A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 1, Scene 3

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

THE STORY SO FAR: King Lear retires from politics and divides his kingdom up between his three daughters. However, when his youngest daughter Cordelia refuses to play a game of "Let's Flatter Dad Outrageously", Lear banishes her and splits her territory up between her two sisters. He then goes to stay with his eldest daughter, Goneril. 

So, this is a really short and boring scene. Don't blame me. Blame Shakespeare.

We get the first inklings here that Lear is not exactly the best house guest. He smacks around Goneril's servants and his entourage of knights are rowdy and presumably not wiping their boots on the mat when they come indoors. So naturally Goneril devises a strategy to "encourage" him to leave.

This is also the first time we meet Oswald, Goneril's steward. He's a self-important toady who will spend the rest of the play getting beaten up and delivering messages to people. I like him. Don't ask me why.

That would normally be all for today, but yesterday my Three-Panel Plays were featured on io9.com. I have to admit - not being a particularly savvy web denizen - I had never been to io9.com before, but this is what happened once the post featuring my work "went live" over there:

I hasten to add that my computer didn't really explode, but I have been overwhelmed by the response (especially all my friends who told me "You're on io9? That's, like, huge!" and made me feel like an uncultured savage for not knowing what that meant.)

So, many thanks to Robert Gonzalez over at io9 for giving my little webcomic a major airing! It's been surreal. 

Tune in on Wednesday to see just how bad a houseguest Lear can be!

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 1, Scene 2

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

With all that court drama, let's check in with Edmund (a.k.a. BASTARD) and see how he's getting along...

Shakespeare writes great villains, and Edmund is no exception. He is charming, witty, cynical and so very much smarter than the people around him. He also starts off with a legitimate (ha, see what I did there?) grievance - being denied any share of inheritance simply because of his birth. He then goes a bit overboard in redressing that grievance, but you can't deny that he's thoroughly entertaining as he does so.

Also, Gloucester and Edgar? Both super-gullible. 

Coming up on Monday we have an extremely short scene introducing Oswald, everyone's favorite slimy flunky. See you then!

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Act 1, Scene 1

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

Let's get started! Here is the first scene of King Lear, and WOW is it long. I'm wasting time just talking about it, so let's plunge right in.

Gloucester is like that dad who always manages to embarrass his offspring by saying something incredibly inappropriate in public. Here he says, right in front of Edmund, "yet was his mother fair; there was good sport at his making." Or, in other words, "his mom was super-hot and good in bed."

In case you missed it... Edmund is, in fact, a bastard. This is an important plot point.

Retiring from public office because you feel you're too old and feeble to take care of business? Not a bad move. Dividing your kingdom up between your three daughters to prevent any internecine squabbles? Understandable. Forcing your three daughters to participate in a public popularity contest to find out which of them loves you the most? Ehhhh...

Cordelia's "nothing" is the shot heard round the world as far as King Lear is concerned. All the subsequent trials, tribulations and tragedies could all have been avoided if she had just gritted her teeth and said "Oh Daddy, I love you best of all!" But noooooo, she has to be all principled and reasonable. 

If she hadn't said "nothing", Lear would have gone and lived with her. She would have taken care of him as his dementia set in, everyone would have lived happily ever after, and the audience would have been able to go home after fifteen minutes. 

I can't remember where I stole the "loyal rear" gag from - undoubtedly some actor's reminiscences of a not-uncommon verbal pitfall similar to the famous "Good Hamlet, cast off thy coloured nightie" trap in Hamlet. 

Of the three truly decent guys in King Lear, two of them are in this scene: Kent and the King of France. We never see the King of France again, but you have to admit he's a sweetheart. Cordelia should have just gone off with him and never looked back. 

Goneril and Regan are collectively known as the "bad daughters" or the "bad sisters", but of course there is very likely more to them than that. Let's face it - their father has not shown himself to be particularly reasonable and loving, so it's a good chance they have every right to be worried about the prospect of him coming to stay with them long-term. 

Anyways, that's the first scene! Fortunately for me, not all scenes are quite as long and involved as that one. Tune in again on Friday and we'll see how Edmund (THE BASTARD) is doing.

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

King Lear: Dramatis Personae

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

Yes, it's time once again to embark on an epic scene-by-scene, in-depth look at a Shakespeare play. This time, ahead of the National Theater's live broadcast of their production, starring Simon Russell Beale, and the Stratford Festival's upcoming production, starring Colm Feore, not to mention Michael Pennington's current production in New York, I will be taking us through the wasteland of King Lear. 

I'll be posting a new scene from King Lear every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until it's done, with possible occasional interludes not involving sad, insane old men and their vindictive, manipulative daughters, for comic relief. Because a solid month of Lear might drive me insane. 

Onwards!

King Lear
Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5
2.1 | 2.2 (part 1) | 2.2, part 2
3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6

Till a Richard Killed Who?

So, the BBC announced it will be filming Henry VI and Richard III as a follow-up to their Hollow Crown series. Excitement!

I love Shakespeare's history plays. Henry V was my first real Shakespeare love, and when the Royal Shakespeare Company stopped by my hometown of Ann Arbor, MI in 2001 to put on the first history play tetralogy (the three parts of Henry VI, followed by Richard III), I nearly flipped out with excitement. I had never seen the Henry VI plays before, but I had a vague sense of the history involved and was really eager to see it come to life. 

We watched all three parts of Henry VI in a single day (which was hard on the posterior, but great for the soul), followed by Richard III on the next day. In that performance of Richard III I heard a fantastic passage that is often cut, but which so perfectly encapsulated the entirety of the tetralogy. Here it is, featuring Margaret of Anjou, the Duchess of York, and Queen Elizabeth:

It's hysterical. It's just an endless litany of Edwards and Richards and Henrys getting killed by each other. That's the Wars of the Roses for you. Here's the full text:

MARGARET
If ancient sorrow be most reverend,
Give mine the benefit of seniory,
And let my woes frown on the upper hand.
If sorrow can admit society,
Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine:
I had an Edward, till a Richard killed him;
I had a husband, till a Richard killed him:
Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard killed him;
Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard killed him;

DUCHESS OF YORK
I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him;
I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.

QUEEN MARGARET
Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard killed him.
From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death:

Anyways, after watching that marathon RSC performance (which you can read about in actor Nick Asbury's book, Exit Pursued by a Badger, which I highly recommend) I quickly read up on all the history behind the Henrys and Edwards and Richards, which was in many ways even more ludicrous than what Shakespeare put on stage. The Histories have been my favorite plays ever since.

See you on Monday! It's going to be LEAR time!

Shakespearean Selfies, part 2

Back by popular demand, here are some more Shakespearean Selfies! You can see the first set, featuring Hamlet, Juliet and Richard III, here.

The Adventures of Lego Shakespeare, part 1

A little bit of a lazy post from me today, whilst I prepare myself to tackle King Lear next month. If you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, you'll know that one of my friends recently acquired a Lego Shakespeare mini-figure for me, after much trial, error, and cunning. Naturally, I was really excited to see what sort of antics Lego Shakespeare could get up to, and have been posting the results sporadically on my various social media outlets. So, for those of you too wise and sensible to be on Twitter and Facebook, here are the results so far:

Lego Shakespeare's debut! Of course there had to be a bear involved. There always has to be a bear involved. 

I woke up one morning to find that The Globe, Hollow Crown Fans, and various other prominent Shakespearean Twitter accounts were encouraging people to post photos of their Shakespeare books. Decades ago, I had bought a very tiny copy of Henry V - my favorite play - which I used to carry around with me as a sort of Shakespearean security blanket. I managed to find it and had Lego Shakespeare pose for a photo with it, for scale.

I quickly discovered a challenging aspect of setting up Lego Shakespeare photo-shoots: finding things for him to interact with that aren't too big for the frame. I originally staged this with a paring knife, but it was so big that only the handle itself fit into the frame and you couldn't really tell what it was. So I substituted a teaspoon instead. The end result was funnier, because anything involving the word "spoon" is automatically funny. 

This has been the never-ending winter here in the Midwest (and across most of North America). So when I woke up to another four inches of freshly-fallen snow, I though it was the ideal time to take Lego Shakespeare outdoors. Unfortunately, Lego Shakespeare is not four inches tall, and was quickly overwhelmed.

Undaunted, Lego Shakespeare commandeered a T-47 snowspeeder and returned to the great icy wilderness. (In case you're wondering, the original quote is "Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?" See, "hath" sounds like the ice planet "Hoth" from Star Wars, so... hey, I said it was a terrible pun.)

This is my favorite Lego Shakespeare installment so far. I posted it, appropriately enough, on the Ides of March. It still makes me giggle, which probably says a bit too much about my psyche. (Also, note the stealth pun in "severity"... I'm quite proud of that one.)

These little tiny eranthis are always the first flowers to emerge at the beginning of spring, often coming up under the snow. Sure enough, when the snow around here finally started to melt, I spotted lots of squished-looked eranthis buds bravely poking up through the leaf cover. HOPE. That's what it is. 

Also, I am going to make a bold statement and say that nobody can sing "Hey ding a ding ding" without sounding incredibly silly. Anyone want to debate that point with me?

That's it from me today! My apologies to my Twitter and Facebook followers for not having anything new and exciting today. Tune in again next week, when "new and exciting" will be back on the menu, possibly featuring some more Shakespearean Selfies! 

Three-Panel Plays, part 19

This is it! The final installment of Three-Panel Plays! As Bottom would say, "alack, alack, alack". They've been a lot of fun to do.

There are only two plays that I have not seen live on stage. One is, ironically, Richard II; I have seen numerous film and filmed stage performances of it, but I missed it when it was last on at the Stratford Festival and haven't found a conveniently-located production of it since. The other is The Two Noble Kinsmen, which I have neither seen (even on screen) or read. I don't think that will change anytime soon.

OK, so remember how I had a hard time drawing donkey-heads? Drawing bears is even harder. I guess that looks more or less like a bear, but I thought I'd better label it just to make sure.

That's the end of my Three-Panel Plays! I've got some random stuff lined up for Friday and next week, but starting in April I'll be embarking on another scene-by-scene adventure.... this time of King Lear! Oh, this is going to be barrels of fun!

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See all Three-Panel Plays here!