Re: The Demonization of Shakespeare

On 15/07/2025 03:11 AM, Cryptoengineer wrote:

On 7/8/2025 6:28 PM, Robert Carnegie wrote:

On 08/04/2025 16:49, Paul S Person wrote:

<snippo Shakespeare examples of what the alt-right calls "woke">
<I should note that is has always been my understanding (probably from
something I was told or read) that Romeo and Juliet would have been
about 13, but who can say for sure?>

>
I seem to remember that in several U.S. states,
that isn't a problem.
>
However, "Juliet" originally is a boy actor
in a dress.  This could be brought up.
>
In some British actor's recent memoir that
I heard on radio, I've forgotten who, the
school drama was similarly cast, since that's
all that they had.  I also don't remember if
he was Juliet or Cleopatra or Lady Macbeth,
but apparently the male lead role was a
good-looking young man.
>
Ian McKellen?
>
Gregory Doran?

>
Last night, I watched an episode of 'The Sandman'
in which there is included parts of a
Shakespeare-contemporaneous production of 'A
Midsummer Night's Dream' The female parts are
played by young men.
>
I know this is historically accurate, but I don't
remember seeing it done this way in any other modern
film or TV adaption.

Maybe not quite "modern" enough, but all Elizabethan theatrical conventions were portrayed accurately in the ATV / ITC six-part drama series of 1978 (made in 1977): "Will Shakespeare". This was quite clear about the casting of boys as female characters. Jack Rice (played by Ron Cook) wanted never to play anything but female parts.
I know it has been shown in the USA because I managed to obtain a university-published set of VHS NTSC recordings of the series a decade or two back. That item was eventually rendered redundant by the release of the series on a UK DVD box-set a few years ago.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Shakespeare_(TV_series)>