Perhaps we need a warning label whenever post-modernist, politically-correct, pro-marginalized- empowering, excessively earnest academics insist on deconstructing drama and re-purposing it into some sort of ghastly, dull and incomprehensible doctoral thesis ... "Abandon all hope of enjoyment all ye who enter here; Vanity, all is vanity"
Yes, Shakespeare will still be around, completely unaffected, when all that remains of the 50/50 Shakespeare Project™ is a footnote in some history of the Crazy Years...
Hamlet [To Ophelia]: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia: No, my lord!
Hamlet: I mean, my head upon your lap.
Ophelia: Ay, my lord.
Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters?
Ophelia: I think nothing, my lord.
Hamlet: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
Ophelia: What is, my lord?
Hamlet “Nothing.”
Ophelia: You are merry, my lord.
This pun is not only bawdy, in some countries in contemporary Europe it might be considered hate speech. In the United States it’s more than enough to get Hamlet cancelled.
Perhaps we need a warning label whenever post-modernist, politically-correct, pro-marginalized- empowering, excessively earnest academics insist on deconstructing drama and re-purposing it into some sort of ghastly, dull and incomprehensible doctoral thesis ... "Abandon all hope of enjoyment all ye who enter here; Vanity, all is vanity"
I assume that Bill the Bard will survive this indignity.
Yes, Shakespeare will still be around, completely unaffected, when all that remains of the 50/50 Shakespeare Project™ is a footnote in some history of the Crazy Years...
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2:
Hamlet [To Ophelia]: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia: No, my lord!
Hamlet: I mean, my head upon your lap.
Ophelia: Ay, my lord.
Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters?
Ophelia: I think nothing, my lord.
Hamlet: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
Ophelia: What is, my lord?
Hamlet “Nothing.”
Ophelia: You are merry, my lord.
This pun is not only bawdy, in some countries in contemporary Europe it might be considered hate speech. In the United States it’s more than enough to get Hamlet cancelled.
It’s amazing the ridiculous company can perform Shakespeare at all. See,
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/4/23/8479871/shakespeare-dirty-jokes
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000PLXD3K/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=