Ok, download this interview with Ron Rosenbaum right now. I haven’t read “The Shakespeare Wars”, but even listening to the man speak makes my face hurt because I’m smiling from ear to ear and nodding my head up and down furiously at my computer speakers. From his personal explanation that seeing Peter Brooks(?) production of Midsummer’s “changed his life….made him into a Shakespearian, like a secret society…people who are forever forlorned, forever seeking an experience to equal it,” to his simply exquisite description of the two endings of King Lear, and how a simple reference to a feather is what makes the play truly Shakespearean. Even without seeing the entire play, somehow he manages to convey something that in just one line could still bring tears to your eyes. I am deeply and truly fascinated. Go now. Listen.
“Every line of Shakespeare is like an atom…it can release infinite energies, if we can split it open.”
How do you split it open? How do you speak it, stage it, what version do you use…? (More furious nodding of head at speakers…)
I love this guy.