Getting Things Done
Mar. 1st, 2011 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethToday I did the dishwashering, and the laundry, at least all the black things, and I've been trying to watch a BBC version of Romeo and Juliet, to make up for missing a lesson on Monday.
... mostly what I'm learning is when everyone is very RP and wearing tights in two colors and funny colors of hat that are pretty much a fez then that's all I notice about a production. All the emotion and stuff is flattened under the enunciation or overshadowed by the tights. Unless they go vastly OTT, at which point they're teenagers in tights having a tantrum on the floor, and really? This is drama? They're daft enough at the best of times.
Also, the more Juliet looks her age, the creepier the whole thing is. Marrying off a nearly-14 year old, let alone competing? Eeew.
There isn't hardly a sensible person in the whole play.
"A pack of blessings lights upon thy back; Happiness courts thee in her best array; But like a misbehav'd and sullen wench, Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love. Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable." Friar telling off Romeo. Who is such a pouty teenager. Yuck.
So I'm thinking of a couple of reasons people adapt R&J rather than simply putting it on. One is, in a lot of people's heads, it is a lot less creepy than this. I think they're missing the point. But they like the idea of the starcrossed bit so they pull that out and throw away the bits where they're being complete idiots. The other is just a reason not to do it in Ye Olde Verona clothes: they look so very daft, and you can't read the things anyway. Rich, poor, fashionable, religious, it may be all there to be seen, but only if you study up on the century first.
Also have noticed about the fight scenes: the fights in R&J that just happen, bam, work much better than the elaborately choreographed things in this one I'm watching. The words get stretched so far apart if the people have an actual proper sword fight in between them, and Romeo spends a lot of time standing around not doing very much, and if it's all very rushed and hard to see then I reckon it makes more sense. But you don't get men in tights showing off their swords, so, I guess this production decided that was important.
In case this makes it sound like today I've actually done a lot: I slept with the washing machine going, and I've only watched 1 hour 44 of this play cause I stopped in the middle from dozing off. Not so very industrious. :eyeroll:
... mostly what I'm learning is when everyone is very RP and wearing tights in two colors and funny colors of hat that are pretty much a fez then that's all I notice about a production. All the emotion and stuff is flattened under the enunciation or overshadowed by the tights. Unless they go vastly OTT, at which point they're teenagers in tights having a tantrum on the floor, and really? This is drama? They're daft enough at the best of times.
Also, the more Juliet looks her age, the creepier the whole thing is. Marrying off a nearly-14 year old, let alone competing? Eeew.
There isn't hardly a sensible person in the whole play.
"A pack of blessings lights upon thy back; Happiness courts thee in her best array; But like a misbehav'd and sullen wench, Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love. Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable." Friar telling off Romeo. Who is such a pouty teenager. Yuck.
So I'm thinking of a couple of reasons people adapt R&J rather than simply putting it on. One is, in a lot of people's heads, it is a lot less creepy than this. I think they're missing the point. But they like the idea of the starcrossed bit so they pull that out and throw away the bits where they're being complete idiots. The other is just a reason not to do it in Ye Olde Verona clothes: they look so very daft, and you can't read the things anyway. Rich, poor, fashionable, religious, it may be all there to be seen, but only if you study up on the century first.
Also have noticed about the fight scenes: the fights in R&J that just happen, bam, work much better than the elaborately choreographed things in this one I'm watching. The words get stretched so far apart if the people have an actual proper sword fight in between them, and Romeo spends a lot of time standing around not doing very much, and if it's all very rushed and hard to see then I reckon it makes more sense. But you don't get men in tights showing off their swords, so, I guess this production decided that was important.
In case this makes it sound like today I've actually done a lot: I slept with the washing machine going, and I've only watched 1 hour 44 of this play cause I stopped in the middle from dozing off. Not so very industrious. :eyeroll:
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 09:52 am (UTC)Since people don't change, you have to look at what is popular now to get a comparison of what he was actually going for.
If he was alive today he'd be writing for Eastenders.
Once you figure out that it's all meant for people who buy the News of the World, it makes a lot more sense.
xx
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Date: 2011-03-02 03:11 pm (UTC)Hee! ;-)