the greats do shakespeare!

Peter O’Toole as Hamlet, directed by Laurence Olivier, 1963 David Tennant as Benedick and Catherine Tate as Beatrice, Much Ado About Nothing  Dame Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth, 1979 Tom Hiddleston as Cassio, Othello Meryl Streep in Henry V, 1976 Fiona Shaw as Richard II, 1995 Alan Cumming as Macbeth

Quote

“It’s terrific working with Andrew Scott as Moriarty. He’s an exceptional actor. He makes incredibly fresh and unusual and utterly unpredictable choices. So, it’s a thrill. You feel that you’re being outplayed, which is exactly how you should feel.” – Benedict Cumberbatch on Sherlock costar Andrew Scott

Is Gender Flipping the Norm?

It’s hard not to be tickled by the new “gender flipping” meme making the rounds of late, which gently pokes fun at the media’s tendency for absurd hyper-feminine and hyper-masculine imagery and stereotypes. Basically, the meme “flips” the gender of ads/book covers/movies posters/etc., turning female images into male ones and vice-versa, thus rendering them absurd. The … More Is Gender Flipping the Norm?

Modernity in Antiquity

“Just because society, and government, and whatever was different 100 years ago, doesn’t mean that people didn’t have sex, pick their nose, or swear.” -Kate Winslet As we look at a season filled with stories either set or written long ago, it’s interesting to think about how much or really little we have changed.  100 … More Modernity in Antiquity

Four centuries of Romeo and Juliet: an overview

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, written around 1595 – 96, although there is no direct evidence of specific performance dates before the restoration. Nevertheless, the early printed text suggest that it was popular from the start; the first quarto of 1597 claims that “it has been often ( with great … More Four centuries of Romeo and Juliet: an overview