problems, gives students something more tangible to latch on and relate to.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">To really start enjoying his plays we do need to work at them, but </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">'five minutes reading through some speeches beforehand' isn't enough either. We </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">need to encourage a broader knowledge: become familiar with the theatrical world he wrote in; try to get into the heads of these characters he gave life to; and become fluent in 'Shakespearian' so the words don't take us so much by surprise.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Being encouraged to speak those terrific words every day, and seeing as many different performances as possible, both on stage or screen, amateur and professional, in English or not, will go a long way to help nurture a fledgling appreciation.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">It's sad but true, there are productions that leave young people bored: who hasn't felt that way at some point? Every production and interpretation won't suit everyone. But both on stage and in the auditorium, we need to shake off the notion that these astonishing discussions of the human heart and mind are merely beautiful pieces of poetry; and we must work harder to keep them alive, as plays. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Yes, he was a wonderful poet, but his life was theatre. Both approaches to his writing need attention - and we must keep trying to find new and different ways to make something of them.</span></div></div></div>Ben Crystalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09162246043481369659noreply@blogger.com5