Sunday, May 03, 2009

Experimental Theatre: Contemporaneous Shakespeare

My daughter (12) told me about an idea, while setting the table for dinner the other day, that she thinks would be cool. She thinks someone should put on simultaneous stage plays, like split the stage in half, one traditional Shakespeare, with the "thees" and "thous," and one "translated" into modern English. I liked it too. Archaic language vs. modern idioms. They could have mirror images of the sets and action with the spot lighting bouncing back and forth.

Shakespearean: “Harken! Doth mine ears deceive me?”
Modern: “Say what!?”

Easy to play it for laughs, with some talent it could be commentary on modernity.

No comments: