July 2024

 

July 2024

 

Here's flowers for you; Hot lavender, mints, savoury, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun And with him rises weeping: these are flowers of middle summer

And middle summer it already is here in Sweden and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. 

 

But sadly, our thoughts still go to the Ukrainians, to Gaza. One day, I hope to be able to quote something about peace, but again, sadly, I repeat what I have repeated for far too long:

‘O war! thou son of hell’ O Putin! O Netanyahu! Thou sons of hell! Our thoughts and support are still needed to the people of Ukraine, and the people of Russian who hate this war, and now the people of Gaza, and the people of Israel who hate the war. Protest in any way you can! And don’t give up hope. ‘True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings.’

In this time of turmoil and hope I give you this familiar promo for the book Shakespeare calling – the book. Indie authors like me always need support, even now when book signings and lectures can again be scheduled. Only on the Internet can I reach people like you, who are interested in Shakespeare would like to support the Shakespeare Calling project. I do so hope you will help me by ordering the book online. Any sales I make of this book will go directly to Doctors without Borders for their work in Ukraine and Gaza as long as the war lasts. Just let me know and I’ll send the money forthwith. You can also order directly from me. Just write me an email. Thank you.

Anyone from Ukraine – send me an email and I will send you the book free of charge. Anyone from Palestine – send me an email and I will send you the book free of charge. I am also sending contributions to Doctors without Borders and other organisations who are helping the Ukraine and Gaza.

The book is available for those of you in Great Britain and parts of Europe on this site:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/9163782626/ref=tmm_hrd_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=1514378301&sr=8-1

 

Also available on http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Calling-book-Ruby-Jand/dp/9163782626/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436073737&sr=1-1&keywords=Ruby+Jand+shakespeare+calling

Or in Sweden

http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789163782626/shakespeare-calling-the-book/

or Adlibris. Or contact the publisher info@vulkan.se

 

I would be thrilled to get an email from you if you bought the book. rubyjandshakespearecalling@gmail.com

 

Shakespeare sightings:

• Julie Hesmondhalgh mentions Shakespeare several times in her brilliant and wonderful book An Actor’s Alphabet – an A to Z of Some Stuff I’ve Learnt and some stuff I’m Still Learning
• An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy – Mrs Barnum had explained Shakespeare to Mukunda, but did that help him know if she had killed her husband or not?
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel – of course there are reference to Shakespeare.
• In the film Hot Fuzz two amateur actors do Romeo and Juliet. The reviews are murderous.

 

Films with a Shakespeare connection seen this month - see reviews on https://rubyjandsfilmblog.blogspot.com/ 

• Vinyan – Rufus Sewell is in The Taming of the Shrew Re-Told
• Colossal - Tim Blake Nelson is in Hamlet.
• Argo - Ben Affleck is in Shakespeare in Love.
• Mama - Jessica Chastain is in Coriolanus.
• A Thousand Kisses Deep - Allan Corduner is in The Merchant of Venice.
• London River - Brenda Blethyn is in Henry VI Part One and King Lear.
• On Chesil Beach - Dominic Cooke is the director of three episodes of The Hollow Crown.
• Walkabout - Jenny Agutter is in Love’s Labour’s Lost.
• Bad Samaritan - David Tennant is in Hamlet, Richard II and Much Ado about Nothing.
• Noah - Anthony Hopkins is in Titus.
• Smoke - Harold Perrineau Jr is in Romeo and Juliet.
• Eden Lake - Michael Fassbender is in Macbeth.
• Uncertainty - Lynn Collins is in The Merchant of Venice.
• A Somewhat Gentle Man - Stellan Skarsgård is in Hamlet.
• Mr Right - Tim Roth is in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
• How I Won the War - Michael Horden is in Cymbeline and King Lear
• Shaun of the Dead - Penelope Wilton is in King Lear and Othello
• Hot Fuzz - Jim Broadbent is in Richard III. Karl Johnson is in The Tempest. Ron Cook is in The Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, The Merry Wives of Windsor

 

Further since last time:

• Started reading aloud to myself: Henry IV Part One
• Watched on DVD: David Tennant’s RSC version of Richard II.
• Wrote and now posted: a new text on Richard II.
• Premiered: our local theatre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (En midsommarnattsdröm). It was a brilliant success!

 

Posted this month:

• This report
• This scept’red stone, this precious stone in Richard II Shakespeare Calling: This scept’red isle, this precious stone in Richard II (rubyjandshakespearecalling.blogspot.com)

 

Shakespeare Calling – the book is promoted by http://shakespearesallskapet.se/

 

Read more about my alter ego’s books, in one of which Shakespeare appears live and in person, on:

• https://themerlinchronicles.wordpress.com/ruby-and-shakespeare/shakespeare-calling-the-book/
• https://themerlinchronicles.wordpress.com/ruby-and-shakespeare/spoiler-merlin-and-shakespeare/

 

 

 

This scept’red isle, this precious stone in Richard II

 

This scept’red isle, this precious stone 

in 

Richard II 

                      When did England become England? In 1016 the Kingdom of England became part of the union with Denmark and Norway under Cnut the Great. So, by name England but still not alone. 1066 is of course the date we all remember, when England became French, sort of. With Henry II (reigned 1154-1189) the kings became more English in nature. Ireland was invaded in 1169 (that went well, didn’t it?). Edward I added Wales to the kingdom (lucky Wales, eh?) and Edward III made England a military power and developed its parliament. Thank you, Wikipedia. You’re a gem.

                      So we come to Richard II, grandson of Edward III but not even born in England. He was born in France, as was his second wife Isabella. So already there we have a connection between England and the world. That is part of the paradox. Is England of the world or not?

In John of Gaunt’s oft cited monolog on how Richard is threatening the kingdom he lauds

 

‘this scept’red isle…this England…

…This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea…

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm this England…

Renowned…far from home,

For Christian service and true chivalry…

…this dear, dear land

Dear for her reputation through the world… (Act II Scene 1)

 

Again the paradox. An isolated blessed island, created and protected by nature, but known in the world (the world known by Europeans).

Consider then Mowbry’s grief at being banished:

 

A heavy sentence…

…to be cast forth in the common air…

My native English, now I must forgo…

What is thy sentence then but speechless death,

Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?

…Then thus I turn me from my country’s light

To dwell in solemn shades of endless night. (Act I Scene 3)

 

Though he will be allowed to return Bolingbroke too is upset at being exiled and will remember:

…what a deal of world I wander from the jewels that I love…

…England’s ground, farewell;

Sweet soil, adieu,

My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!

Where’er I wander, boast of this I can,

Though banish’d, yet a trueborn English man. (Act I Scene 3)

 

Of course King Richard himself refers often to England through the repeated word ‘earth’, implying English earth. Of Bolingbroke he says in accusing him of causing a war for the throne:

 

Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers’ sons

Shall ill become the flower of England’s face…

…and bedew

Her pasture’s grass with faithful English blood (Act III Scene 3)

 

The gardener refers to England as ‘our sea-walled garden’) Act III Scene 4). The Bishop Carlisle compares the Christian England to ‘…black pagans, Turks and Saracens’ and goes on to predict that under Henry IV ‘the blood of English shall manure the ground…/Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels.’ (Act IV Scene 1)

Henry ends the play by condemning the murder of Richard as a ‘slander…upon my head and all this famous land…’ and vows to ‘make a voyage to the Holy Land.’ (Act V Scene 4)

Throughout the play the characters are acutely aware of their Englishness, their isolation their protection as an island from the Other. But they’re also are aware of those Others and their uneasy position at the edge of the world, their anxiety over becoming a part of that world.

Shakespeare’s play is not regarded by historians as the gospel truth, nor was that his intention. He lived in an England with a violent identity crisis, flexing its history muscles in an expanding world. Creating its history is always important to any budding nation. England was blooming, its history was becoming important. Shakespeare knew this, and wrote plays about it, capturing, as always, the complexities, the paradoxes and the humanity. He was, after all, the creator of humanism.

 

13 June 2024

 

 

June 2024

 

June 2004

 

The summer’s Flow’r is to the summer sweet… and now summer is truly flowering, at least here in Stockholm. It’s been an eventful time since my last report, as you will see below.

 

 

Sadly, our thoughts still go to the Ukrainians, to Gaza. One day, I hope to be able to quote something about peace, but again, sadly, I repeat what I have repeated for far too long:

‘O war! thou son of hell’ O Putin! O Netanyahu! Thou sons of hell! Our thoughts and support are still needed to the people of Ukraine, and the people of Russian who hate this war, and now the people of Gaza, and the people of Israel who hate the war. Protest in any way you can! And don’t give up hope. ‘True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings.’

In this time of turmoil and hope I give you this familiar promo for the book Shakespeare calling – the book. Indie authors like me always need support, even now when book signings and lectures can again be scheduled. Only on the Internet can I reach people like you, who are interested in Shakespeare would like to support the Shakespeare Calling project. I do so hope you will help me by ordering the book online. Any sales I make of this book will go directly to Doctors without Borders for their work in Ukraine and Gaza as long as the war lasts. Just let me know and I’ll send the money forthwith. You can also order directly from me. Just write me an email. Thank you.

Anyone from Ukraine – send me an email and I will send you the book free of charge. Anyone from Palestine – send me an email and I will send you the book free of charge. I am also sending contributions to Doctors without Borders and other organisations who are helping the Ukraine and Gaza.

The book is available for those of you in Great Britain and parts of Europe on this site:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/9163782626/ref=tmm_hrd_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=1514378301&sr=8-1

 

Also available on http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Calling-book-Ruby-Jand/dp/9163782626/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436073737&sr=1-1&keywords=Ruby+Jand+shakespeare+calling

Or in Sweden

http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789163782626/shakespeare-calling-the-book/

or Adlibris. Or contact the publisher info@vulkan.se

 

I would be thrilled to get an email from you if you bought the book. rubyjandshakespearecalling@gmail.com

 

Shakespeare sightings:

• A review in Dagens Nyheter of a production of Hamlet in Gothenburg praises the new translation and scenography but thinks it all shows too much respect for the original.
• In the Danish film The Inheritance Maria is a Shakespearean actor at Dramaten.

 

Films with a Shakespeare connection seen this month - see reviews on https://rubyjandsfilmblog.blogspot.com/

 

• Snow Cake – Alan Rickman is in Romeo and Juliet.
• Colossal - Tim Blake Nelson is in Hamlet.
• Argo - Ben Affleck is in Shakespeare in Love.
• Mama - Jessica Chastain is in Coriolanus.
• A Thousand Kisses Deep - Allan Corduner is in The Merchant of Venice.
• London River - Brenda Blethyn is in Henry VI Part One and King Lear.
• On Chesil Beach - Dominic Cooke is the director of three episodes of The Hollow Crown.
• Walkabout - Jenny Agutter is in Love’s Labour’s Lost.
• Bad Samaritan - David Tennant is in Hamlet and Much Ado about Nothing.
• Noah - Anthony Hopkins is in Titus.
• Smoke - Harold Perrineau Jr is in Romeo and Juliet.

 

Further since last time:

• Seen at the Noel Coward Theatre in London: Ian McKellen as Falstaff in Player Kings.
• Visited the Globe Shop in London and bought all kinds of nice things.
• Read aloud to myself: Richard II.
• Watched on DVD: The Globe version of Richard II.
• Watched on DVD: The Hollow Crown version of Richard II.
• Started writing: a new text on Richard II.
• Progressing: rehearsals for our local theatre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (En midsommarnattsdröm). We’ve booked our premiere, the 8^th of June, this coming Saturday. Fingers crossed!

 

Posted this month:

• This report
• Review of Player Kings.

 

Shakespeare Calling – the book is promoted by http://shakespearesallskapet.se/

 

Read more about my alter ego’s books, in one of which Shakespeare appears live and in person, on:

• https://themerlinchronicles.wordpress.com/ruby-and-shakespeare/shakespeare-calling-the-book/
• https://themerlinchronicles.wordpress.com/ruby-and-shakespeare/spoiler-merlin-and-shakespeare/

 

 

 

 

Player Kings Ian McKellan

 

PLAYER KINGS

Noel Coward Theatre, London

Adapted and directed by Robert Icke

11 May 2024

 

                      The first Shakespeare play Hal and I saw on stage in English was in 2013 – Henry IV Part One at the Roundhouse Theatre in London. It was the start of my odyssey with Shakespeare.

                      Now, in 2024, with my travelling companion AC, I am incredibly seeing Ian McKellan as Falstaff in this 4-hour double-hitter Player Kings Henry IV Parts One and Two. The moment he opens his mouth, his voice lifts the theatre, the players and the audience up to the world of Hal and Falstaff - McKellen is Falstaff, fat, crude, a braggard and a liar, a scrounger and a drunk.

                      The play is consistently funny with those intensely emotional moments only Shakespeare can create. Young Toheeb Jimoh as the riotous, gallivanting, hopelessly unprincely Prince Hal is excellent and a perfect straight man to Falstaff. The ending (here, hardly a spoiler because surely you have all read and/or seen the play) when the new king rejects Falstaff is heartbreaking, as is Falstaff’s vain and shaking insistence that ’He will call for me privately.’

                      The theatre, the Noel Coward Theatre, is stylish and small. AC, who arranged the whole thing, and I sit high up and have to crane our heads to see the action at times, but never mind. We ’re seeing it. The scenography is stark and simple, very effective. The rest of the cast do their jobs finely. But – Ian McKellen. What a wondrous afternoon.

                      Thank you, AC.