Steven came to watch last night’s bbl blowout with Will, David and yours truly. Since this is a school night, we were happily surprised when Ravi bounced merrily over the threshold of our front door
Being a bright child, Ravi chose certain toys to carry into the living room, so her Uncle David could glance up at the TV while his imagination engaged with hers—and actually, while playing with Ravi, David was saved a lot of frustration as tonight’s loss has literally gone down in history as our team’s most humiliating effort, ever! Like Humpty Dumpty, they totally fell apart and could not get it together—at all.
Unfortunately, I received an email saying that the next 8 week series of my Zoom Shakespeare discussion group (scheduled to begin this coming Friday) has been cancelled due to health issues on the part of our instructor. We were eager to study, discuss and watch The Bard’s play of Richard III.
We all hope that whatever is ailing Paul is not serious.
On an up note, one of my Zoom friends in the class, Andrea, recommended a novel invested with factual details presenting the life of King Richard III in a brand new light. And so, in readiness for our Shakespeare class, I’d ordered a copy of that historical novel from iBooks, the title of which is: The Sunne in Spleandour
The author is Sharon Kay Penman.
Yup—the same researcher who’d penned the page-turning series mentioned in yesterday’s post.
As Penman’s detailed version of Richard’s life is enriched with little known or overlooked facts (history is written by the victors)—and as Shakespeare’s plays were penned and produced during the 1600’s while Queen Elizabeth I reigned supreme, his depiction of Richard’s cold hearted evil machinations would have been politically correct, thus endearing the playrite to his Queen, ensuring the seats in his theater being filled with titled lords and their tightly corseted, wisp-waisted ladies favored by their monarch (and cleverly did The Bard pack his plays with bawdy barbs, thus packing in the ‘cockneyed’ class, welcomed to hover so close to the stage as to remain separated from seated gentry—of course).
Believe me when I say that by the end of each performance, The Bard had made certain that words he’d penned had pleased high society, lower classes and no one more than the Queen, being that Shakespeare’s plays had translated into his family’s bread and butter.
As to the cancellation of Richard III, we’ll certainly miss the fun of studying Shakespeare in the relaxed atmosphere created by our instructor. Our last play was Measure For Measure. Here I am as Isabel, a virginal novice, and my friend, Chuck, who plays my brother, Claudio, wearing jail garb as he’s been condemned to death for ‘fornicating’ with his pregnant fiancée before they were wed. Claudio has been sentenced by the ‘pious’ magistrate whose lust to bed Isabel (while she pleads for her brother’s life) ignores the fact that this man of Justice is threatening to have his way with an innocent nun—suggestive of the fact that insight into human hypocrisy (which continues to prove classic, universal and timeless), has been one of Shakespeare’s greatest gifts to his patrons for more than four hundred years.
As you can see, the cancellation of our Shakespearean studies is a huge disappointment, all around.
Thank goodness, I’d followed up on Andrea’s recommendation of Penman’s series of well researched historical fiction so as to enjoy and consider this author’s rendition of historical characters, whose impassioned need for power reflects the same unrest and miscarriage of Justice that persists throughout our world, today.
🙋🏻♀️Annie
