Shakespeare:
From Page to Stage;
Screenplay to Screen
Chapter Five
Bevington, Welsh and Greenwood
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CHOICE
Choice is a crucial term for theatre and film
artists
a. A script or screenplay is
only a blueprint for a production
b. Many commentators feel
that Shakespeare anticipated
certain cinematic
techniques...quick cuts...interior monologues,
etc.
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The Verbal and the Visual
The stage is basically a verbal medium while
film is visual.
Onstage, the script happens now and is fresh
each time the script is performed WHEREAS in
a screenplay, there is a fixed time both in the
making and of the finished product.
Onstage, the number of performers is limited
and in a film that number is unlimited.
In a play the audience is integral to the
occasion as a group while the film audience is
comprised of individuals. (See text p. 49)
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Clearly, film directors and stage
directors work in very different
media and Shakespeare’s directors
must take these differences into
account when bringing his works to
life
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Viewers should not judge the
success of a film on its fidelity to the
play. For example, the opening
shots of the countryside in Tuscany
in Branagh’s MUCH ADO ABOUT
NOTHING are good examples of
photographic images substituting
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verbal ones.
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Because film is more realistic, the
poetic description of Ophelia’s
drowning in HAMLET seems
inappropriate for film.
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Stage Artists at Work
The Actors
Actors were performing before playwrights, directors
and designers...Strictly speaking, an actor is one who
performs or impersonates.
The first actors evolved from priests or shamans...
According to Aristotle’s POETICS, Humans are the most
imitative of living creatures.
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According to JAQUES :
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely
players. They have their exits and entrances, And one man
in his time plays many parts.”
AS YOU LIKE IT II.7
(138-141)
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Approaches to Acting
Traditionally actors approach their craft in two broad categories
External (vocal and physical)
Internal (psychological)
Best of all for our purposes are INTEGRATED actors
accomplished at both approaches
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Actors approach the text from
four directions…
•
•
•
•
Script or the words on the page
The Context of the words
Subtext is what the words imply
Intention is the reason a character
must say those lines
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THE DIRECTOR
Historically, DIRECTORS are among the last artists to
enter the theatre. Today they are a potent force in the
shaping of the production.
Still, theatre directors do
not necessarily enjoy the
absolute power of film
directors.
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Directors wear many hats but have four
primary tasks…
1. Devise the directorial approach and develop a
CONCEPT
2. Coordinating the artist’s contributions
3. Creating an aesthetic experience
4. Helping the actors
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FOUR CATEGORIES OF
CONCEPTS FOR SHAKESPEARE
Historically - Zeffirelli's ROMEO AND JULIET (1968)
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Modern dress
John Gielgud’s HAMLET with Richard Burton (1963)
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Alternate historical period
Kenneth Branagh’s MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1993)
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Universal timeless
Julie Taymor’s TITUS (1999)
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The designers
Theatre is a “Seeing Place”
implying that the visual
dimension is an important part of
the audience’s experience.
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Designer’s challenge…
• be consistent with directorial concept
• support the work of the actors
• help establish the degree of reality or
theatricality
• provide audience with relevant
information
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Designer’s tools…
•
•
•
•
Research
Plans, models, drawings
Renderings, sketches, swatches
Color and texture
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FILM ARTISTS AT WORK
1.
2.
3.
4.
Process of film-making is more complex
Preproduction and story boards
Shooting
Post-production: Editing
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Director’s responsibility in film is
for emphasis, quality and impact.
Olivier’s HAMLET (1948)
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Approaches to Shakespeare on film.
THEATRICAL MODE – Olivier’s HENRY V
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Realistic Mode
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Filmic Mode
Orson Welle’s OTHELLO (1961)
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THE SCREENWRITER
Some adaptations are conservative as in the works of Kenneth
Branagh and Lawrence Olivier.
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Or radical like Peter Greenaway
Greenaway’s PROSPERO’S BOOKS (1991)
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The Actors
Films tend to create popular stars and celebrities…
1929
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1935
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The Film Director
The film director is in charge, not Shakespeare. Thus
the variety of adaptations from Kurosawa’s Throne of
Blood, Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books and Orson
Welle’s Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight).
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The cinematographer
He holds the camera or supervises those who do, the chief artist in
charge of both the camera and the lighting. Some great collaborations
in film history including Akira Kurosawa and Asakazu Nakai -or- Ingmar
Bergman and Sven Nykvist
Cinematic conventions require a variety of shots
Close-up
Language may be deleted in favor of facial
expression
Characters are more significant up close
Attention can be shifted from main characters
Can turn soliloquy into voice-over
Long shots (deep focus) covers big actions and landscapes
Medium shots
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Film Design
Art directors shoot on location or build
sets
COMPOSERS can enhance mood or
build suspense
Lighting designers make a film feel
coherent visually
Special effects allow countless
possibilities
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COSTUMERS work is more
lavish and detailed than onstage.
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Editing is painstaking and timeconsuming. Editors work
closely with directors.
WAR HORSE was the first
movie that Spielberg and his
editor “cut” digitally.
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Close-up: SILENT SHAKESPEARE
The first talkie of a Shakespeare was
1929’s TAMING OF THE SHREW with
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford
The first film of a Shakespeare film was Sir
Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s 80-second film of
the death of KING JOHN
Earliest silent films were shorts since the
materials were expensive and the medium
was new
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In 1900, Sara Bernhardt was filmed playing HAMLET. This and
earlier films were single camera films.
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From 1908-1912, Vitagraph produced a series of 15-minute
one-reel silent films including ROMEO AND JULIET, JULIUS
CAESAR and KING LEAR.
In 1916 Theda Bara did an American ROMEO AND JULIET.
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First feature-length Shakespeare film was HAMLET (1913)
which ran for 59 minutes and starred Sir Johnston ForbesRobertson
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A five-reel RICHARD III starring
Frederick B. Warde was made in 1912
A 1922 German OTHELLO was
shot by Dimitiri Buchowetzki
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PETER BROOK, The Conjurer
See text, pages 66-67
Arguably the most significant stage director
of latter 20th century. By 1950s Brook had
established himself on the English stage.
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When Peter Hall transformed the Shakespeare
Memorial Theatre to the Royal Shakespeare
Company in the 1960s, Brooks was hired as an
associate director.
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Brook’s 1970 production of A
MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
is one of the seminal works of
the 20th century stage. It changed
the way Shakespeare was done.
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Throughout his lifetime, Brook has
sought to find an immediate
theatre…an approach he
discusses at some length in his
book THE EMPTY SPACE.
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For Brooks, Shakespeare’s
plays are a synthesis…
1. A HOLY THEATRE that
celebrates ritual and ceremony
King Lear, 1971
2. A ROUGH THEATRE that is
close to the people in dealing
with men’s actions.
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A word about genres
Genre is a literary term that describes the
classification of a work into a distinctive type based
upon the treatment of its matter, its tone, structure
or perspective
Aristotle was the first to describe tragedy. Roman
ideas of tragedy and comedy affected Elizabethan
writers like Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson.
Shakespeare’s works can similarly be described in
terms of genre
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Hamlet (II.2)
POLONIUS
The best actors in the world,
either for tragedy, comedy,
history, pastoral, pastoralcomical, historical-pastoral,
tragical-historical, tragicalcomical-historical-pastoral,
scene individable, or poem
unlimited: Seneca cannot be too
heavy, nor Plautus too light. For
the law of writ and the
liberty, these are the only men.
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CAUSALITY
Shakespeare’s plays are founded in
CAUSALITY…the recognition that actions
lead to other actions…serious, comic or
historical.
A 
B  C etc.
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Organization by type
Shakespeare’s plays are usually described in these genres
Tragedy (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear)
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Comedy
(The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
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History
(Richard II, Henry V, Richard III)
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Problem Plays
Measure for Measure, All’s Well That Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida
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