How have I been running a theatre blog for six months and not talked about The Bard?
I’m pretty sure there’s no one more famous in the world of theatre than William Shakespeare, and he’s been dead for over 400 years. Shakespeare is legend. He not only revolutionized theatre, he revolutionized history, and the English language. Do you have any idea how many things you say that came from Shakespeare’s brain? Probably not. It’s a lot. If you’ve ever taken an acting class, there’s a good chance you’ve come across Shakespeare. Hell, if you’ve ever taken a literature class, there’s a good chance you’ve come across Shakespeare.
Yes, I’m a huge Shakespeare fan. Not all theatre people are, but he’s one of my absolute favorites. Shakespeare did everything. Everything. He wrote plays about history, and of course, his well known comedies and tragedies. The man practically invented the genres in theatre. Though in these days, some lines may be a bit more blurred, most people are well aware of some of the biggest titles. Tragedies like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth are common knowledge. Comedies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing are still standard. There’s a reason for this!
And of course, there have been so many movies and adaptations of Shakespeare plays. Did you know 10 Things I Hate About You was based on Taming of the Shrew? And how could anyone forget Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet…just to name a few. There’s even an indie (and rather strange) queer movie that uses Midsummer as a starting point. Elizabethan English can be hard in our day and age, but people are taking that and making media that everyone in our modern age can enjoy. Shakespeare is timeless.
You can seriously see Shakespeare all over the place, and not just with his writing. There’s a Doctor Who episode that features him (one of my favorites…I’ve watched it a million times). He’s made appearances in TV shows like The Simpsons. He’s a historical figure, but he’s also so much more than that. He’s an icon. Everyone knows who William Shakespeare is, even if they’ve never read one of his plays or sonnets.
And beyond adaptations and appearances, there are some really great parodies of Shakespeare and his works out there. At a tiny theatre in Philly, I saw a show called William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead. There was blood splatter. Also, there’s a famous play called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) that’s one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen in my life. There was even a YouTube channel called “Sassy Gay Friend” where a flaming gay man “saves” women from Shakespeare tragedies. People all over use these words, this legacy, and honestly, a lot of the time, these things are fucking hilarious.
The thing about Shakespeare, and his work, is that we can still relate to it. Sure, we’re not all teenagers killing ourselves for love like Romeo and Juliet, but there’s still stigma around interracial couples like in Othello, and Shakespeare had characters in drag regularly (like Rosalind in As You Like It). There’s plenty that’s controversial, like racism and antisemitism, but that’s all a part of our lives, too. Shakespeare may have written these plays 400 years ago, but we can still relate in modern times.
Shakespeare himself is a legacy. No one will ever do for theatre what Shakespeare did. He had amazing predecessors, without a doubt. There’s so much to say for traditional Greek theatre with its epic playwrights like Sophocles and Euripides, and you can find theatres all over the world (I once posted a picture about one I visited in Israel, in the ancient Roman city of Caesaria). But Shakespeare made a mark in a way that no one else has, or had before him. Of course, we study Antigone and Oedipus Rex, but there are theatres who have a Shakespeare show every season.
Of course, so much has been lost to history, and there are lots of theories about the man himself. For one, lots of people believe that he was actually many writers. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and over 150 poems. Many people believe this isn’t even possible. He only lived to be 52, so there’s certainly room for doubt. Others believe that other famous writers were behind Shakespeare’s writing, such as Christopher Marlowe (though some people also believe Shakespeare was just influenced by him). Academics have a lot to say about this, and it seems like everyone has a different opinion on it.
So are there problems with Shakespeare and his works? Absolutely. But is he a life changing author? I could write another post entirely about my love of my favorite Shakespeare play, The Tempest (and the tattoo I have from it). Shakespeare has been a part of my life since I was six years old, and my mom says I did the best cold read of Shakespeare at age six. No matter how people feel about The Bard, I will always champion for him and the world he created for all of us.
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