Cardenio Online Hubbub Monday, May 19, 2008: Shakespearean Tricks #61-65

Stephen Greenblatt and Charles Mee borrowed a number of Shakespearean devices, tricks, characters, and themes while scripting this play.  Here’s what our audience has picked out so far ( Warning! Spoilers! )

65. The pavane-inspired dance
64. Eyes gouged out from King Lear
63. Female sidekick like Nerissa (Merchant of Venice) or Celia (As You Like It)
62. The best friends whose friendship (at least initially) is more important than their bonds of matrimony
61. Evil Duke

You can view #1-38 here, #39-44 here, #45-54 here, and #55-60 here.
Did you notice any? Keep the discussion going on A.R.T.’s Online Hubbub.

Advertisement

Cardenio Online Hubbub Friday, May 16, 2008: Shakespearean Tricks #55-60

Stephen Greenblatt and Charles Mee borrowed a number of Shakespearean devices, tricks, characters, and themes while scripting this play.  Here’s what our audience has picked out so far ( Warning! Spoilers! )

60. Travelling players
59. Music/lyrics which express the emotion of one or more of the characters
58. An Iago-like meddler
57. The intertwined complexity
56. The deus ex machina conclusion
55. Inconstancy

You can view #1-38 here,  #39-44 here, and #45-54 here.
Did you notice any? Keep the discussion going on A.R.T.’s Online Hubbub.

Cardenio Online Hubbub Wednesday, May 14, 2008: Shakespearean Tricks #45-55

Stephen Greenblatt and Charles Mee borrowed a number of Shakespearean devices, tricks, characters, and themes while scripting this play.  Here’s what our audience has picked out so far ( Warning! Spoilers! )

55. A number of references to Twelfth Night
54. The angry bitter mean person leaving and saying they’d be back
53. Taming of the Shrew
52. The surprise visitors who bring something that alters the course of the plot
51. Will was wearing a costume for the play and had a skull in his hands.
50. Numerous jokes taken from Midsummer
49. Death scene parodies several Shakespearean deaths, notably Lavinia’s cut-out tongue.
48. Comic servant
47. Edmund as a Mercutio-like character 
46. Rapid-fire reconciliations and pairings in the last few minutes
45. The exotic Italian locale

You can view #1-38 here and #39-44 here.
Did you notice any? Keep the discussion going on A.R.T.’s Online Hubbub.

Cardenio Online Hubbub Tuesday, May 13, 2008: Shakespearean Tricks #39-44

Stephen Greenblatt and Charles Mee borrowed a number of Shakespearean devices, tricks, characters, and themes while scripting this play.  Here’s what our audience has picked out so far (Warning! Spoilers!)

44. Balcony scenes
43. Humor to relieve chaos and confusion
42. Chases
41. Albanian carpenter is a cross between Falstaff and Bottom
40. A series of mishaps that end well
39. Wedding

You can view #1-38 here. 
Did you notice any? Keep the discussion going on A.R.T.’s Online Hubbub.

Cardenio Online Hubbub Monday, May 12, 2008: Shakespearean Tricks #1-#38

Stephen Greenblatt and Charles Mee borrowed a number of Shakespearean devices, tricks, characters, and themes while scripting this play. Here’s what our audience has picked out so far (Warning! Spoilers!)

38. and “all of the techniques you mentioned in the ART newsletter” – Raffael D.
37. Characters staging scenes to be overheard and misinterpreted by others…
36. The cynical killjoy being banished in the final wedding scene
35. All the character names from Shakespeare’s plays and life
34. Iambic pentameter.
33. The use of uproarious comedy to deal with the many facets of an underlying serious topic -in this case the very nature of the institution of marriage.
32. Soliloquys {or their equivalent}
31. Low social level characters mainly for comic relief yet with perceptive comments
30. Intruding parents (parents pushing different marriage partners from their children’s wishes)
29. Falstaff the fool played by Doris.
28. Love causing dilemmas
27. Ending the play with a dance or masque was a common Elizabethan device.
26. Comic death scene akin to Bottom’s in Pyramus and Thisbe.
25. Jealousies
24. People overheard by others.
23. Bottom instructions to the actors by an experienced actor/director
22. The miscast lovers finding their true loves after several situations.
21. Going into the countryside to reestablish order.
20. Rudi as Nick Bottom trying to take all of the roles in the show.
19. Everything happens in a day or two
18. “All the world’s a stage”
17. The clown character
16. Hamlet’s speech to the players
15. One character pretending to seduce another to test her faithfulness.
14. The play within the play
13. The difficulty a character has figuring out what they really want.
12. The truth teller being run out of the scene.
11. The playful confusion between characters playing tricks on each other.
10. The lover-switch
9. The sudden and preposterous falling-in-love
8. The Hamlet quotes
7. The deception scene at the end
6. The wench
5. The ‘mechanicals’
4. The handyman’s Lady MacBeth hands
3. The father’s lines justifying drama
2. The cross-dressing
1. The music

Did you notice any? Keep the discussion going on A.R.T.’s Online Hubbub.