Shakespearing
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Shakespearing #28: Othello
Shakespearing #28 by David Foley Othello Othello is about as streamlined and relentless a play as Shakespeare ever wrote. It’s as if he’s inventing the form of the psychological thriller—the claustrophobic dread, the implacable villain, even the false hope of a reprieve dangled before us. And it’s a tragedy, too, of course, but it’s a… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #27: Measure for Measure
Shakespearing #27 by David Foley Measure for Measure When I was in college, I was robbed at gunpoint coming home from buying a pint of ice cream. They took my coat, they took my watch, they took the ice cream, and when they discovered I had only a few dollars on me, one of them… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #26: All’s Well That Ends Well
Shakespearing #26 by David Foley All’s Well That Ends Well In the Riverside chronology, All’s Well That Ends Well sits uneasily between Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure. More problematic than even those plays, there’s nevertheless something chrysalis-like about All’s Well, as if something were stickily emerging, wings still wrinkled and folded. One thing… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #25: Troilus and Cressida
Shakespearing #25 by David Foley Troilus and Cressida You have to let critics do what they do, and one who reviewed my play Cressida Among the Greeks said that, although the press release cited both Chaucer and Shakespeare, I was clearly following Shakespeare much more closely. I found the claim bewildering at the time, and… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #24: Twelfth Night
Shakespearing #24 by David Foley Twelfth Night I am sure that a lot of the coyness and silliness that accompanies productions of Shakespeare that include cross-dressing roles is an attempt to steer them clear of the Queer. This is Jeanette Winterson in one of her more high-handed modes, and it always makes me want to… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #23.1: Four Observations About Hamlet
Shakespearing #23.1 by John King Four Observations About Hamlet Wow, a whole five weeks have passed since I borrowed David Foley’s Shakespearing. I promised I wouldn’t do this again. But then, again: Hamlet. Hamlet is my play. Don’t even try to argue that with me. Observation #1 C. S. Lewis is not the only twentieth-century… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #23: Hamlet
Shakespearing #23 by David Foley Hamlet For a certain kind of theatre/English lit nerd, Hamlet was our Catcher in the Rye. Hamlet not Holden was the disaffected hero who awakened our sense that we were surrounded by phonies in a messed-up world. I remember being puzzled to learn that scholars argued back and forth about… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #22: As You Like It
Shakespearing #22 by David Foley As You Like It I’ve probably fallen too easily into the assumption that the order I’m using for Shakespeare’s plays reflects an actual order of composition. Go online and you’ll find chronologies that vary significantly from Riverside’s. So my sense that As You Like It acted for Shakespeare as a… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #21: Julius Caesar
Shakespearing #21 by David Foley Julius Caesar It’s a little spooky to read Julius Caesar right after re-reading René Girard’s Violence and the Sacred. The language of sacrifice surrounds Caesar’s murder. “Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers,” says Brutus. “Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods.” In flattering Caesar, Decius spells out… Continue reading
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Shakespearing #20: Henry V
Shakespearing #20 by David Foley Henry V Maybe Obama is Henry V. Both sowed wild oats (a little blow, a little sack). Both spent their youth working with the common folk (community organizing, highway robbery). And as a result both bring to the problem of ruling a nuanced understanding of the world’s complexity and a… Continue reading
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