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Sebastian S.
The past week in Stratford-Upon-Avon, I experienced different lectures, plays, and sites which helped my understanding of Shakespeare’s life and his writing. Specifically, Shakespeare’s language, something that was previously very baffling and that I wished that I had a better comprehension of, became clearer. So, too, did Shakespeare’s life that I had known very little about. With that newfound knowledge, I have acquired greater appreciation for his work.
The Merchant of Venice is the play that we were focused on during the week, and we saw it twice. The production was set in Las Vegas, a city famous for its atmosphere of greed, lust, and gambling, making it a fitting set for the play. Watching the play made the text considerably more understandable, as it should. Having it set in a recognizable, contemporary place made what the actors said and did even more so. Shakespeare’s language became more and more familiar as it was acted out in a familiar setting, which didn’t take away from the actual text any more than changing the word “ducats” to “dollars.” It was good, though that the other plays were not shifted in time or setting for the reason that “ducats” was changed. The more radically the play’s set is changed, the more it drifts from Shakespeare’s words and meanings. Even if the play gets more understandable, it does so by getting away from its actual self. So, one up-to-date location for one play was enough.
Visiting sites like Shakespeare’s birthplace and the Tudor farm demonstrated things about his life and times that I hadn’t ever looked into or learned about. Seeing a glimpse of what life was like for him and other people during that time made me appreciate the plays he wrote more. Obviously, there are many ways of entertaining ourselves during this time, but back then, the plays were some of the only ones. It was that, or things like hiring prostitutes and watching a bear get killed by dogs. Shakespeare writing plays was a way to entertain the people while they still paid attention to ethics. The lectures about the theaters, actors, and plays in general also helped to see what things were like back then. After seeing a little of Shakespeare’s times, I now grasp the plays and value them more. That feeling was then furthered by the Birthplace Trust’s lectures about the plays. Without them, they would have been much harder to understand, mainly Cardenio and The City Madam, two plays which I knew nothing about. The talks on the origins, setting, and plotlines of those two were crucial to any understanding of them I might have had.
What understanding of the plays was not from the lectures or my own personal comprehension was from the discussions afterward. The discussions assisted my insight into the meanings of the plays. The discussion after The Merchant of Venice drove me to look forward immensely to the next viewing, because I wanted to apply what we talked about to the play and comprehend it even more.
Before the trip, my grasp of Shakespeare’s text was less than thorough, and my knowledge of his life and times was almost nonexistent. But after the plays, discussions, sight-seeing, and so on, I now appreciate and can make sense of his works. Without visiting Stratford’s Birthplace Trust, I would still be lost.