I Have Done My Work Ill, part 2

In Monday's comic we saw what happened when Antony tried to get someone else to kill him. (Spoiler: it didn't work out.) Today we'll take a look at what happens when he takes matters into his own hands. (Spoiler: it doesn't work out.)

I have to admit, this bit always makes me laugh, in a slightly self-conscious and macabre way. Poor Antony is having one of those days where nothing goes right for him. Antony, world-renowned soldier and fearsome warrior, can't even stab himself properly. And, to top it all off, Cleopatra's not dead. She's just been having a lark. 

I Have Done My Work Ill, part 1

If you know anything about Antony and Cleopatra, you probably know that Antony kills himself. What you might not know is just how hard it is for him to kill himself. Seriously, he sucks at killing himself. 

Eros is one of the great "minor" roles in the Shakespearean canon. He spends most of the play running around after Antony like a faithful puppy, but then in his last scene he punches you right in the feels. I haven't really done him justice here.

But really, if you want something done properly, you have to do it yourself. Tune in on Wednesday to see what happens when Antony takes matters into his own hands. 

The 2014 Stratford Festival: The Plays, part 1

In my last post I outlined some of the fun adventures I had at the Stratford Festival this year. Today I'm going to take a closer look at four of the Shakespeare productions I saw, starting with King Lear, starring Colm Feore. 

I am a very technically-focused and analytical theatre-goer, so I very rarely lose myself entirely in a play. This doesn't diminish my enjoyment (in fact, I think it enhances it) but it does mean I am rarely moved to tears by what I see on stage. And I'm not going to go so far as to say Feore's Lear made me cry, but there was definitely something in the air that made my eyes a bit itchy.

If I am slow to cry, I am quick to laugh, especially when an actor finds humor in a line or situation that I otherwise would never have considered humorous. The cast of King John, especially Graham Abbey's wry and swaggering Bastard, managed to unearth every latent laugh in what, on the surface anyways, appears to be a somewhat dour history play. I enjoyed myself tremendously, much more than I had anticipated. 

The joy of going to a repertory company like the Stratford Festival for numerous years is that you see each actor in numerous different roles, and become familiar with different facets of their talent and stage presence. One of things that has always enamored Geraint Wyn Davies to me is his propensity to utilize his native Welsh accent. (As a proud, if somewhat diluted 1/32nd Welsh patriot, I am particularly susceptible to Welsh accents.) I hasten to point out that Mr. Wyn Davies's excellent Antony showed few signs of hailing from across the Severn... but I kind of wish he had. 

Director Chris Abraham's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream could have been expressly designed to push every single button possessed by Shakespearean purists. It plays with the text, adding lines to establish a framing device setting the play as an entertainment put on to celebrate the wedding of a gay couple. Lysander is played by a woman and as a woman, making Hermia's father's objection to his daughter's marriage a comment on marriage equality. Titania is played as a woman, but by one of two rather muscular men.

There are cell phones, pop songs, food fights, sight gags, and an on-stage pond that numerous people fall into. It's cluttered and overwhelming and OH MY GOODNESS IT IS SO MUCH FUN. I have never been a particular fan of A Midsummer Night's Dream, apart from the Pyramus and Thisbe bit, but this production instantly won a place in my heart. It is so full of joy, so full of fun, and is such an open celebration of love that, appropriately enough, I fell in love with it.

If you want "traditional" Shakespeare (whatever that might be), this is probably not the production for you. But if you want A LOT OF PURE, UNADULTERATED FUN wrapped up in a Shakespeare-shaped package, I can't think of a better thing to do than to see this show. 

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Is that enough gushing for now? Check back on Friday when I'll take a look at some of the non-Shakespearean productions. Also, take a look at my other Stratford Festival comics! 

The Stratford Festival 2014 Season... in 3 Panels!

My cousins recently got back from their annual pilgrimage to the Stratford Festival in Canada, and have been posting tantalizing pictures of their trip on Facebook. As my own annual pilgrimage to Stratford will not be happening until August, I have been left seething in impatience and jealousy. To help me get through the next month, here is the Stratford Festival's current season, reduced in classic Good Tickle Brain three-panel style.

Mild-to-major spoilers, obviously.

This has been the year of Lear for me, to the point of overdose, but I am still madly looking forward to Colm Feore's interpretation.

Gershwin! You cannot go wrong with Gershwin. There will be toe-tapping. Resistance is futile.

I saw this at Stratford when I was twelve years old. Looking forward to seeing it again!

This year's production at Stratford has added cross-dressing and gender-bending. Because love's not confusing enough already!

Part of the Holy Trinity of Noel Coward comedies, alongside Private Lives and Blithe Spirit. The other two are fantastic, but this one just might be my favorite. First saw it at the Shaw Festival in 2002 and fell in love. Lucy Peacock playing Judith Bliss at Stratford this year? I smell perfection on the horizon.

First saw this when I was 16, again at Stratford, and had most of the lyrics memorized by the end of the summer. Because your brain can never have too many showtune lyrics in it!

I have never seen this. My Restoration drama knowledge is sketchy at best, but I look forward to rectifying that by seeing this this summer. It looks incredibly madcap and fluffy, which is just how I like my comedies.

The only live production of this that I've seen so far was when the RSC's touring production of it, starring Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter, visited my hometown. Which, you have to admit, is a hell of a way to be introduced to Antony and Cleopatra. Can't wait to see it in the Tom Patterson Theatre.

I've never seen this! I've never seen any Brecht, for that matter. There's a first time for everything! I'm really looking forward to seeing Seanna McKenna's performance. Because, honestly, I would look forward to seeing Seanna McKenna reading the phone book. Or seeing her watch paint dry. Basically, if there was water on the stage, she would walk on it, as far as I'm concerned.

Saw this at Stratford (of course) in 2004. That production's Hubert, Tom McCamus, is this year's King John, so he'll have been on both sides of the famous "Death. / My lord? / A grave. / He shall not live. / Enough." line.

A four-person, chamber play adaptation of Dream, directed by Peter Sellars? Intriguing. Sign me up.

A play by Canadian playwright Michel Marc Bouchard. I have neither seen this play, read this play, or managed to find anything about this play that isn't in French, so I'm extrapolating here from the history of Christina of Sweden, as provided by Wikipedia, since I had never heard of her before this year. These three panels are a shot in the dark, essentially.

And that's the Stratford Smorgasbord for this year! I CAN'T WAIT. GIVE IT TO ME NOW.

Three-Panel Plays, part 1

In the four months that I've been working on this website, I have managed to complete two comprehensive, scene-by-scene guides to Shakespeare plays (Richard II and Coriolanus). At this rate, it is going to take me several years to finish the entire canon. For those of you who are too impatient to wait that long, I present to you the first installment of my much-more-abbreviated Three-Panel Play series. 

We will be doing this alphabetically. 

All's Well That Ends Well is generally categorized as a "problem play", mostly because nobody can quite figure out how to handle the ending. Technically it's a comedy because HA HA.

OH NO, SPOILERS! Oh, come on. Everyone knows how Antony and Cleopatra ends. 

I'll be back on Wednesday with As You Like It and A Comedy of Errors. 

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See all Three-Panel Plays here!