We're Online!

Hey all! So our Hamlet audiobook is now on Youtube! I put all of the recording that Amy edited together, set a background and uploaded it. Now the whole world can enjoy our version of Hamlet!

Thanks for all the hard work everyone put in and I will see you all at the showcase tonight!

Hamlet Listening and Speaking

So in preparation for Thursday I looked up some audio-book and performance recordings of Hamlet. I looked here and simply listened to the first 7 recordings just to get an idea of variety. These are a few things that I found that we might want to consider:

• Narration - a few of the productions had a narrator who explained what was happening up to this point and then even said when characters entered and such. If we decide we want a narrator I don't think we should take it that far, but instead do sound effects of people moving. ---- An interesting note, one of the productions started off as though we were actually in the Globe Theater watching the production...not sure how I feel about that still.
• Voice - there were different voices for different characters and as we discussed this is highly effective.
• Sound Effects
• Explanations - one version actually had explanations of what words and phrases meant, personally I didn't really like it and it was distracting from the plot.

On another note I tried a cold reading of just a few different lines of Gertrude's. Here's a taste!

They Said and Thought What?!

So in my last post about my plan for my analysis I mentioned going over some themes in Antony and Cleopatra. However if I go over all of those this post would be huge, so I'm just going to touch on two topics that I have hit in previous posts. The first will be nature references and the second with be, of course, reality perception.

Earthiness

Like I've said before, I've noticed that Shakespeare loves the nature references, and I personally find them very effective. Now the movie Cleopatra wasn't in Shakespeare's words. This is because they actually base the movie off of the fantastical perception of Cleopatra's mortal life. However, the second half is about her relationship with Antony, which Shakespeare wrote the play about! So it works. But since they don't use the actual play lines I had to just look at how they might decide to incorporate the natural world into the film.

Sadly there is only one point that stands out to me in how they used the natural world to make a point. See there is a part of the movie where a dead body is thrown over the wall as a warning to Cleopatra. So as the body is removed and Cleopatra fears for her and her son's life, the sky turns dark, the wind picks up, and it begins to rain. As with in many movies, they used nature to set the gloomy and ominous mood.

BUT don't worry! As mentioned before the play is loaded with nature references! Here are a few of my favorites that I think just really pack the punch.

"When my good stars, that were my former guides,/Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires/Into the abysm of hell."


"His legs bestrid the ocean: he rear;d arm/Crested the world: his voice was propertied/As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;/But when he meant to quail and shake the orb, He was as rattling thunder."


"Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish;/A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,/A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock,/A forked mountain, or blue promontory/With trees upon't that nod unto the world,/And mock our eyes with air."





Is this real life?

Antony and Cleopatra is full of people believing what they want to and choosing to ignore the blatant and obvious truth. Mainly it is between the two main characters themselves, and this was actually very apparent in the movie.

So there's a soothslayer in the movie who predicts that Julius Cesear will become Emperor and reign with Cleopatra at his side. Of course, this doesn't happen and Cesear is killed by the Senate and Cleopatra sent running back to Egypt. However they both obviously wanted to believe it, so they did despite obvious signs indicating otherwise.

Also, an interesting note about the movie, both Cleopatra and Cesear believe they are gods, and thus they cannot be killed by mortal hands. Cesear is so convinced that he is untouchable that even when Cleopatra expresses some of her fears about a potential assassination, he blows her off telling her she is silly. But at the same time Cleopatra constantly brags of her divinity! Neither want to admit to their weaknesses and just claim they are right because they are divine. It's crazy!

(Just as a side note, Cleopatra believes she is Isis and destined to rule the world.)

Now I'm sorry this is getting long so here are just few lines from the play how people have chosen to reconstruct their reality so they can justify their actions or get what they want. (Cleopatra is a pro at this.)

"If you find him sad,/Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report/That I am sudden sick"

"You praise yourself/By laying defects of judgement to me"

"All is lost;/This foul Eqyptian hath betrayed me." - This is actually Antony! He feels guilty about desterting his men in battle and running after Cleopatra like a dog, so he decides to find some way to be angry at her instead of himself!


You're at the end!

There are so many other great manipulations of reality, but I'm sure by this time this post is so long you don't want to read anymore! So I'll leave you with this. I just think it is so interesting that so many of Shakespeare's characters seem to have problems answering for their actions, so they feel the need to alter reality so they can feel better about themselves.

It makes me wonder how much I do this in my own life...Think about it. Do you do this is your life? I'm sure we all do in someway, because after all Shakespeare is the master and showing our human flaws in his characters.

Initial Reaction....WHEW!!!

Can I just say that Antony and Cleopatra was way more complicated, and a lot longer than I thought it would be?! There were so many subplots in the reading of the play that I was so thankful for online scene by scene summaries so I could make sure I was reading the play correctly!

Let's just say that in the midst of their complicated and blossoming love, Antony and Cleopatra have to deal with war! I'm not gonna lie I was often confused by motivations of characters and I think I will have to go back and examine more of why they do what they do.

While I was reading I also found themes that I would like to go back and examine. These include the following:

~Poison references
~Manipulation of others
~How the characters choose to perceive their reality
~Nature references
~Ambition versus Passion

I actually didn't find in my initial reading as many reality crisis as I thought I would find but I want to go back and examine those. I didn't see too much of this is in the movie either actually. What really interested me why how quickly the characters are to believe things that may or may not be there.

A quick thought on the movie Cleopatra is simply, wow. It was four hours long and the first two hours actually portray a plot that happens before the play even begins! In face it is more a movie about Julius Cesar and Cleopatra at first! Not only that but Cleopatra at first had such ambitious motivations and she didn't seem as cruel or cold as the play seems to make her out to be. I just thought that was such an interesting choice to do those things. In some ways it really added to the dynamics of the relationship Antony and Cleopatra had, but it also took away. I was ready to get to the point and have the movie end after the first two hours.

Yep, those are just my first thoughts after looking at the two versions of the story so just wait for the in depth analysis to come next week!!