Last night I attended the last performance of the summer of Shakespeare in the Park at Griffith Park by the Independent Shakespeare Company. They performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and it was a wonderful performance enjoyed by young and old alike. This particular company does a wonderful job of making Shakespeare accessible to the masses. My children were enjoying the performance as much as I was, and I noticed as I looked around that a lot of children were there, laughing and enjoying the show. All in all, they announced that 2500 people attended the show and by accounts every one of them loved it.
As the show was moving along, a thought occurred to me. Why isn’t Shakespeare more popular in the movies? Yes, I know that Lawrence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh brought plenty of Shakespeare to the screen, but that was a long time ago. And, yes, I understand that plenty of Shakespeare’s plays have been remade into various films with modern takes. And I remember that Shakespeare In Love won the Oscar for Best Picture just over a decade ago. But here’s the thing. William Shakespeare is credited with nearly 40 plays, and they’re some of the most iconic stories of all time. They’ve spanned centuries and crossed cultures. The cast at the show last night was racially diverse, and the themes of Shakespeare’s plays are universal.
Clearly, Shakespeare resonates like no other story teller.
But then I thought about it some more, and realized that quite a bit of Shakespeare is making it into film. If you type William Shakespeare in IMDB, 898 titles come up. That’s a lot of titles. Scroll down the list, and you’ll find animated films, foreign films, and films that are still in production. So then I get to thinking, what is it about Shakespeare that resonates so deeply?
Then something struck me. He didn’t have a “house style”. He could write the foremost tragedies that the world has ever seen. Who doesn’t know the stories of Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet or Macbeth? Likewise, he was the master of comedy. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is joined by iconic tales like The Merchant of Venice, A Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing. Then remember that his Histories like Richard III and Henry VIII were like the action movies of their day, and you have a storyteller who could tell them all. Few filmmakers today have mastered the breadth of genres that Shakespeare did in his time. Oh, and don’t forget the sonnets and poems.
If you are a writer, you must know Shakespeare.
You don’t need to know him backwards and forwards, but you need to know him. And you need to see his plays performed, either in a theater or in a park. In almost any city, there are free Shakespeare performances by companies that love his work and are passionate about it. Seeing these performances will open up the thematic elements and the passions to you a lot more effectively than will reading it. I took two semesters of Shakespeare in college. I know that reading it can be difficult. But when you see it performed by quality actors, like those of the Independent Shakespeare Company, you will get the subtext. You well feel the themes. Through their performances you will understand what they’re saying, even if the language is sometimes difficult to follow.
What will happen to you then is something that always happens to me. Inspiration. When I listen to that beautiful language that drips with subtext and symbolism where the simplest thought is expressed with unparalleled beauty and passion, as a writer you will say, “I want that beauty and passion in my script!”
There are so many lessons that screenwriters can take from Shakespeare. If you’re having trouble with dialogue, and you’re writing a love story or romantic comedy, go see or read The Tempest or Romeo and Juliet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream. If you’re writing an action film and your main character is losing everything, see or read some of the dialogue from Richard III. If you have a character dealing with an inner struggle, and you’re having a hard time having him or her express it, go see or read King Lear, Hamlet or Othello.
I wrote in an earlier blog post that subtext is the art of not saying what you’re saying, and Shakespeare, among other things, was the master of that. There are sexual undertones in his plays that he couldn’t just come out and say, due to the strict restrictions of the times. The result was poetry and subtext that has not only survived the test of time, but it is considered to be writing’s greatest achievment. Also, think about cinema, pre-1970. Profanity was limited due to censorship, as was sexual content. This required an extra level of creativity so that the characters could get across what they meant without actually saying it.
Here’s the point. When I read scripts for clients, the weakest aspects of the script either has to do with dialogue that is either on the nose or just plain boring, or the writer decided that he can show and do anything so he does. Read some Shakespeare and get some ideas on how he didn’t say what he was saying. He couldn’t show what he wanted to show. The result was masterful writing with subtext, symbolism and poetry. Then put a contemporary twist on it, and create fresh dialogue that has similar elements of subtext, symbolism and poetry. You won’t need it for every line, but sprinkling it throughout the story will heighten its entertainment value and make you a better writer.
How can Shakespearean elements be added to your script? As I mentioned above, I have studied quite a bit of Shakespeare and remain a fan to this day. I can analyze your script and show you where applying some of these ideas will not only make your script better, but also more marketable. Go to the link below for details.
You’ve expressed your thoughts beautifully. I agree with you completely that it’s important to see and hear Shakespeare performed. I find that for many people what is difficult on the page is illuminated in performance, whether on stage or in film. So much of English as it’s used today to express emotions and humor is rooted in the plays and sonnets that learning the source of our expressions gives us a new appreciation of language. People are often surprised to find that, even if they find the “old” (but modern) English difficult, they can be moved by the stories–to tears or laughter.