Yes - I do agree with that! I think Shakespeare can be updated - and I've seen some excellent productions where Hamlet, for example, have been. I've also seen some where it really hasn't worked. If it takes the essence of the play, and all the meaning, and makes it more modern it can help to expand the meaning, but if the sole reason appears to be 'clever' then I see no point.
A friend and I once went to a performance of Macbeth and it wasn't until we read the programme afterwards we realised what the setting was supposed to be - so a failure! On the other hand, I saw a brilliant reworking of Henry V, which showed the play being performed by English and French soldiers in a WWI battlefield hospital, which was incredibly poignant.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2020-04-12 11:19 am (UTC)A friend and I once went to a performance of Macbeth and it wasn't until we read the programme afterwards we realised what the setting was supposed to be - so a failure! On the other hand, I saw a brilliant reworking of Henry V, which showed the play being performed by English and French soldiers in a WWI battlefield hospital, which was incredibly poignant.