My inner Shakespeare

My High School english literature teacher was ineffective in encouraging or inspiring my class and me to appreciate the works of William Shakespeare. She insisted we read and learn Macbeth, a dark and twisted play that was a poor choice to encourage teenaged students to learn Shakespeare. It wasn’t until after I was married that I saw on cable, I believe HBO, Hamlet with Glenn Close and Mel Gibson. I saw it because of the actors, but had difficulty in following the dialog as it is written in old english. William Shakespeare was an old englishman. But I was intrigued in that I kind of followed along because of the acting even though the dialog was confusing. So, I bought the play from the local bookstore and read it. Gosh dern it, I felt as though I was reading the King James version of the bible. So I watched the movie again, HBO had a habit of runnung certain movies over and over in a month. I still got caught up in the confusing dialog. So I went to the bookstore again and bought the cliff notes for Hamlet. I started to get a better understanding. Then I watched the movie again. But there were still nuances that I didn’t get, so I bought the college expanded cliff notes that had the play on the left side and the modern translation on the right. Now, when I saw the movie again, I saw the plot, several sub plots, some smaller stories within the story and of course the play within the play. I have not read the play or seen the enactment of it in a while but I have a good recollection of it still today.

Fast forward a few years and I read The Merchant of Venice. I watched the movie with Al Pachino as Shilock, then read the play, then watched a different version of the play then read the play and OH my gosh! Not just a story, but several. Gold, Silver and Lead boxes reviele your fate and Shilock never gets his pound of flesh.

Next was the Taming of the Shrew (Kiss me Kate the movie is based on this play) and I cry when I read the St Crispian speach in Henry V scene IV iii which was in the movie The Renaissance Man with Danny DeVito.

So I want to try my hand at channeling my inner Shakespeare in 1 quick scene

Stage: a front room of a small yet comfortable house. Center stage is a fireplace with a fire going. A nice small fire.

In the scene, stage right is an older man in a rocking chair. It is evening. The sound of a clock on the mantle ticking away the seconds. A light rain outside with a gentle pitter patter of the rain hitting the leaves of the tree . A man comes to the door, the older man in the rocker motions him in as they know one another. The visitor, takes off his wet coat and hangs it near the front door and takes a seat to the left of the old man. Not a word is spoken but both men are gently rocking in the chairs staring at the fire. The visitor takes the fireplace tongs and removes a coal from the fire and places it on the hearth were the light slowly disappears and is now getting cold. The visitor then grabs the coal and places it back in the fire were it reignites and glows as it once did adding to the warmth of the fire. The old man looks at his visitor and says “OK pastor, I will be back in church next Sunday”. With that, the visitor stood up, winked at the old man, put on his coat and left with nare a word.

End scene…Curtain

Well, not Shakespeare worthy, but Those with eyes will see. Those with ears will hear.

Revelations 3:16