XPost: rec.arts.tv, rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.movies.current-films   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, alt.fan.tom-servo   
   From: fn62@dial.pipex.com   
      
   "Jaime M. de Castellvi" <3cjmd@comcast.net> wrote in message   
   news:knclc21teqr6g5ffcsn0aif0o35o84pr3r@4ax.com...   
      
   > The audience wasn't that different when you place the Bard in his   
   > *context* (not ours).  It was a different time, different use of   
   > language.  But not so different that it cannot find deep resonance   
   > still today, with fairly large (and not unrepresentative either,   
   > unless you consider beer- guzzling, sports-gawking couch potatoes as   
   > the choice representatives of todays humanity, in which case you think   
   > like a studio suit and you'd never get writers who don't insult the   
   > audience's intelligence) audiences still today, as Branagh proved not   
   > that long ago with the movie adaptations of _Henry V_ (Derek Jacobi as   
   > the Chorus certainly helped) and _Much Ado About Nothing_ (before he   
   > got all stuffy for his _Hamlet_).  Then there's Mel Gibson's _Hamlet_   
   > <*shudder*>.  They were theatrical productions of course, but later   
   > met their fair share of success when shown in the tele too.  Your use   
   > of the word "utterly" in the above context thus strikes me as utter   
   > (and utterly misguided) hyperbole.   
   >   
   > I'd say that if you are the kind of person who relishes _B5_,   
   > _Farscape_, _Buffy_, _Angel_, _Firefly_ and a few others, there is a   
   > fair chance that you'd relish Shakespeare when exposed to it.   
   >   
      
   And Shakespeare's audiences were not the educated literate. Those who paid   
   their penny to stand in the pit at the Globe were the great unwashed, who   
   heckled, laughed, threw fruit and abuse and jammed the place out. Even in   
   the posh seats, these were not the aristocracy. The Pit folk could not read   
   or write, and spent their days in very menial labour. But they loved the   
   plays.   
      
   If anyone gets to London, go to Wanamaker's Globe, may he rest in peace.   
   It's wonderful. Shakespeare at its utter purest. I am there again on   
   Saturday next.   
      
   Ali   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)