Sunday, November 23, 2014

Shakespeare and me: productions I've seen

As it turns out, I have seen a goodly number of Shakespeare's plays and certainly all the key ones.

The chronological grouping comes from this source.

Histories   
1590-91     Henry VI, Part II    (Bard on Beach, Vancouver, 2011)
1590-91     Henry VI, Part III   (Bard on Beach, Vancouver, 2011) 
1591-92     Henry VI, Part I     (Bard on Beach, Vancouver, 2011)
1592-93     Richard III             (Bard on Beach, Vancouver, 2011; Toronto 2016; Shakespeare Bash'd, Toronto, 2018)
1595-96     Richard II                (Stratford, 2023)
1596-97     King John    
1597-98     Henry IV, Part I     (Oak Park, IL, 2011, Driftwood, Toronto, 2022)
1597-98     Henry IV, Part II    (Oak Park, IL, 2011, Driftwood, Toronto, 2022)
1598-99     Henry V                 (Oak Park, IL, 2011, Driftwood, Toronto, 2022)
1612-13     Henry VIII             (Stratford, 2019)

I've seen all the Henries (sometimes in abridged format) now including Henry VIII (which I saw last year).  I came close to seeing King John at Stratford last summer, but that would have meant an overnight trip, so I ultimately passed.  I have not decided if I want to watch Richard II, but I did see a good production of Richard III in Vancouver and then a couple of solid productions in Toronto.

Comedies
1592-93     Comedy of Errors      (Shakespeare in the Park, NY, 1992; High Park, Toronto, 2015; Shakespeare Bash'd, Toronto, 2016)
1593-94     Taming of the Shrew    (New Jersey, 1992; Atlanta, 2003; Stratford, 2015; Driftwood, Toronto, 2016; Toronto Fringe, 2019)
1594-95     Two Gentlemen of Verona    
1594-95     Love's Labour's Lost     (Chicago, 1996; Stratford, 2015)
1595-96     A Midsummer Night's Dream   (New York, 1992; Bard on the Beach, Vancouver, 2014; Shakespeare in the Ruff, Toronto, 2017; Driftwood, Toronto, 2019, High Park, Toronto, 2023)
1598-99     Much Ado About Nothing    (Toronto, 1994; Toronto, 2014; Toronto, 2016)
1599-1600   As You Like It    (Shakespeare in the Park, NY, 1992; High Park, Toronto, 2014; Shakespeare Bash'd, Toronto, 2017)
1599-1600   Twelfth Night    (Ann Arbor, 1990; Toronto Fringe, 2015; Shakespeare Bash'd, Toronto, 2017; High Park, Toronto, 2017)
1600-01     The Merry Wives of Windsor  (Kalamazoo, 1986; Shakespeare Bash'd, Toronto, 2015)  
1602-03     All's Well That Ends Well    (Shakespeare in the Park, NY, 1993; High Park, Toronto, 2016)
1604-05     Measure for Measure     (Shakespeare in the Park, NY, 1993; Toronto, 2016)

I've seen The Merry Wives of Windsor many years ago (actually while still in high school).  I thought then, as now, that it is a pretty minor work and passed up a chance a couple of years ago to see it at Bard on the Beach.  The only one that I can't find proof that I attended is Two Gentlemen of Verona, though I've probably seen that somewhere along the way.  I'll just make a note to catch it the next time it comes through. Similarly, I know I've seen Twelfth Night more recently than 1990, probably in Chicago and somewhere else.

Tragedies
1593-94     Titus Andronicus    (abridged vers. @ Red Sandcastle, Toronto, 2022)
1594-95     Romeo and Juliet     (High Park, Toronto, 1997; Stratford, 2013)
1596-97     The Merchant of Venice  (Chicago, 2011)  
1599-1600    Julius Caesar       (Stratford, 1990; High Park, Toronto, 2015; Shakespeare in the Ruff, Toronto, 2018) 
1600-01     Hamlet            (Bard on the Beach, Vancouver, 2013; Stratford, 2015; Driftwood, Toronto, 2015; Toronto, 2018; Stratford 2022)
1601-02     Troilus and Cressida    
1604-05     Othello           (Kalamazoo, 1988; Stratford, 2013;  Driftwood, Toronto, 2017; Shakespeare Bash'd, Toronto, 2019)
1605-06     King Lear       (Vancouver, 2012; Stratford, 2014; Toronto, 2015; Toronto, 2018, Soulpepper, Toronto, 2022, Shakespeare Bash'd, Toronto, 2023)
1605-06     Macbeth         (New Jersey, 1992; Bard on the Beach, 2012; Toronto, 2015)
1606-07     Antony and Cleopatra    (Buddies, Toronto, 2012)
1607-08     Coriolanus    
1607-08     Timon of Athens

It seems like things start breaking down once I hit the tragedies.  It looks like I skipped Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens.*  To be honest, I generally am not that interested in pure tragedies, though I generally find Macbeth and Hamlet worth watching.  I have very grave doubts about Lear, simply because he acts so foolishly and petulantly, that I am not sure I'll see it again.  I know I'm not interested in seeing The Merchant of Venice again, though the Bollywood-infused remix Merchant on Venice was pretty good.

Romances
1608-09     Pericles    (Toronto, 1994)
1609-10     Cymbeline   (Shakespeare Bash'd, Toronto, 2020) 
1610-11     The Winter's Tale    
1611-12     The Tempest      (Bard on the Beach, Vancouver, 2014; Stratford 2018)
1612-13     The Two Noble Kinsmen*

I'm not that sure I even want to count Two Noble Kinsmen.  I guess I'll try to see it one of these days.  I believe I actually have seen Cymbeline** and The Winter's Tale, though I don't have any surviving programs, so I may go when I have a chance if the productions get good reviews.  On the other hand, the plot of The Winter's Tale in particular is not one that I find very palatable and I passed on a chance to see Coal Mine do it.  I've definitely seen the Tempest more than once - most likely four times, but the details of the first time escape me now.

So the official tally is 29 out of  38 or 76%, though I suspect I've actually seen at least a couple more.  It's always hard to know how often to come back to these as opposed to seeing other masterworks versus spending more time on contemporary theatre.  I try to mix it up a fair bit, though time and money don't always allow for it.  I am sort of interested in the upcoming production of Hamlet at Stratford next summer, but in general, I am leaning more and more towards to just sticking with the comedies.  I just find too many loose ends with the tragedies that bug me, and the minor characters are too hard to tell apart in the history plays.

Edit: I guess I should add just a bit about a few of them, which were particularly memorable and so on.  Measure for Measure had Kevin Kline as the Duke, which did partially make up for the fact that it is such a "difficult" play.  The strangest production I remember seeing was Brian Bedford in Julius Caesar at Stratford.  The key characters were all in togas, but the soldiers wore yellow t-shirts and Army boots, if I am not mistaken.  A weak attempt at a pomo production.  The best Lear I've seen was not the one at Stratford (which was generally good, though Cordelia was weak) but the Honest Fishmongers in Vancouver in 2012.  Bard on the Beach generally does good but slightly populist renditions of Shakespeare.  However, the shows I saw in 2014 on the main stage -- Midsummer's Night's Dream and The Tempest -- were truly incredible.  It's somewhat strange that I basically can't bear watching The Merchant of Venice any longer, but I don't have nearly as much of a problem with The Taming of the Shrew, which is perhaps even more retrograde.  There's a lot about As You Like It that I do like, but the ending is so unbelievable as to spoil much of the play for me.  I generally have to pretend that the last five minutes didn't happen.

In terms of upcoming productions, I decided to pass on The Tempest at Hart House, but I'll catch a Bollywood-infused production of Much Ado About Nothing at Tarragon.  As I said, I might well see Hamlet at Stratford this summer, but I haven't really decided about Taming of the Shrew or Love's Labour's Lost.  It will depend a great deal on the concept/casting and possibly the advance reviews.  I see that Shakespeare in the (High) Park is going to be The Comedy of Errors and Julius Caesar.  It's good for me in that it has been ages since I've seen either.  I'll probably try to go to both and may take my son to Comedy of Errors.  My daughter is probably too young to really understand what's going on, but we'll see a bit closer to the time.

* Someone recently put on Titus Andronicus, but it really doesn't interest me that much, and I passed.  In 2017, Stratford is going to be doing Coriolanus directed by Robert LePage, and I'll probably see that, even though they are doing gender-flipping, at least for the main character, and I find this all so pointless (at this point in theatre history).

** Having just seen Shakespeare Bash'd doing Cymbeline, I realize that was the first time I had seen it.  It's an interesting mash-up of certain elements of Othello and The Winter's Tale, though overall less tragic than the former and slightly less contrived than the latter.  I came fairly close to checking out The Winter's Tale last year (2019), but learned (just in time) that the director inserted some completely ridiculous extra speech that inverted the meaning of large sections of the play.  I just can't get behind that.  In general, that company, Shakespeare in the Ruff, is going in a ridiculous woke direction that I can't stand.  They basically want to trade on Shakespeare's name but decolonize him or to invert the meaning of his plays, which I simply find dishonest.  If Shakespeare offends you so much, then rename your company.

No comments:

Post a Comment