I don't get it. When I sit down to read King Lear or any of Willy's more advanced plays, I always have a hard time reading the language and taking it all in. Every other word is thee or thy, verbs all and in -est, and pretty much I have to read it five times before I have any clue what's going on, let alone the bajillion underlying themes and meanings.
Why is it then, that I can completely get it when watching a performance. The words are the same, aren't they? Ahhhh, but this is Shakespeare's genius. He didn't mean for us to have to sit and read page after page of his nonsense, his nonsense was meant to be PERFORMED. The words are not enough to convey what he really wanted to convey. He left it up to the actors of the time to struglle with the script, so that the audience would be presented with a seemless, flowing performance.
Why can't we just watch Shakespeare and not read it. Isn't that the way it's meant to be?
I understand how you feel. I did know very much going into the play because Shakes's style is somewhat hard to comprehend. Ever since we had the stage plays I can see a little clearer now. Watching the play compared to reading seems better but you catch more themes and meaings just by reading. With the text you can look closer than a stage performance.
Posted by: JulianB. | December 23, 2005 at 07:38 AM