truly one of the most influential productions of our generation. i think about all the cunt they served daily

Made this in English class today. Because. Shaysparr

I hate how clever this joke is.

So Malvolio is reading what he thinks is a love letter from his boss, Olivia, and he thinks he recognizes his her handwriting, her "hand." (Sir Andrew is spying from the bushes.)

But, the fact that he specifically calls out her 'C' 'U' 'n 'T' draws attention to what he is really thinking about.

but BUT, if you look at it phonetically (said out loud in a play) then the line becomes "seize, use, and tease."

Which makes it a handjob joke. "My lady's [literal] hand, these are her very seize, her use, and her tease, and thus she makes her great peace. [orgasm]. And that's what Malvolio in the midst of his big power fantasy is REALLY thinking about.

and then Sir Andrew draws attention to this joke, making it sound like he's never had sex, which of course he hasn't, because his thing is that he's very alone (very probably because he doesn't realize that he's gay.)

that's a three tier pun that's also got character development.

dammit shakespeare

desperately trying to get a bootleg of twelfth night the musical

Do you remember The Great Shakespeare Playlist?

Well, I've finally caught up with submissions, now with a new playlist on a Shakespeare-specific YouTube channel (also withasideofshakespeare) and individual playlists for each play!

Find out more (and listen to the main playlist or the playlists for your favorite plays) here:

RIP William Shakespeare, you would have loved neopronouns

much ado about nothing is about a gay man and a lesbian realising they’re actually bisexual

when you're a child and you stay up past your bedtime you get punished by your parents, when you're an adult and you stay up too late you just get punished by the ghosts and spirits and demons and such

One of my favourite bits of media history trivia is that back in the Elizabethan period, people used to publish unauthorised copies of plays by sending someone who was good with shorthand to discretely write down all of the play's dialogue while they watched it, then reconstructing the play by combining those notes with audience interviews to recover the stage directions; in some cases, these unauthorised copies are the only record of a given play that survives to the present day. It's one of my favourites for two reasons:

Modern Midsummer Night’s Dream adaptation where the four youths in the woods are trying to film the Goatman for their youtube channel, and the mechanicals are a band of film students trying to shoot a found footage horror movie in the same woods at the same time.

We never actually see the Goatman, but at the end Hermia checks the footage she recorded on her camera. It’s all been erased except for one clip, where someone in the dark recites the “If we shadows have offended” monologue.

“you make my heart beat in iambic pentameter.”

no you don’t understand shakespeare literally writes to the beat of your heart

shakespeare fucking writes viscerally, he is literally in your body, and that, my friend, that is why the best shakespearean actors don’t posture and emote

you have to be fucking alive and passionate and electric - it can’t be intellectual, in the end, it has to be about connection and the sweating, cheering, jeering, bleeding masses you’re performing to, because make no mistake, shakespeare may go to lofty heights, but he only works if you’re just as grounded in the earth. he has to be in your body. he has to be in your body.

holy motherfucking shit i love shakespeare so much, get him in your bones, breathe him in, stomp and rage and pine, dadum dadum dadum dadum dadum, it is literally to the beat of your heart

If I remember correctly, this is also why the witches chant in Macbeth is so unnerving; it’s a reverse pentameter. The emphasis is shifted to the first syllable, rather than the second, like in the rest of the play (and in pretty much all the other plays Shakespeare wrote). 

Compare the witches chant to the “to be or not to be” monologue (emphasis in italics):

“double double toil and trouble” vs “to be or not to be”

It’s disarming to hear the chant when you’re in the language of Shakespeare because it in against the inherent rules of the script.

It’s actually not reverse pentameter (that’s the number of feet in the line, not the meter), it’s reverse iambs.

The term for this meter is trochaic, and yeah. It is meant to make us feel uncomfortable. Shakespeare is amazingggggg

Fist fighting in a grave is an ancient danish funeral tradition, horatio idk why you’re yelling.

steps for revenge:

now if lady macbeth knew about pegging, i don’t think that there would have been nearly as much murder in that play

Here's THE masterpost of free and full adaptations, by which I mean that it's a post made by the master.

Anthony and Cleopatra: here's the BBC version

As you like it: you'll find here an outdoor stage adaptation and here the BBC version

Coriolanus: Here's a college play, here's the 1984 telefilm, here's the 2014 one with tom hiddleston

Hamlet: The Kenneth Branagh 1996 Hamlet is here, the 1964 russian version is here and the 1964 american version is here. THe 1964 Broadway production is here, the 1948 Laurence Olivier one is here. And the 1980 version is here. Here are part 1 and 2 of the 1990 BBC adaptation.

Henry IV: part 1 and part 2 of the BBC 1989 version. And here's part 1 of a corwall school version.

Henry V: Laurence Olivier (who would have guessed) 1944 version. The 1989 Branagh version here. The BBC version is here.

Julius Caesar: here's the 1979 BBC adaptation, here the 1970 John Gielgud one.

King Lear: Laurence Olivier once again plays in here. And Gregory Kozintsev, who was I think in charge of the russian hamlet, has a king lear here. The 1975 BBC version is here. The Royal Shakespeare Compagny's 2008 version is here.

Macbeth: here's the 1961 one with Sean Connery. Here's the 1971 by Roman Polanski, with spanish subtitles. Here's the 1948 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljZrf_0_CcQ">here. The 1988 BBC onee with portugese subtitles and here the 2001 one). The 1969 radio one with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench is here and the 1966 BBC version is here. The Royal Shakespeare Compagny's 2008 version is here.

Measure for Measure: BBC version here.

The Merchant of Venice: here's a stage version, here's the 1980 movie, here the 1973 Lawrence Olivier movie, here's the 2004 movie.

The Merry Wives of Windsor: the Royal Shakespeare Compagny gives you this movie.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: have this sponsored by the City of Columbia, and here the BBC version.

Much Ado About Nothing: Here is the kenneth branagh version and here the Tennant and Tate 2011 version. Here's the 1984 version.

Othello: A Massachussets Performance here, the 2001 movie her is the Orson Wells movie with portuguese subtitles theree, and a fifteen minutes long lego adaptation here. THen if you want more good ole reliable you've got the BBC version here and there.

Richard II: here is the BBC version

Richard III: here's the 1955 one with Laurence Olivier, and here's the 1995 one with Ian McKellen. (the 1995 one is in english subtitled in spanish. the 1955 one has no subtitles and might have ads since it's on youtube)

Romeo and Juliet: here's the 1988 BBC version.

The Taming of the Shrew: the 1988 BBC version here, the 1929 version here, some Ontario stuff here and here is the 1967 one with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Tempest: the 1979 one is here, the 2010 is here. Here is the 1988 one.

Timon of Athens: here is the 1981 movie with Jonathan Pryce,

Troilus and Cressida can be found here

Titus Andronicus: the 1999 movie with Anthony Hopkins here

Twelfth night: here for the BBC, herefor the 1970 version with Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Ralph Richardson.

The Winter's Tale: the BBC version is here

Please do contribute if you find more. This is far from exhaustive.

(also look up the original post from time to time for more plays)

Andrew Scott's Hamlet: Almeida (2018)

King Lear at Shakespeare Festival NYC (1974) w/ James Earl Jones, Paul Sorvino, and a young (very sexy) Raul Julia here

I bid thee my gratefulness by the hand of that messenger, and I will had them to the list soon.

hamlet and horatio sketches bc I love them