12/31/2022 0 Comments Shakespeare in love cast![]() Can Will write the play we know the world needs, and will Viola be able to act in it? The two fall in love, which enrages her suitor Lord Wessex (Daniel Frederiksen), and puts the whole company in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Viola de Lesseps (Claire van der Boom) desperately wants to act on the stage that disallows women, so she disguises herself as a man and auditions for Shakespeare’s play. ![]() Will (Michael Wahr) is struggling to provide a play to theatre impresario Philip Henslowe (John Leary) and promises him Romeo and Ethel, a Pirate’s Daughter, despite the fact he hasn’t written a word. The story is pure confection perfectly realised. And there is much more of the poetry here: large swathes of Romeo and Juliet, including two versions of the bedroom scene and an exquisite rendition of the lovers’ deaths not to mention the overabundance of quotes from other plays that lie scattered about like gems brought to life in the least likely of places. The film always seemed like a story about the bard for people who didn’t get or much care for the bard, but here the mashups of Shakespearean tropes, the inside gags and reverential winks, even the gross inconsistencies and anachronisms, all combine into a love sonnet for the man and the endurance of his works. The thing it does most is put the Shakespeare into Shakespeare in Love. The play had to feel like a legitimate (fine word, legitimate) work in its own right, so it’s pleasing to see it surpassing the original in so many ways. Stoppard is a master playwright when he isn’t writing screenplays, so Hall had a daunting job on his hands. ![]() The screenplay was initially written by Marc Norman, who came up with some clever ideas of his own, but it truly came to life when passed through the genius of Tom Stoppard, who’d had such a hit with the Shakespeare-themed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Playwright Lee Hall isn’t merely indulging in hyperbole when he says that in the theatre “the story had found its natural home”. But Shakespeare in Love feels different somehow. They are always curious monstrosities, leaning on their theatricality while nodding furiously to their cinematic sources. Melbourne audiences have seen several in recent years, from Malthouse’s Solaris and Melancholia to MTC’s own North by Northwest and Double Indemnity. While it’s far more common for plays to be adapted into films, there is an increasing trend for films being turned into plays.
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