Shakespeare And His-Stories..!
Screen Adaptations Of The Bard's Historical Plays
This is the concluding post in a series marking Shakespeare's 400th death anniversary, which started with noteworthy screen adaptations of some of his important tragedies (To Weep Or Not To Weep... Part I and Part II) and comedies (All The World's A Laugh... Part I and Part II). And here we will look at some screen interpretations of the Bard's chief historical histrionics.
As per experts, Shakespeare's historical plays consists of ten works: King John, Richard II, Henry IV – Part I and Part II, Henry V, Henry VI – Part I, II and III, Richard III and Henry VIII. Of course he did not write them in the above order, but the sequence is chronological in that it…show more content… It stars Vincent Price as an actor who considers himself as the finest Shakespearean actor ever. But when he is not awarded the critic's choice for best actor he decides to revenge his humiliation by killing the reviewers who gave him low ratings and bases each of the murders on a Shakespearean death scene. For instance he executes a critic using electric hair curlers while narrating a scene from Henry VI – Part 1, where Joan of Arc is condemned to be burnt.
“My Own Private Idaho” (1991) by Gus Van Sant is loosely based on Henry IV – Part 1 & Part 2 as well as Henry V. It is the story of two friends, played by River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, who are gay prostitutes. Phoenix received several awards for his performance including at the Venice Festival.
And in 2012 BBC produced “The Hollow Crown”, a television series based on the Henriad. Directed by Rupert Goold, Richard Eyre and Thea Sharrock, it won a BAFTA for Leading Actor and Supporting Actor, and one of the episodes, “Richard II”, was nominated for Best Single Drama.
A continuing series based on the first tetralogy was recently aired. Directed by Dominic Cooke, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch as King Richard