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Too Much Shakespeare
So this week I took the girls - who are now 9 and almost 7 - to their first tragedy, Macbeth. I hope to write up that show shortly, once the organizers get me some names so I can give credit.
Anyway...my girls didn't love it. Too many people died. Which is to be expected, since this is their first real tragedy. They told me that this was certainly Shakespeare's grossest play.
"Well it's one of them," said I, "But certainly not the grossest. I think that would have to be Titus Andronicus."
"Why is that one gross?"
"That one is so gross I'm not even going to tell you how gross it is."
"Do people die?"
"Oh, yes. People do worse than die."
"Tell us."
"Well this one guy kills this other guy, right?"
"Yeah..."
"And then he chops him up into little pieces ..."
"Ok, stop."
"...and then he bakes them into a pie..."
"Stop."
"...and then he makes the guy's mother eat the pie."
"Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop"
"Told you."
4 comments:
Haha oww, how lovely!
But, honestly, I was 19 and I felt the same way about Titus. But nowadays I adore it.
Your kids are the best :D
i am sorry the girls didn't "love" it. i actually expected they would not, but learning that shakespeare isn't all fairies and ariel is rather important.
and ... my 14 year old son wants to do titus andronicus, so you can just imagine what a few years may do to your child's sensibilities.
I got to spend the week at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. In the past 5 days I've seen Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III, R & J, then I watched a movie of Loves Labours Lost and then another live performance of The Tempest. Is there such a thing as too much Shakespeare? Next summer the Utah Shakespeare Festival is doing Titus Andronicus. It should be interesting. I've never seen that one live.
When the nurse gets killed I've had visceral reactions from the audience, and unfortunately they were more "AWESOME" than "GROSS"
Tyler Moss
Artistic Director,
The Shakespeare Forum
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