Two-part Shakespeare Seminar Task

Mothers, Monarchs and Murders in Shakespeare and Film Adaptation

Two-part Seminar Task (20% of your final mark)

Click here to read a sample screenplay submitted for this assignment previously. Laura Milette gave me permission to post it on this blog and we ask that you please cite it properly if you would like to use any of it. Thank you.

“But, besides these gross absurdities, how all their plays be neither right tragedies nor right comedies, mingling kings and clowns, not because the matter so carries it, but thrust in the clown by head and shoulders to play a part in majestical matters, with neither decency nor discretion; so as neither the admiration and commiseration, nor the right sportfulness, is by their mongrel tragi-comedy obtained.” (Sir Philip Sidney, Defence of Poesy)

** Think about the generic modes of the history plays we read this semester (Henry IV, I & II; Henry V and Richard III). Answer both parts of this assignment: the first part should be in essay form and the second part should be submitted as a screenplay. You may include an actor wish list with part two and/or write the scene in verse. You should refer to the seminar questions on the plays and the topics discussed in class.

Part 1:

In what ways do the plays, on page and stage, defy convention and offer an alternate perspective of events that we may or may not know to be “historically” true?

How do the histories tackle controversial questions such as the nature of monarchy (legitimacy); gender and sexuality; and race/culture?

How do the film versions we watched (Chimes at Midnight, Henry V and My Own Private Idaho) address these issues and adapt the text?

Part 2:

Rewrite one of the following scenes for a modern film adaptation. You should use your knowledge of the cycles of history plays together and your readings of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity and culture.

I Henry IV 1.2; 3.1 or 3.3

II Henry IV 2.4; 4.4 or 5.4

Henry V 1.2.235-end; 3.2; 3.4; 4.1