Wherefore Art Thou, Shakespeare?

Did you know… When Juliet asks Romeo, “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” she is actually asking him why he is called Romeo, regretting that his name marks him as a member of her family’s sworn enemies? (From the archive of “things that went over my head” in high school English class)

Let’s talk Shakespeare renditions! This past week, my husband and I went to a Shakespeare In the Park production of Hamlet. We had no idea there was such a thing in our city and we were elated to hear about it. So we drove to our local park, camped our chairs on the shady lawn, got out the snacks, and settled in for a great show.

…Or so we thought. Maybe the 90’s rock music they were playing over the loud speakers when we arrived should have clued us in, or the fact that they pulled all of their stuff out of the U-Haul truck that was judiciously parked behind a couple of trees a few yards away; but within a couple minutes of the first act, we realized this was not your traditional production of Shakespeare. The actors waltzed onto the collapsible stage dressed in ripped, black jean shorts, plaid shirts, sporting heavy metal chains and emo make-up, to go with their very decidedly blue hair. This wasn’t just Hamlet. It was punk rock Hamlet.

One of the most surprising things about the show was that, for all its weirdness and some pretty cringey moments (including my husband bursting out laughing when we first realized what was going on), it actually wasn’t that bad. We both walked out of it saying that while the particular take on it wasn’t our style, and much of the acting was unfortunately sub-par, there was still something of the enjoyability of seeing Shakespeare performed that was preserved in the rendition. Perhaps it was the fact that the actors memorized (almost) all of the original lines and delivered them perfectly. Regardless, the joy of experiencing Shakespeare the way it was meant to be experienced (out loud) somehow shone through, if weakly, despite the plaid shirts and spiky hair.

Now, I am not so much of a purist that I can’t enjoy an artistic rendition of an original show. But one thing I said to my husband as we pulled into our driveway that night, was that with all of our culture’s rush to make the next cool or funky interpretation of the classics, I think we are forgetting that most of us (especially the younger generation) have rarely, if ever, had the opportunity to see the original.

It seems like nobody is satisfied anymore with presenting a really well-done version of the actual thing. We see this across the board, and not just with Shakespeare. One only has to think about the landslide of recent modern movie remakes to see that is becoming increasingly hard to find original productions of the classics.

I know that renditions are fun and they can be successful in their own right (Westside Story, for example, is a great rendition of Romeo and Juliet), but one thing I fear is that in our craze to make all things over new, we will lose the value of the originals. One of the fundamental reasons we enjoy renditions of beloved shows, songs, etc. so much is because we first knew the original. If we don’t know how to value Shakespeare in his own right, how can we properly enjoy, understand (or when necessary, critique) these renditions? We can enjoy them as stand-alone creations, but in reality, they owe their existence (and often their genius) to the original. So if we don’t have access to the original, we lose that reference point.

I didn’t hate punk rock Hamlet as much as I thought I would, but it still left something massive to be desired. Like Juliet, who stood on her solitary balcony and lamented the fact that Romeo bore the name he did, I find myself sometimes sitting in the crowded balcony of an amphitheater (or the lawn of a local park) and lamenting the fact that these renditions bear the name of greatness without fully knowing what it is that they are borrowing from… “Wherefore art thou, Shakespeare?” I wonder if some of these renditions could even tell us.