Since you ask I'll say my 2p worth about Shakespeare. I did Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra and the Tempest at A level and they have really stayed with me like a gift. The thing that has stayed with me is not so much the plots but the themes that run through plays and the way these link with the poetry (esp metaphor). My advice would be to maybe a) watch movie or play at theatre, b) read A level or even GCSE study notes as it will pull out the good stuff then c) read again. tbh honest without being taught it Im not sure I would have spotted all the good stuff. My favourite lines, which probably won't look that good on paper but have stayed with me:
'In my salad days, when I was green in judgement' (Cleo, as a mature woman, looking back on her youth)
'Sleep, which knits up the ravelled sleeve of care' (Macbeth, in the context of lack of sleep psychosis since he killed the king)
'Come, unsex me here' (Lady M, deciding to go full in on ambition by any means necessary).
There is a version of Macbeth on streaming at the moment that was made in 2015 that has a somewhat big name cast
Fassbender
Couttilard
Sean Harris
Paddy Considine
but for whatever reason I really didn't enjoy it, the sound mixing was terrible so had to watch with Closed Captions and it seemed to really drag on and on
Hi Martin (Dave Saunders here)
Since you ask I'll say my 2p worth about Shakespeare. I did Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra and the Tempest at A level and they have really stayed with me like a gift. The thing that has stayed with me is not so much the plots but the themes that run through plays and the way these link with the poetry (esp metaphor). My advice would be to maybe a) watch movie or play at theatre, b) read A level or even GCSE study notes as it will pull out the good stuff then c) read again. tbh honest without being taught it Im not sure I would have spotted all the good stuff. My favourite lines, which probably won't look that good on paper but have stayed with me:
'In my salad days, when I was green in judgement' (Cleo, as a mature woman, looking back on her youth)
'Sleep, which knits up the ravelled sleeve of care' (Macbeth, in the context of lack of sleep psychosis since he killed the king)
'Come, unsex me here' (Lady M, deciding to go full in on ambition by any means necessary).
There is a version of Macbeth on streaming at the moment that was made in 2015 that has a somewhat big name cast
Fassbender
Couttilard
Sean Harris
Paddy Considine
but for whatever reason I really didn't enjoy it, the sound mixing was terrible so had to watch with Closed Captions and it seemed to really drag on and on