Stick Figure Iconography: Prospero

For the last (for the moment, anyways) installment of this month's Shakespearean Stick Figure Iconography series, we're going to take a look at that very iconic sorcerer, Prospero!

Of course, one of the most memorable Prosperos I've ever seen was Patrick Stewart as a bald, clean-shaven, fur-clad arctic Prospero, and female Prosperos are becoming more and more widespread, so obviously these signifiers are not universal...

....except the stick. He's always got his stick.

Tune in next week as we start on an April Shakespeare special! 

Stick Figure Iconography: Cleopatra

For this "Shakespearean Stick Figure Iconography" series, I deliberately picked characters who were very visually distinctive, and few characters are more visually distinctive than the Queen of the Nile.

I'm a big fan of Cleopatra's little snake crown. It's iconic and shows up quite often in productions. I can almost imagine the costume designers sketching the crown out and thinking... "yeah, we're adding the little snake, just try and stop us."

Stick Figure Iconography: Henry V

You know who's big on iconography? The British royal family. Here's some of the distinguishing characteristics and symbols of Henry V! 

I love Henry V's gorget. Sometimes it's a chainmail coif. Either way, it's cheaper and more comfortable to wear than a full suit of armour.

Sadly, the pudding basin haircut rarely makes an appearance on stage nowadays. 

Stick Figure Iconography: Rosalind

Shakespeare's tragic characters are usually easy to depict, as they have instruments of death and destruction to wave around. Comedic characters are usually a little trickier, like today's subject: Rosalind! 

Am I wrong about Rosalind's hair? Almost all of the Rosalinds I have ever seen have been red-headed. (I should mention that I've so far never seen a non-white Rosalind... which is not to say that non-white Rosalinds can't also have red hair if they want to.....)

Stick Figure Iconography: Julius Caesar

I know we just got finished with the entirety of Julius Caesar, but it's the Ides of March, and what are the Ides of March without Julius Caesar? So here's the latest in my ongoing examination of the distinguishing characteristics and props of Shakespeare's most famous characters:

Julius Caesar is one of those characters who is most famous for being dead. He is lying onstage, dead, for many more lines than he actually speaks. However, despite being dead most of the time, he still manages to dominate the entire play. That's good PR.

Stick Figure Iconography: Lady Macbeth

Let's continue our look at the distinctive characteristics and props of some of Shakespeare's most famous characters! 

Lady Macbeths generally come in all manner of shapes, colors, costumes, and hairstyles nowadays, so it's a bit hard to nail down an iconic look, but one thing is certain: slap a bunch of stage blood on a lady's hands, have her look slightly unhinged, and HEY PRESTO! You've got yourself a Lady Macbeth.

Bloody hands is always a challenge when it comes to stick figures because (SURPRISE SURPRISE) stick figures don't actually have hands. I usually just sprinkle some blood droplets around and call it a day. 

Stick Figure Iconography: Hamlet

When you're a stick figure artist, the main challenge you run into is how to differentiate various characters, because... well... they're all stick figures. Fortunately, many of Shakespeare's main characters have very distinctive characteristics and props that I can use. For the rest of the month we'll be taking a closer look at some of them, starting with The Big Guy:

Note that Hamlet is clean-shaven. While he almost certainly would have originally been played with a beard (by the bearded Richard Burbage), in later generations it was customary for him to be clean-shaven, with Alec Guinness's bearded Hamlet in 1951 creating quite a stir and a rather nasty backlash. Nowadays, of course, you get all sorts of Hamlets: bearded, female, non-white, etc. It's a much more exciting playground now.

But they all have that dang skull. (Well, almost all. I'm looking at you, Maxine Peake...)

Julius Caesar: One Page Summary

In case you've been snoozing for the past few months, this is what you've missed:

Hope you enjoyed A Stick-Figure Julius Caesar as much as possible! Coming up... something completely different, thank goodness!