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>Is it an act of cultural vandalism to stage a modernized production of Shakespeare so that the audience can empathize with the plot & characters better? I'm a
by NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
>Is it an act of cultural vandalism to stage a modernized production of Shakespeare so that the audience can empathize with the plot & characters better?
I'm a bit lost here - my experience with Shakespeare productions is that (whether they're staged in modern times or not) they generally don't change the language. Things like the Reduced Shakespeare Company notwithstanding, of course.
The irony here is that it's a redacted Shakespeare that gives us the root of "bowdlerization".
- RheingoldRiver 4y agoAh, the language no. To me, that's enough to completely re-imagine the play though. I mean, they'll use guns instead of swords, talk to each other on cell phones, everyone is wearing suits, sometimes they're talking to a gaggle of reporters when giving the news to each other...it's a radically different experience if you see a modernized & traditional production of the same play.
- saurik 4y agoI've seen many--and even performed in!--versions of Shakespearian works that did, in fact, change the language. (Hell: we had an R2 unit playing Polonius in our production of Hamlet on the Moon, so he was just out there beeping and blooping all of his ridiculously verbose advice.)