Pages tagged “shakespeare”

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Coriolanus

Ralph Fiennes makes a bold directorial debut with this contemporary adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s later, lesser-known tragedies, transplanting the Bard’s original poetry to a modern-day city rife with foreign warfare, class conflict and political power plays. The present-day parallels are obvious and numerous—from the Russian-Chechen hostilities that Fiennes and screenwriter John Logan drew on during preproduction to today’s Occupy Wall Street scuffles. But what one encounters in the theater is less the delivery of a pointed message than a powerful, rapturous viewing experience that strikes the delicate balance between Shakespeare’s iconic iambic pentameter and an ultra-modern plot, setting, characters...  read more

Joss Whedon Secretly Films Much Ado About Nothing

Director Joss Whedon, in seeming defiance of the laws of time when it comes to film production, has managed to secretly film his own take on the classic Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing over the course of just 12 days at his Santa Monica home. The prolific cult status director and sci-fi/fantasy creator somehow squeezed in the entire film process while also shooting the upcoming Avengers blockbuster and working on a variety of other projects he's attached to.  read more

Awesome of the Day: "Sassy Gay Friend" On Shakespeare

“Meet Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She’s about to take her own life. This fate could have been avoided if she had a sassy, gay friend.” So begins the first of the “Sassy Gay Friend” series from Chicago’s legendary Second City comedy troupe. The short films, starring Brian Gallivan and directed by Joshua Funk, offer alternative endings to your favorite Shakespearean plays if only the tragic female characters had a sassy gay friend to talk some sense into them....  read more

Awesome of the Day: "Sassy Gay Friend" On Shakespeare

“Meet Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She’s about to take her own life. This fate could have been avoided if she had a sassy, gay friend.” So begins the first of the “Sassy Gay Friend” series from Chicago’s legendary Second City comedy troupe. The short films, starring Brian Gallivan and directed by Joshua Funk, offer alternative endings to your favorite Shakespearean plays if only the tragic female characters had a sassy gay friend to talk some sense into them....  read more

Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More

Nothing to be sorry for Sigh No More flutters to life with an apology. In an ethereal four-part harmony, the British foursome intones Benedict’s line to Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing: “Serve God, love me and mend,” and then the voices swell in unison: “And I’m sorry.” It’s one of the only pastoral moments on the band’s hour-long debut LP, but the sentiment lingers....  read more

Hem: Twelfth Night

Lilting, lovely soundtrack from this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park production Each summer, a star-studded cast in conjunction with the Public Theater mounts a Shakespeare play in Central Park, for which people wait in the ticket line for hours. Brooklyn band Hem worked closely with Daniel Sullivan, the director of this year’s critically acclaimed Twelfth Night (starring Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald, David Pittu, Jon Patrick Walker, and Raul Esparza), to create a soundtrack for the production, which has now been recorded and released....  read more