Reinventing the Bard

I love Shakespeare. Some of my favorite courses in college were English and theatre courses that required us to read and see Shakespeare's plays. Hell, I even wrote my graduate paper on three film versions of Hamlet.

One thing I always love is when you see a director take one of the plays and reinterpret them. Setting Hamlet in a more modern time and place like Kenneth Branaugh (or the one with Ethan Hawke set in New York City, but that version sucked) brought a whole new perspective to the play. And while we're on the subject of Hamlet, the Lion King. Read the play and then follow the plot of the movie. Mind-blowing.

Another thing I love is when non-English speaking directors take a stab at the plays. The famed Japanese director Kurosawa did probably the greatest reinvention of Macbeth when he did Throne of Blood and changed to setting to feudal Japan. The fact that he could take such traditional Japanese theatre troupes and make them fit with a 500 year old English play is phenomenal.

A friend of mine also introduced me to two Indian films that are amazing. The films are called Omkara and Maqbool and are modern day versions of Othello and Macbeth.  Both films move the setting to the Indian criminal underworld and are both gritty and violent. Though neither film uses the dialogue from the plays, those that know the works can see they follow the plots very closely. And the fact that each film fits in the typical Bollywood song and dance numbers and does them in a way that makes sense is truly impressive.

The fact that people continue to reinterpret Shakespeare to this day is a symbol of what his work means to the world. His themes still hold relevant to the human condition and even 500 years removed audiences are still hooked.

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