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The Hollow Crown - Richard II
Aug. 25th, 2012 11:20 pmUneasy lies the head that wears a crown
As part of the "Cultural Olympiad" the BBC did some remakes of Shakespeare's "Henriad", called the resulting series The Hollow Crown and aired it during the Olympics. I found out about this series via my recently acquired admiration of Tom Hiddleston - who plays the major role of Prince Hal/Henry in these productions. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to download them here in Australia a day after they aired in the UK and watch them. (Don't worry, I will buy the DVDs if/when they come out in Oz). I found them surprisingly engaging, entertaining and well acted.
The only Shakespeare play I'd read previously was Romeo & Juliet after becoming briefly obsessed with Baz Lurhman's 1996 take on the play. I intended to read the Henriad before watching The Hollow Crown but I'm glad I didn't. The actors in this portray everything more naturally than you would see on stage. So much is said in the context, in the actions of the characters, and in the way they say things that you don't get from reading bare text. When you're actually saying these words as if they are regular conversation, instead of doing the cliched Shakespearan recitation, it all makes much more sense. And the long speeches which remain, even they posed little challenge for me. They are beautiful in their poetry and metaphor. I'm actually reading the plays now and also the Sparknotes online in an endeavour to understand all of what's going on.
These are plays based on history but far from historically accurate. Shakespeare has taken a lot of poetic licence, to tell the story HE wanted to tell.
My main problem with these plays especially is figuring out who's who among the characters. There multiple characters with the same name (there are multiple Henry/Harrys and Kate/Katherines), characters who are referred to by multiple names (Hal/Harry/Henry), and THEN there are the titles, which people are often referred to as, and a character can have multiple titles (Bolingbroke is Harry is Henry IV is Hereford is Lancaster, Prince Hal is Henry is Monmouth is the Prince of Wales). It's taken a few viewings to get the big players who aren't the key characters sorted out.
Lots of pictures and word vomit ahead. And spoilers, I guess. I think after 400 years they don't count as spoilers anymore.
( Richard II )
As part of the "Cultural Olympiad" the BBC did some remakes of Shakespeare's "Henriad", called the resulting series The Hollow Crown and aired it during the Olympics. I found out about this series via my recently acquired admiration of Tom Hiddleston - who plays the major role of Prince Hal/Henry in these productions. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to download them here in Australia a day after they aired in the UK and watch them. (Don't worry, I will buy the DVDs if/when they come out in Oz). I found them surprisingly engaging, entertaining and well acted.
The only Shakespeare play I'd read previously was Romeo & Juliet after becoming briefly obsessed with Baz Lurhman's 1996 take on the play. I intended to read the Henriad before watching The Hollow Crown but I'm glad I didn't. The actors in this portray everything more naturally than you would see on stage. So much is said in the context, in the actions of the characters, and in the way they say things that you don't get from reading bare text. When you're actually saying these words as if they are regular conversation, instead of doing the cliched Shakespearan recitation, it all makes much more sense. And the long speeches which remain, even they posed little challenge for me. They are beautiful in their poetry and metaphor. I'm actually reading the plays now and also the Sparknotes online in an endeavour to understand all of what's going on.
These are plays based on history but far from historically accurate. Shakespeare has taken a lot of poetic licence, to tell the story HE wanted to tell.
My main problem with these plays especially is figuring out who's who among the characters. There multiple characters with the same name (there are multiple Henry/Harrys and Kate/Katherines), characters who are referred to by multiple names (Hal/Harry/Henry), and THEN there are the titles, which people are often referred to as, and a character can have multiple titles (Bolingbroke is Harry is Henry IV is Hereford is Lancaster, Prince Hal is Henry is Monmouth is the Prince of Wales). It's taken a few viewings to get the big players who aren't the key characters sorted out.
Lots of pictures and word vomit ahead. And spoilers, I guess. I think after 400 years they don't count as spoilers anymore.
( Richard II )
