莎翁戏剧选辑/Shakespeare's Lovers_KUKE库客数字音乐图书馆

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- 莎翁戏剧选辑
  Shakespeare's Lovers
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莎翁戏剧选辑 / Shakespeare's Lovers
[ 读物介绍 ]
William ShakespeareShakespeare’s Lovers Look up the word ‘love’ in a dictionary of quotations andyou will, of course, find more famous lines by William Shakespeare than by anyother writer. Love inspired him to some of his greatest lines — lines that haveslipped into the everyday conversation of English-speaking people around theworld. All of Shakespeare’s lovers are paired as inevitably as Adam and Eve,all have the shared wit and heady sexuality of the young couple in the OldTestament’s Song of Solomon, and their stories are as timeless. Romeo andJuliet is certainly the favorite love story of all time. Even in India today,variations on the tale are the most common plots for novels and films. The roles of Shakespeare’s lovers are gifts to the actors aswell as the audience. Juliet, for example, only exists in performance; theseare plays after all, not novels. On the page, Juliet is merely a buried diamond— and each actress, discovering her, cuts and polishes the jewel uniquely fordisplay. I have never known an actress who, having once played Juliet, couldquite let go of the part afterwards. Shakespeare’s ability to step sosensitively into the whirling mind of young Juliet, willfully planning a nightof love with Romeo (“Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds…”) is remarkable. It is this skill at portraying both the man’s and thewoman’s feelings, coupled with anabiding humor, which makes his love scenes so attractive. There is nothing sosexy as a shared sense of humor, and Shakespeare’s lovers are well matched inthis respect. In The Taming of the Shrew, for example, Petruchio softens Kate’sresistance in their first encounter as much with skillful wordplay as by anyother means: “Where did you study all this goodly speech?” she asks, with realcuriosity. Everyone in Shakespeare’s day would have had a hugerepertoire of bawdy songs and verses, and Shakespeare capitalized on this inall his plays. This folk culture is unfortunately newly lost to us in an era oftelevision and video games, and a good deal of the sexual innuendo in the playsis missed by the modern audience — making the job of playing one ofShakespeare’s naughty clowns much less rewarding -— and harder work — for theactor today than it would have been in the sixteenth century. The ribaldry andscatology in the comedies is, however, as much to be found in the love scenesas in the comical gobbledygook of the clowns: “Who knows not where a wasp doeswear his sting?” asks Petruchio, answering himself: “In his tail.” Kateresponds: “In his tongue.” “Whose tongue?” he presses. “Yours, if you talk oftails; and so farewell.” “What! With my tongue in your tail?” Game, set andmatch. “Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress?” asks Orlando inAs You Like It. “Not out of your apparel — and yet out of your suit!” replies Rosalind.Of course, men played all Shakespeare’s women; this must have added an extrafrisson to the love scenes. In this scene, for instance, Rosalind was a maleactor dressed up as a girl disguised as a man pretending to be a girl!Something for everyone! Because his plays were for the most part performed in theopen air, in daylight, they move fast. Shakespeare had no such things asblackouts and curtains to hide scene changes. Everything is in the text —Shakespeare’s actors must therefore be painters as well as interpreters. Hedoes not transpose easily to the screen largely for this reason. Cutting one ofhis scripts for film means either losing some of the greatest lines or doingthe same job twice: once in the lines, and again with the lens. The thrill ofEnobarbus’s lyrical attempt to recapture the legendary magnificence ofCleopatra’s entrance: “The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne/Burned onthe water…” would be seriously undercut by any film-maker’s attempt to recreatethe event. Recording these scenes for an audiobook, of course, is a joy — noblackouts or curtains here — just Shakespeare and us. Shakespeare obviously cared for his lovers. It isfascinating to discover that the very first time they meet, Romeo and Julietare instantly unified, like two halves of a puzzle, by a shared sense of humorexpressed in fast-thinking, rhyming verse. More remarkable still, this verse isin the form of a strict Elizabethan sonnet — a fact that is not particularlyfor us to notice, but demonstrates the writer’s own love of the youngsters.From the gloriously loose-limbed prose of Rosalind and Orlando in As You LikeIt to the impeccably-turned, lyrical and witty verse of Lorenzo and Jessica(“The moon shines bright…”) in The Merchant of Venice; from Troilus andCressida’s corrupted imbroglio to the fading luxury and whimsical hedonism ofthe two passionate lovers in Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare has given all ofus, actors and audiences, gifts to treasure and be inspired by. Notes by Bill Homewood About the Readers An Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, EstelleKohler’s long career as a Stratford leading lady began with her famous Julietto Ian Holm’s Romeo, for which she won the London Critics’ Award. She has wonother awards and nominations for a great range of work on stage, film andtelevision. Many screen credits include the joint lead in the series The MainChance, The Beaux Stratagem, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the film Death IsPart of The Process. Recent credits include Titania at the Open Air Theatre andAnna in Old Times at Birmingham. Recent productions for the RSC have included:Queen Tamora in Titus Andronicus (Olivier nomination), Hester in Hello &Goodbye (Olivier nomination), Goneril in King Lear and Adriana in the OlivierAward-winning production of The Comedy of Errors. Bill Homewood has an extensive record of leading classicalroles with major repertory companies: the Royal Shakespeare Company and theOpen Air Theatre, where, in 1992, he played Oberon, Banquo and the joint leadin the Olivier Award-winning musical The Boys from Syracuse. Homewood hasplayed Feste and Orsino in Twelfth Night for the RSC and won the Liverpool PostAward for Malvolio at Chester. Musical comedy credits include Zinnowitz inGrand Hotel and Pontius Pilate in the 20th Anniversary tour of Jesus ChristSuperstar. Television and film credits include Hamlet; The Talisman; the leadin the BBC TV series Spy Trap; Coronation Street; Crocodile Shoes and his ownseries, Wise Guy, for BBC TV. Bill’s first novel, Jehovah’s Farm was publishedin 1995.