Happy New Year! I truly hope that your 2021 is far better than your 2020. I have a happy and hopeful message for you today, about this coming year. Over the holidays, I caught up on some movies. There is one in particular that I highly recommend to you--the biographical movie Tolkien, starring Nicholas Hoult as J.R.R. Tolkien, and Lily Collins as the love of his life. The whole movie is great. Hoult and Collins are just wonderful. You really believe that they are in love. The movie mostly depicts Tolkien's childhood and his youth, from which he drew inspiration for his great f ..read more

  There is a new film adaptation coming of Hamlet, with Noomi Rapace cast as the Prince of Denmark. Noomi Rapace photo from Wikimedia Commons Eric Broms The film’s director, Ali Abbasi, promises that the film will be “so insane and so bloody” that it will make Shakespeare “turn in his grave”. These people do not understand Shakespeare, and they have no business making Hamlet. I think that Noomi Rapace is a fine actress, but this is the worst decision of her career. This is sadly yet another case of people who are going to vandalize Shakespeare. Even worse, there seems to b ..read more

  I have something special for you today. I just watched the new film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield—starring Dev Patel as David, and directed by Armando Iannucci.  It is spectacular. It is such an explosively funny and hilariously madcap film. I was laughing so much, I had to stop the film twice to take breaks. I can not recommend it highly enough. Here is the trailer for that film: It made me wonder what “Copperfield” means, and why Dickens chose that name. I have a theory. I think I know what it means. And I think it is relevant to what Shakespeare says ..read more

  Happy Thanksgiving! If Shakespeare were alive now, I think that he would enjoy Thanksgiving a lot.  The idea of family members gathering together, and giving thanks, with lots of food and drink, must have appealed to him. Shakespeare spent many years working in London, away from his wife and his three children, and his parents and his siblings. He must have missed birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and other special events.  He was not there to watch his children grow up. It must have been quite a burden for him, to be away so much. Even worse, Shakespeare was probably not ..read more

  “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” - Macbeth Macbeth and Banquo with the Witches on the heath Henry Fuseli Can you tell the difference between what is fair and what is foul? How about good and bad—or right and wrong?  Do you know who is a hero and who is a villain? There are times in history when people become very confused—when it is difficult to know the difference between things and people. Shakespeare knew this problem very well. He writes about it across many plays. He frequently challenges us to figure it out for ourselves.  He does make it hard sometimes ..read more

  Who was Shakespeare’s strongest and bravest hero? Who was his Superman? Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet First, it helps to know some of the heroes which Shakespeare had to choose from. If we want to understand who Shakespeare was and what he wrote, we should try to know who inspired him. In his day, Shakespeare did not have Black Panther, Batman, Captain Marvel, Spiderman, Iron Man, Thor, or the Hulk. I think he would absolutely love Wonder Woman. Shakespeare admired strong women—such as Cleopatra, Juliet, Beatrice, Kate the shrew, Cordelia. Tamora, the Queen of the Goths ..read more

  Do you have feelings for someone? Is there someone you like a lot? How do you know if that person likes you? How do you know if the feelings you have are real? How do you know if you are in love? What should you do? Should you tell the other person you have feelings for them? Sometimes it is very hard to know what is good or bad, what is true or false, what is love and what is not love. We often don’t do things that we should do, because we are too confused. We sometimes do things that we should not do, because we are too confused. Shakespeare has some answers for you. He put ..read more

  I saw this article about a very rare 2,000-year-old gold coin, made in Rome, to celebrate the assassination of Julius Caesar. As the article points out, this coin was “minted as a 'naked and shameless' celebration of the statesman's death.” These so-called “Ides of March” coins were made in silver and in gold. It is fascinating to think that while some people in Rome, by making the coins, were rejoicing the assassination of Caesar, the Roman Republic was in a death spiral. This coin is a great insight into the history surrounding Caesar’s murder—and what Shakespeare is saying wi ..read more

  Why should we love Falstaff? Eduard Von Grutzner Falstaff with sword, 1905 The answer is really rather simple. He loves life. In fact, Falstaff has the greatest love of life of any character in all of Shakespeare’s plays. In his own way, and as best as he can, Falstaff is living life to the fullest. Eduard Grutzner Falstaff with big wine jar and cup, 1896 Could he do better? Should he do better? Of course. All of us need improvement. But Falstaff has done rather well for himself. After all, he is hanging out with Prince Hal—the future King of England. If he is fai ..read more

  I just saw Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words—the Royal Ballet film production of Shakespeare’s play. I truly can not recommend it highly enough. It is wonderful. I love opera, and classical music, but I had never seen the ballet before, and was not sure what to expect. It far exceeded my expectations. The music is great, the edited version of the story is great, and the filmmaking is masterful and superb. I have long considered Franco Zeffirelli’s film adaptation of the play to be the very best screen version of the play.  This is better.  Of course, there is none ..read more