Tragedies

After having a little chat with Sherri, my goal to see all of the Bard's plays has kicked into high gear once more. I just bought a ticket to see Othello on Wednesday. This means that I'll be re-reading the play tomorrow and posting my thoughts on Tuesday. I'll then see the play and post my thoughts about that. I'm excited!

As I mentioned earlier, the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival is in full swing in the city of Brotherly Love. A great opportunity to get two plays out of the way quickly! Othello and The Taming of the Shrew are on deck this year, and I am quite excited about both.

However, I just found out that the Lantern Theater company is also putting on a staging of 'The Taming of the Shrew', which it would seem isn't associated with the Festival (sad, though, that they aren't putting on a different one of the plays so I could kill 3 birds with one stone). The interesting thing about the Lantern's production is that the entire cast is male. Why is this so interesting?

When Shakespeare's plays were originally staged all the parts were played by men, including the women. This is an opportunity to see one of his works in the way that it was meant to be seen. I imagine that some of the crossdressing will be used for humor, but I'm OK with that. I mean, it is a comedy after-all!

Therefore, I think I'll be seeing the Lantern's Shrew and the Festival's Othello.

I'm getting excited, people.

The Plays of William Shakespeare (in alphabetical order):

• All’s Well That Ends Well (1602)
• Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
• As You Like It (1599)
• Comedy of Errors (1589)
• Coriolanus (1607)
• Cymbeline (1609)
• Hamlet (1600)
• Henry IV, Part I (1597)
• Henry IV, Part II (1597)
• Henry V (1598)
• Henry VI, Part I (1591)
• Henry VI, Part II (1590)
• Henry VI, Part III (1590)
• Henry VIII (1612)
• Julius Caesar (1599)
• King John (1596)
• King Lear (1605)
• Love’s Labour’s Lost (1594)
• Macbeth (1605)
• Measure for Measure (1604)
• Merchant of Venice (1596)
• Merry Wives of Windsor (1600)
• Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)
• Much Ado about Nothing (1598)
• Othello (1604)
• Pericles (1608)
• Richard II (1595)
• Richard III (1592)
• Romeo and Juliet (1594)
• Taming of the Shrew (1593)
• Tempest (1611)
• Timon of Athens (1607)
• Titus Andronicus (1593)
• Troilus and Cressida (1601)
• Twelfth Night (1599)
• Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594)
• Winter’s Tale (1610)