Re: Who wrote Holden Caulfield
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Wed, 04 Nov 1998 11:18:55 +1100
> > Are you crazy? The new Romeo and Juliet was fake! fake! fake!
> I've seen a high school do a better Romeo and Juliet. When that movie
> came out I just knew that Shakespeare was rolling in his grave.
Go back to Shakepeare - that is, the bare bones, the text. Then imagine the
middle of the day in a stinking Elizabethan theatre with idiots throwing
chestnuts at each other, gettting drunk in the aisles and trying to chat up
people. Then think of the bear baiting next door and all the noise and
other things that you as an actor/playwright have to compete with to keep
the audience's attention; to keep bums on seats as they say. Then think of
the plays - all the weird juxtapositions of high camp comedy slapstick with
extreme tragedy, a song in the middle of nowhere that has little to do with
the narrative - and most of all, a young (and obviously male) actor doing
his best as Juliet to perform a tragic death.
Shakespeare was simply his generation's Steven Speilberg. There's no better
analogy for it. In the end, he didn't even believe he was creating high
art. He was just making a living.
P.S. `From their mouths naught doth flow/But Juliet and Romeo'
- Quote in early 17th century made by a townsperson sick and tired of
hearing how cool Shakespeare's `Romeo and Juliet' is (true!)
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest