Royal plots: Q, Picard, Scar and Loki do Shakespeare
Ben Whishaw as Richard II
We popped the dvd of The Hollow Crown, the new made-for-TV adaptations of Shakespeare’s history plays produced by Sam Mendes, into the player at 2am last Sunday, confident that it would not endanger our sleep. Verse, history, the first episode starring Ben Whishaw…we gave our eyelids 45 minutes, tops.
Five minutes later we bolted upright, dislodging two sleeping cats, and cried, “Holy crap, we get Shakespeare!” Sure we majored in Lit, we took Professor Ramas’s English 23 class and she drilled us in the greatness of Shakespeare (A brilliant teacher, she could turn you into stone with a glance, but she also made you want to be a better reader, interpreter and actor—we each had to perform 500 lines in front of an audience). But it was still homework. Since then we’ve watched Shakespeare on screen and stage and enjoyed it, even if we knew we weren’t getting all of it. When these beautiful words are flying at you, you catch what you can and fill in the blanks. It’s not about vocabulary: the words mean whatever the hell Shakespeare wants them to mean. He made the English language his bitch.
Many years later, something clicks in our head and suddenly we understand the lines as if they were in plain English. We’re sure Prof. Ramas, repeat viewings of Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V, Kurosawa’s Macbeth (Throne of Blood) and Lear (Ran), and Harold Bloom’s books had something to do with this “A-ha!” moment, but it was also the way the TV movies approach the plays. The Hollow Crown makes Shakespeare intimate and accessible.
Theatre gives the material a sense of urgency, film gives it epic scale, and TV makes it seem real. It’s like watching the news. In The Hollow Crown the lines sound like actual dialogue. Okay, conversations among the metaphorical-minded, but none of the flowery declamation contest stuff that causes involuntary eyeball-rolling.
In Richard II, the king (Whishaw) is a mincing wuss who believes that having been chosen by God, he can do no wrong. He makes arbitrary, terrible decisions and alienates his strongest allies. He banishes his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (Rory Kinnear) for 6 years. When Henry’s father, Richard’s uncle John of Gaunt (Patrick Stewart!!) falls ill and dies, Richard disinherits Henry and takes his property to fund an ill-advised expedition to Ireland. Henry returns, leads a revolt, deposes Richard and is crowned Henry IV. Richard is imprisoned in the Tower. Richard’s allies plot to overthrow Henry; when the plot is discovered, one of them tries to gain Henry’s favor by murdering Richard. So Henry’s reign begins with a storm of guilt.
The best part of Richard II: the death scene of John of Gaunt. As you know, no one in Shakespeare is so ill that they can’t deliver a killer speech with their last breath. Because it’s a play, not an exact copy of life. Nobody talks like that. It’s the mind speaking, not the mouth. Obviously it has to come out of their mouths or the actors would just be standing there.
Next: Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. Why would you be interested? Because that’s nearly nine hours of Tom Hiddleston, and we know some of you sign your diaries “Mrs. Hiddleston-Cumberbatch”.
Jeremy Irons as Henry IV berates Tom Hiddleston who plays the future Henry V. As the play is over 400 years old, that is not a spoiler.
Have a sonnet. You’ll thank us for this.
Sonnet 130: My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun
Via the lovely obsessives on tumblr
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
November 28th, 2012 at 09:50
Guilty as charged, i sign as either Mrs Cumberpants or Mrs Holmes haha. Eherm.
I remembered the first Shakespeare play I watched on stage was Midsummer Night’s Dream (UP, all male cast) . I didn’t understand the half of it but I was laughing so hard at the snippets that I did get.
Anyway, I have only seen Mr Hiddleston as Loki and his portrayal of the character in Thor was memorable- the vulnerability and heartbreak in his eyes when he screamed “Tell me!” at his adoptive father Odin was, well, heartbreaking. Yup I’m tempted to watch this but where do I hope to find a DVD of this? I doubt if our local stores carry this type, they don’t even have the BBC Sherlock series (the atrocity!). The cast looks impressive as it is. I just don’t know if I have the will to watch 9 hours of Shakespeare– well if its Mr Cucumberpants…
Just out of curiosity Ms Jessica, if you would rate the acting/ performance in films between American and British actors, what will it be? Who do you think does it better?
November 28th, 2012 at 11:03
I’m so Loki-ng forward to the next part :D
November 28th, 2012 at 13:19
I only realized now that Richard II is the new Q in SkyFall.
I watched Hollow Crown for Tom Hiddleston and was pleasantly surprised that I got the dialogue. I’ve never read any of his books and the only Shakespearean movie I’ve watched is Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (which I didn’t like). I’m very impressed with how the actors delivered their lines. It sounded like a real conversation and not some foreign language.
November 28th, 2012 at 21:06
The beauty of fan-girling over handsome English actors is that you can justify your craziness by reasoning out to parents/friends, “but he’s in good adaptations of Shakespeare/Conan Doyle/etc and he’s inspiring me to read books and educate myself!” (Chos.)
In all honesty and with no pretentions, I got my copy of The Hollow Crown so I can see THAT scene with Tom Hiddleston (I wouldn’t give THAT scene away because the next entry might mention it). But I am impressed by how they made the dialogue more accessible to TV and it got me interested in reading the less-frivolous Shakespeare plays. (Although a lot of people were disappointed and actually complained about how it failed to have the stage delivery. Huh.)
Was impressed by Ben Whishaw here that I didn’t recognize him as Q. Started watching his BBC series The Hour, and he’s pretty good and has great chemistry with costar Romola Garai (the older Briony Tallis!) – for a series about news programs and spies, mas interesting panoorin yung sexual tension nila.
To danielle, you can get it from, um, online sources.
November 28th, 2012 at 21:12
Falstaff!
November 28th, 2012 at 22:28
nativereader: Their Falstaff (Simon Russell Beale) is forgettable, which is the one thing Falstaff is not. Probably over-adjusted for TV.
amypond: If you mean the St. Crispin’s Day speech, we do not recommend Hiddleston’s approach for anyone aspiring to world domination. Silly to impose political correctness and 21st century liberal guilt on glorious jingoist propaganda. Probably the director’s choice, not the actors’.
Sorry—which Shakespeare is frivolous?
November 28th, 2012 at 22:55
I might have used the wrong word there, but I think I meant “the ones where people/characters are not in a tragedy or don’t die.”
November 28th, 2012 at 22:58
Most fangirls like the St. Crispin’s Day speech, so I have to see what it was about. And that other part where towels are involved.
November 28th, 2012 at 23:17
Ah. We like the theory that Titus Andronicus, his incest-cannibalism-rape-family vendetta tragedy, was supposed to be a comedy. Titus is very silly.
November 28th, 2012 at 23:24
Put it this way. After that speech we’d do him, but we wouldn’t go into battle for him, especially not with those odds.
Re towel scene, he’s more naked in The Deep Blue Sea. Good movie, deeply depressing, Rachel Weisz is spectacular. She throws herself away for him.
November 29th, 2012 at 01:08
there’s an iphone app called if poems where one of the people reading the poems is tom hiddleston
November 29th, 2012 at 01:24
Yes, that’s where this rendition of Sonnet 130 is from.
November 29th, 2012 at 11:33
Off topic: Have you heard/read about this news? Talk about an all-star cast. There’s Professor X! Queen Maergery! Sherlock Holmes! Saruman! Estes David! Rupert Giles! Kinilig ako sa greetings from London Below! http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2012/11/author-meets-world.html
November 29th, 2012 at 11:41
thanks amypond, I was actually exploring that option, going through the erm online sources. And I have to agree on fangirling over Brit dudes, sigh, they are not particularly good looking but boy those accents and the way they play the characters is, what can I say– electrifying. Some of them even graduated from posh schools, do theater, read poems and do audiobooks.
I have been trying to look for new series to watch these days so I’ll check these suggestions but probably not anything depressing though. I’ll try The Hour, thank you. Right now I’m watching the first episode of Merlin. So far so good, I just can’t get over the fact that the lead character looks so much like a boy version of Jennifer Garner, and his ears are really like, flapping in the wind.
And if you like to be amused by a British radio sit com by BBC, try Cabin Pressure. If you want links, let me know. It is hilarious! Best cure for depression or just getting over a bad day.
Let me leave you though with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEBvdXOu1uw
November 29th, 2012 at 17:28
saw Patrick Stewart as Macbeth at the Gielgud in the West End a few years ago, it was long but was really impressed with the actress who played Lady Macbeth. the second season of The Hour (very short series) is in progress on the beeb at present, the Ben Whishaw character is still goody-two shoes. but i watch it for Dominic West, as if our tv viewing lives revolve around old Etonians.
November 29th, 2012 at 17:45
ved: Apparently the cost of an acting career is so prohibitive only the wealthy can now afford it, hence Etonians like Hiddleston, West, Damien Lewis, and Harrovians like Cumberbatch.
November 29th, 2012 at 20:12
That’s terrible. Falstaff is my standard for sidekicks, and Anthony Quayle for Falstaffs.
November 30th, 2012 at 16:56
that is why it’s refreshing to see Adam Deacon (Kidulthood) triumph over Hiddleston and Eddie Redmayne, both old Etonians and in Redmayne’s case (also Oxbridge) in the Bafta Rising Star Awards in February. the posh accent doesn’t always rule. sometimes it’s good to be Plan B.
November 30th, 2012 at 22:20
The other one is also Cambridge. We know because we saw him speaking Greek and suddenly felt illiterate.
December 2nd, 2012 at 22:34
If the Earth needed to be repopulated, I would like to nominate Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston, overachievers.
The next cult: Richard Armitage.
December 3rd, 2012 at 13:03
The final 2 in the recent Anglo Fan Favorites 2012 poll – which covered actors, writers, and other Brit personalities – were Hiddleson and Cumberbatch, who are very unconventionally attractive.
(I praise the tumblr community for predicting at the beginning that it would be them in the last 2. Even more noteworthy was the absence of pixel-ized bloodshed between Hiddlestoners and Cumberbitches.)