Communicator (communicator) wrote,
Communicator
communicator

Macbeth

I just saw Patrick Stewart as Macbeth on BBC4. I came online to urge you to watch it on the BBC website, but it doesn't seem to be available. I almost missed it myself. 7.30 on a Sunday evening? I only just got back from walking in the Peaks, and flicked the telly on and it was just starting.
Shot on location in the mysterious underground world of Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire, the film is set in an undefined and threatening central European world. Immediate and visceral, this is a contemporary presentation of Shakespeare's intense, claustrophobic and bloody drama. Patrick Stewart won Best Actor and Rupert Goold Best Director in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for the stage production and both Stewart and Fleetwood were nominated for Tony Awards for their performances.

I thought it was really frightening. The most horror-like Macbeth I have ever seen. Very scary and oppressive. This horrible insane fascist curse. Recommended if you get the chance to see it.

I was talking to my sister about Shakespeare today. We know several people who have learning disabilities, who really enjoy Shakespeare. My nephew went to see John Simm's Hamlet with me, and he loved it. One of my sister's friends has a son with Downs who went to see the Tennant Hamlet, and apparently he loved it as much as I did.

So I think virtually any person could enjoy Shakespeare, and poetry in general, if there wasn't such an oppressive expectation that it's worthy, or almost a test, no wonder people hate that. I think people with learning disability could be more free than most to relax and enjoy the play, because they aren't as oppressed by other people's expectations. I know learning disability is a very broad category, but I think you know what I am saying.
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  • Phew what a scorcher

    I see Gove has backed down on climate change and it's back in the curriculum again.

  • GCSE Computer Science

    My book is now for sale

  • LJ Settings

    At the moment I have set up this journal so that only friends can comment. I hate doing this, but I was just getting too much Russian spam.