“Shakespeare told every kind of story – comedy, tragedy, history, melodrama, adventure, love stories and fairy tales – and each of them so well that they have become immortal. In all the world of storytelling he has become the greatest name.”
– Marchette Chute
I was going to include this in the other post about adaptations but I had more to say about this series and the other post was already quite long. I couldn’t have a Shakespeare adaptation talk without including the amazing ShakespearRE-Told series.
ShakespeaRE-Told is a series that aired on BBC One in November 2005. The title is an umbrella term that covers the four TV adaptations that are remakes of Shakespeare plays. Each play is adapted by a different writer and the setting is relocated to the present day. The plays adapted were Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most of the stories stay the same but some stories do combine characters, or change a few details but these are fairly inconsequential.
I was in my first year of uni when I heard about this series. We watched Macbeth in one of my classes and it was possible the greatest thing I had seen, certainly one of my all time favourite Shakespeare adaptations. Before that I had seen a few movies that mixed up the story and a few with location changed but this was something different, it seemed so close to the original story I knew but was a world away at the same time.
There is a star-studded line up of British actors who play iconic characters like Macbeth, Duncan, Hero, Claude, Oberon, and Titania. The retellings are so incredibly clever and you can still see the strong Shakespeare story even in this modern setting.
Adapted by: David Nicholls
Directed: Brian Percival
Setting: In a local news studio
Cast: Sarah Parish, Damian Lewis, Billie Piper, Tom Ellis
Beatrice and Benedick are feuding anchors. Hero, weather girl and daughter of station manager Leonard, becomes engaged to Claude, the sports presenter. Jealous visual effects manager Don, plots to break up Hero and Claude, whilst the others attempt to get Beatrice and Benedick together.
Adapted by: Peter Moffat
Directed: Mark Brozel
Setting: In a three Michelin star restaurant
Cast: Vincent Regan, James McAvoy, Keeley Hawes, Richard Armitage
Celebrity chef Duncan Docherty owns the restaurant with Joe Macbeth as the sous chef and his wife Ella as the Maître d’. Joe and his fellow chef Billy Banquo are annoyed that Duncan takes the credit for Joe’s work and that Duncan’s son Malcolm has, in their opinion, no real flair for the business. Then they encounter three supernatural bin men who predict that Macbeth will get ownership of the restaurant, as will Billy’s children. Joe and Ella are inspired to kill Duncan, but the bin men subsequently warn that Macbeth should be wary of headwaiter Peter Macduff.
Adapted by: Sally Wainwright
Directed: David Richards
Setting: In politics
Cast: Shirley Henderson, Rufus Sewell, Jaime Murray, David Mitchell
Katherine Minola is a politician who hopes to become the Leader of the Opposition. She’s told that her abrasive personality is bad PR and that it might be good for her image to get married. When penniless nobleman Petruchio shows up, interested at first in Katherine’s money, sparks fly as Katherine seems to have met her match. The relationship and battle of wills bring big surprises for both parties.
Adapted by: Peter Bowker
Directed: Ed Fraiman
Setting: At Dream Park inclusive leisure facility
Cast: Bill Paterson, Imelda Staunton, Zoe Tapper, Tom Ellis, Rupert Evans
Theo and Polly visit Dream Park inclusive leisure facility to celebrate the engagement of their daughter Hermia to James. The engagement party is, much to the irritable Theo’s horror, disrupted by Hermia’s true love Xander. Despite their own disagreements, the fairy rulers of the woods around Dream Park, Titania and Oberon, have a duty to ensure a happy ending, so Oberon gets Puck — portrayed as a sort of magical wide boy — to try to sort things out with “love juice” eyedrops, while Oberon and Theo discuss their marriages.
Links and Bits
Charlee was angry . . . 
This one is the biggie. The classic Shakespeare film that won all the awards and everyone loved. The British-American romantic comedy-drama was released in 1998 and centres around the fictitious love affair between Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), with many characters based on real historical figures. Set in 1593 it shows Shakespeare writing his classic Romeo and Juliet and there are many references to his other works as well. It remains a popular movie with a 93% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, and at the time won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. Some big names starred in at as well including Judi Dench, Martin Clunes, and Geoffrey Rush. While not that historically accurate it is an interesting and enjoyable film, it was one of my earliest exposures to Shakespeare as a kid and I loved it.
Starring Rhys Ifans as Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, this political thriller and historical drama looks at whether de Vere could be the real author of the Shakespeare plays. I am going to talk more about the authorship debate in a later post so I won’t go into it too much here, but it is a curious claim people have made. De Vere is depicted as a literary prodigy and Elizabeth I’s occasional lover, and many of the events are highly dramatised. Where Shakespeare comes into play is that De Vere uses him as a frontman to have his plays and poems performed. For all the controversy and conspiracy theories, I actually liked this film. It was a compelling case but one deeply flawed and one that did not sway my opinion. So much of the argument is based on ignoring key facts, but despite that, it was interesting.
As a lover of the TV series Horrible Histories I was excited to hear the principal performers from it were making a movie about Shakespeare. This adventure-comedy film is a fictitious version of a young Shakespeare’s search for fame and fortune and tries to explain what happened during Shakespeare’s lost years. When Queen Elizabeth I wants a play written Shakespeare sees his chance, and with an evil plot to foil as well there is plenty of excitement and humour on offer. The six lead actors play multiple roles, just like on Horrible Histories, and while unfortunately there are no musical numbers to enjoy, the laughter and cheekiness is prevalent. Mathew Baynton stars as Shakespeare, with Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rockard, and Ben Willbond alongside him.
