Struts & frets

So the loveliest little thing happened at Vericon.  They traditionally finish up with an auction for charity, always hilarious, and full of delightful serious or silly things I can't afford to bid for, as they’re driven up into the stratosphere within minutes.  This year Thrud donated a region-free boxed set of the BBC history plays from the early 80s (RII, 1 & 2 HIV, HV, & RIII), plus a very rare Korean (!) set of of the Henry VIs.  I dropped out pretty early, as the bids had overshot my means—and an ad hoc consortium of writers and students spontaneously bid for it on my behalf, and presented it to me.  I was so touched.  Thank you, you kind people.

On the principle that temptation avoided means money saved for other extravagances, I then went and ordered the Globe set of all their filmed productions to date—21 discs + book!—at a fraction of what they'd cost individually.  I was afraid they'd come to their senses and quadruple the price.

That box just came, and I’ve been gloating quietly, and planning a great Shakesfest with my old friend the Culture Vulture.

Looking at my grand list of Shakespeare on DVD, I'm quickened:   so close to filling in the gaps.  Sadly, the full BBC set is Region 2, and the boxlets for New Atlanteans don’t include their Dutch-painting Cymbeline with Helen Mirren or their Pericles.  Damn it.  I don’t own an Othello or a Coriolanus either, I blush to say.  I really liked the NTLive productions of those (Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear; Tom Hiddleston), but the National Theatre is unlikely to release them on disc:  they’re jealous of their rights.  They’ve done some absolutely stunning things over the years, and I would buy the hell out of them, if they gave me half a chance.  Shockingly, I don’t own a Lear.   I've seen some brave performances over the years, but never the one true production.  On the whole, I’d like to find the old black-and-white Scofield film—Jack MacGowran was a wonderful Fool.  And I suppose I ought to acquire a Merchant of Venice and a Measure for Measure—any recommendations?  Also missing:  Troilus and Cressida and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

I’d love to get my hands on Prospero’s Books, but the transfer is universally damned as appalling.

And I adore embedded Shakespeare:  that Restoration Othello in Stage Beauty, as stylized as kabuki; that desperately off-kilter Hamlet driving In the Bleak Midwinter; that travestied Romeo & Juliet in Nicholas Nickleby; all of Slings & Arrows.  I so wish the full plays had been filmed (along with that Mikado in Topsy-Turvy—Martin Savage’s Koko is a thing of beauty).  Any others I've missed?

What Shakespeare on film do you absolutely love?  Anathematize?

Nine