SEMINAR PROFILE

H11 -
Kings and Clowns in Shakespeare: Text and film study of Richard III and A Midsummer Night's Dream

Tragedy and Comedy present different plots and treat different persons. Artistic, social, and moral designations of high and low, and the reversal of these stations, are crucial in both genres. No playwright was more subtle or subversive in staging those reversals than Shakespeare, and these two plays, The Tragedy of King Richard III and the sex-farce A Midsummer Night's Dream, show that subversive subtly with an extravagance and a virtuosity rare even for Shakespeare. We will read the plays closely to see how their tragic and comic worlds are created verbally, and then watch Ian McKellen's 1995 Richard III, and Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline, to see how performance brings the words alive. Kings and Clowns may seem closer to each other at the end of the class that they did at the beginning.

Scholar:

Theo Theoharis

Location:

Harvard Hillel

Dates:

3/6/2017, 3/13/2017

H11 -	Kings and Clowns in Shakespeare: Text and film study of Richard III and A Midsummer Night's Dream

	Tragedy and Comedy present different plots and treat different persons. Artistic, social, and moral designations of high and low, and the reversal of these stations, are crucial in both genres. No playwright was more subtle or subversive in staging those reversals than Shakespeare, and these two plays, The Tragedy of King Richard III and the sex-farce A Midsummer Night's Dream, show that subversive subtly with an extravagance and a virtuosity rare even for Shakespeare. We will read the plays closely to see how their tragic and comic worlds are created verbally, and then watch Ian McKellen's 1995 Richard III, and Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline, to see how performance brings the words alive. Kings and Clowns may seem closer to each other at the end of the class that they did at the beginning.

		Scholar:	Theo Theoharis
		Location:	Harvard Hillel
		Dates:	3/6/2017, 3/13/2017