Shakespeare Retold (DVD)

...subject on my degree was Shakespeare and the Elizabethan theatre. So imagine my delight when I realised that the BBC was re-producing 4 of Shakespeare's best loved plays:
Much Ado About Nothing
The Taming of the Shrew
Macbeth and
Midsummer Night's Dream.

I think it would be best if I described each adaptation seperately.

Macbeth

To be honest I was looking forward to this one ...
...plot outline of the original Shakespeare is that Macbeth returns from war with his good friend Banquo and much praise and credit to his name. When the King, Duncan, sees Macbeth he praises him by making him Thane of Cawdor. This clearly not being good enough for Macbeth, and with some less than subtle encouragement from three witches and his wife, he chooses to kill the King so he will rule Scottland. Banquo however, discovers what Macbeth has done ... more

My focus subject on my degree was Shakespeare and the Elizabethan theatre. So imagine my delight when I realised that the BBC was re-producing 4 of Shakespeare's best loved plays:
Much Ado About Nothing
The Taming of the Shrew
Macbeth and
Midsummer Night's Dream.

I think it would be best if I described each adaptation seperately.

Macbeth

To be honest I was looking forward to this one the most especially as I was teaching it to a bottom set Year 9 at the time and wanted to be able to show them an adaptation that was a bit different and totally up to date. Having watched it before hand to check for content and authentisity I chose not to show them!

The basic plot outline of the original Shakespeare is that Macbeth returns from war with his good friend Banquo and much praise and credit to his name. When the King, Duncan, sees Macbeth he praises him by making him Thane of Cawdor. This clearly not being good enough for Macbeth, and with some less than subtle encouragement from three witches and his wife, he chooses to kill the King so he will rule Scottland. Banquo however, discovers what Macbeth has done so Macbeth has Banquo killed too. Becoming mad and haunted by his foul deeds Macbeth is eventually killed after a long war against the true heir to the Scotish throne.

Wow what a story line! So I ask you why did the BBC decide to ruin it? The took this classic and decided that a restaurant was the best modern day equivlient to the throne of Scottland! The acting was poor and unnecessary. Lady Macbeth (Keeleey Hawes) was a poor choice and Macbeth (James McAvoy) failed to inspire any thoughts of fear or dread. The three witches were represented by three bin men and at this point I knew the whole thing was not going to go well. There were some redeeming points but at the end of the "play" I felt sorely disappointed.

Much Ado About Nothing

I persevered with the series and was pleasantly surprised when Much Ado began. All of the wit and pun fuled language was still apparent which is essentially the whole point of Shakespeare's play. Sarah Parish as Beatrice and Damian Lewis as Benedick were excellent. Shakespeare as ever not wanting to make things easy has three plot lines in this play: Beatrice and Benedick who have a "merry war of words" but really love each other, Hero and Cludio who do actually love each other and make sure that every one knows about it, and Don John the angry "bastard" non-heir to the throne who wants to ruin anyone's happiness. Don John achieves his will when he manages to ruin the wedding day of Hero and Cluadio.

The main storyline of Beatrice and Benedick was excellent, really well done and fantastically filmed. However, some genius in casting thought that Billie Pipper of Doctor Who fame would be a good idea for the part of the beautiful, meek and mild Hero. Not only that but they decided that the happy ending finish wasn't "modern" enough and decided that Hero should be a strong independant woman and refuse Claudio's appologies. If Shakespeare were alive I'm sure he would be far from impressed at this non-descript editing.

In all the storyline got a bit lost in some confusing shooting where Shakespeare's original script makes things much clearer. The filming was beautiful though and Beatrice and Benedick were excellent.

A Midsummers Night's Dream

This had to be filmed in a forest and I was so glad when I saw that it had been! This was so much better than the others in the series. The original storyline was clearly kept to. Young people going into an enchanted forest and falling in love with the wrong people due to the interferences of mischievious faeries. Again this did seem to get somewhat complicated but the "Centre Parcs" esque resort where the young people stayed fitted the necessities of the play with the BBC's desire to be modern beautifully. Johnny Vegas was an entertaining extra as the bumbling Bottom but no other outstanding performances to talk of.

The Taming of the Shrew

Shirley Henderson is one of my least favorite actresses and her performance as Kate lived up to my expectations. As such I found it impossible to watch this episode to the end as I despised her characterisation so much! Sorry this one is so short but the basic plot is that Kate is an untamable woman who needs the strong hand of a man to keep her in line. The story was as weak as a play and the BBC managed to do nothing with it.

This is easily available at all major stores and websites
Amazon £12.27
Play £14.99

If you just want some interesting stories with little to do with the original Shakespeare than this is for you but some of the editing has led to more complication in the plot than clarity.

Release Details
DVD Region: Region 0 (All Regions)
Studio(s): Acorn Media UK Ltd; Arvato Services Ltd
Release date: 26/12/2005
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: AV 9348
Barcode: 5036193093487
Screenwriter: David Nicholls, Peter Bowker, Peter Moffat, Sally Wainwright
Producer: Diederick Santer, Peter Wilkie
Author: William Shakespeare
Writer: William Shakespeare, Sally Wainwright
Languages
Main Language: English
 

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