Here’s a trailer for Henry V, seen just as it would have in Shakespeare’s day at the Globe Theater.
Of course, that’s long gone.
The miserable place known as Shakespeare’s Globe was recreated as an attraction in the UK by an American Communist actor, has little in common with Shakespeare’s theater beyond the architecture and its only real productions are outbursts of lame wokeness with high school level talent at every level.
And while wokeness is commonplace now, the Globe strives to dramatically exceed everyone else’s wokeness.
You may recall this incident from the summer.
Elizabeth I “was a non-binary person too, according to academics working for Shakespeare’s Globe, who have cast doubt on the gender identity of one of England’s greatest queens.
Elizabeth I has been presented as possibly non-binary in an essay published by the theatre, which refers to the female monarch with the gender-neutral “they/them” pronouns.”“The essay was written by a “transgender awareness trainer” in defence of the Globe’s decision to stage a new play featuring a non-binary Joan of Arc, but both the play and the essay have raised concerns that famous females are being written out of history.”
Can’t imagine why they’d think that. At this rate, if J.K. Rowling dies tomorrow, they’ll claim that she was non-binary too.
You can get a sample of the Globe’s top-notch research in the Globe’s “Was Shakespeare Gay?” presentation. (The answer, obviously.)
The Globe Theater marked Earth Day with “Shakespeare and Climate Emergency”, examining the works of the Bard through climate panic, or the other way around. We are told however that Shakespeare “would have had no conception of the scientific link between emissions and climate change.”
Every production now contains trigger warnings. Like this one for Henry V, currently being performed.
“This production contains graphic violence; coercive behaviour; sexual assault and strong language, including descriptions of infanticide and sexual violence.”
But what can you do with Henry V? The Globe throws in essays about the evils of nationalism and rape culture, but even its woke leftists can’t possibly shove racism in there?
Or can they?
“Our free Anti-Racist Shakespeare webinars bring you a range of perspectives from scholars and artists about Shakespeare’s plays and how they engage with the topics of race and identity. In this webinar, Globe scholars will be joined by theatre artists and scholars to discuss race and social justice in Henry V.”
I haven’t sat through it, but you can sample the Anti-Racist take on King Lear by three female third-world woke academics. If you can sit through 5 seconds of it, you’re a better or worse man than I am. And if we ever do need to properly reopen Gitmo, this will do for torture sessions. Every Jihadi will break within the hour. They may have survived having Nasser speeches played for them for 24 hours back in Egypt, but this is the real stuff.
This isn’t Shakespeare’s Globe, despite its much-abused name, it’s Marx’s. And considering the place is the legacy of a Communist, that’s as it should be.
My, but have they (the left) gone far from the days when in the film ‘Porky’s II: The Next Day” the hip thing was to protect Shakespeare. Come to think of it – the left would have problems with that film as well. Well – given enough time the left has problems with everything, and naturally first corrupt it, ruin it and finally just kill it.
Sounds like the Globe is working it.
Marx told his followers to “ruthlessly criticize all that exists.” So they do. They are unable to create anything but misery (and endless quantities of word salad tracts trying to explain their “philosophy”) so they have to tear down everything done by their betters.
A pity is, that while this appears to make good Marxist revolution, the impulse to criticize (i.e. destroy) remains as ploy to just keep on with destruction to destruction – even after ‘the revolution’. So yes – misery must be always follow them.
But, I would truly doubt most of the rank and file have any understanding past the urge of envy. A quick walk through nearly every magazine devoted to ‘modern art’ will fast show the truly sad state of talent in most modern artist. You can criticize the modern artist of even 1960’s vintage, but at least the majority had a command of skill. And an range skill vastly past the norm of today.
And can Hollywood actually make a film if they needed to save their lives? I very much doubt it as we see with the hot mess of ‘crap’ being called motion pictures today. Live theatre is even more likely to suffer under this woke delusion.
But, at least, envy shall be served. Keep your books. And your recordings of Shakespeare plays with actors like Lawrence Olivier. That is where talent shall be found. Further – it does not require much energy when present with the rot of the woke theatre.
once a Communist revolution is secured, purges are followed by a dictatorship which suppresses all the ‘critical’ impulses and tosses out the modernism the way the USSR did
all the radical artists had to learn to paint murals glorifying socialism or go to a gulag
the USSR focused heavily on traditional culture, not because Stalin or his successors had any appreciation of it, but because it represented stability and conformity to them
if the lefties ever pull off a true revolution here, all the modernism and post-modernism will vanish so fast you’ll think you imagined it
Indeed, but this current leftist herd know nothing of this. On a artistic level, Soviet Realism did have one side benefit in that it preserved many old pre-modern art traditions that are more generally gone in the majority of the university Fine Art programs of today. We are on modern art’s third century… This current generation of instructors have no real experience with the artist who came of age in the shadow of the classical traditions.
yes, you have to know the rules before you can break them
the current culture is filled with ‘creators’ who have no idea what the rules are, beyond the political doctrines they virtue signal toward
One detail-regarding these warnings -I suppose they’re useful for parents determining what kids can view. Sexual content violence, bad language. I do get the usefulness of knowing what’s in a show/ video.
But I wonder why I need to be told a movie shows “smoking” -is there virtual second hand smoke?
the drag queen storytime hour crowd doesn’t about what children are exposed to
they attach trigger warnings to things that traumatize them, like smoking
I’ve seen numerous versions of various Shakespeare plays, due to acquaintances who are actors, each version seems to be different, the directors putting their own spin on them. The best are the ones I saw at the Marin Art and Garden Center back in the 1950s, which my Mom, who was great for exposing her kids to cultural influences, took us to.
I am no expert though, Lightbringer is an expert.
What, me? Not hardly! I just took a lot of college and graduate school Shakespeare courses, and mainly because I liked his work.
If you mean somebody else, feel free to say so — I won’t feel a bit diminished!
Thanks Lightbringer, you got me thinking back to my youth, we had a complete collection of Shakespeare’s plays, I may have read them all, I can’t imagine how I managed to get through so much reading material. At my current age it would take me forever 🙂
Why is this a big deal? I don’t even care that Paul Pelosi is gay.
The purpose of the globe theatre was to recreate the AUTHENTIC Shakespearean experience, failed miser.
By far and away the best Shakespeare performance I have personally seen was given by Lenny Henry a coloured comedian from Dudley. I was sceptical but he blew me away with his acting.
One need look no further than college campuses here in the US to see how the woke plague has taken over theatre and performing arts programs.
what’s striking though is how even the most prominent theaters now look exactly like college performing arts programs
And let is the first things we shall kill all the Lawyers
Decades ago, Bram Stroker (Dracula) claimed that queen Lizzy I was a male. I saw his essay years ago.
opponents claimed it in Elizabeth’s lifetime
It was a not uncommon angle of attack against powerful women
For decades Shakespeare was not needed for college majors in English lit. It was just a matter of getting a degree. Shakespeare was just a dead white male. Yet, now he can live for woke players on a stage that would not otherwise attract more than fleas. The name Shakespeare draws more being trashed the the talent of his eviscerators merits.
It’s not just Shakespeare. After an exhibition on Egyptian hieroglyphics at the British Museum, I was asked in a museum survey if I agreed or disagreed with these statements:
“The exhibition enhanced my understanding of the representation of femininity in different religious traditions.”
“The exhibition caused me to reflect on my own ideas and beliefs about gender identity.”
No point in asking why hieroglyphics would make anyone reflect on gender identity — everything makes these people obsess on that topic. If the pharaohs can’t escape this nonsense, there’s no hope for Henry V. The arts world in the UK is beyond parody.