Tonight, I spent an enchanted evening with a soulmate, Will. Will is a fellow writer and a true genius at his craft. He has the ability to tantalize and delight me with his words. (I always was a sucker for a man who can communicate both his wit and his emotions through the power of the pen; and I've been known to be turned off by men who can't spell and who can't express themselves well in writing, as unfair as that may seem to some.)
I've known Will for nearly 30 years, but we weren't always as close as we are now. We first met in the late 1970's - '77, I think, when I was high school - and my first impression of him was that he was intriguing, but also overbearing, irritating, a bit patronizing and rather full of himself. Older men can be like that, sometimes... and I wasn't a very patient girl in those days. In a lot of ways, it felt like we were worlds apart. We had an on-again-off-again relationship in those early years... thrown together whether I liked it or not, sometimes friends, sometimes enemies. Then, we went our separate ways, and I lost touch with him, rarely giving him a second thought.
But somehow, I felt drawn to him, again and again. Every so often, when nothing much else was happening in my life, I'd reconnect with Will. The more time I spent with him, the smaller the gap between us became, and the better we were able to understand each other. It took me years, even decades, to truly appreciate how special Will is... how gifted, and how genuine. He's not much in the looks department... but I'll take intellect over a "hottie" any day. He's a man who speaks his mind, in his own way, without apologizing for it. He can be funny, cynical, romantic, hateful, witty and tragic - and sometimes all of those at once.
Will's a very successful writer, published many times over. You might think I'd be jealous of his success, being a fledgling writer myself, but it's hard to be jealous of someone simply because they're incredibly talented. Besides, he's got his writing style, and I've got mine. He's even evolved with technology - you can find his works on the Internet, if you know where to look.
What I realized tonight is, as inspired as I often am when reading something Will has written, he's even more impressive in action. That's when he's truly at his best - not hiding behind a dusty stack of library books, or even being quoted online by a fan. You have to SEE Will to experience him, not just read his words.
Of course, I'm talking about Shakespeare - the great William Shakespeare, the Bard himself. And the work that entertained my creative spirit tonight was the film version of "Much Ado About Nothing" -- a delightfully sarcastic and lusty look at love, romance, friendship, betrayal, loyalty, and human nature. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, and with brilliant performances by Branagh as Benedick and Emma Thompson as Beatrice, and with equally excellent acting by Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton, a very young Kate Beckinsale, and many other fine actors, the film is set in the most beautiful Tuscan estate in sunny Italy. (I'd love to spend a vacation there, although it's probably a private property.)
I never read Much Ado in high school or college - my professors were too busy torturing me with the likes of Romeo & Juliet (never my favorite, probably because it WAS forced on me in high school when I would have rather been out creating my own teenage melodrama of angst and unrequited love, than reading about those two stupid teenagers getting their signals crossed and drinking poison).
But tonight, seeing Ado brought to life (with VERY much ado, I might add - the film production and cinematography were quite stunning), I realized that Shakespeare PLAYS so much better than he often READS. I really think you have to see it to understand it and relate to it. I've been equally entertained by other Shakespeare works brought to film: Hamlet (with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Calista Flockhart). Even Broadway and Hollywood had their loose way with Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew with "Kiss Me, Kate", and later "10 Things I Hate About You", both very fun interpretations in their own right.
In fact, Shakespeare's film credits outnumber even Spielberg's: on the IMBD.com database, Shakespeare has 609 credits, dating back to 1899 (yes, that is EIGHTEEN NINETY-NINE) with a short silent film piece from Shakespeare's "King John".
What captured my attention in the film of Much Ado About Nothing was both the comedy and the romance of Shakepeare's words, and how timeless they are. Consider this passage, which is a song lyric from one scene of the play that became the theme song throughout the movie:
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never:
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.
Now, as a single woman in 2005, I can relate to this - as I'm sure women everywhere can. What's Shakespeare telling us? The same point that is being made in one of my new favorite books, "He's Just Not That Into You" - that as women, we don't need to waste our time ("Sigh no more, ladies") with men who cannot be true, honest or faithful ("Men were deceivers ever... constant never") or who can't make up their minds about us ("one foot in sea and one on shore"); that we deserve better, and that all we need to do is "let them go", stop whining about it ("converting all your sounds of woe"), and ENJOY OUR OWN LIVES ("Be you blithe and bonny"). As true when it was written in 1598 as it is today - nowhere in this passage does Shakespeare suggest we're to blame for the follies of men; he simply suggests we get on with the business of living and stop putting our energy into relationships that don't meet our needs.
Shakespeare also shows us, in this play, that when love is RIGHT for two people, it's REALLY right, and even the most cynical among us are not immune. The witty and sarcastic Benedick and Beatrice are transformed by admitting their mutual affection - but they are still themselves, and flirt through their sharp-tongued banter throughout the story. I fully admit I can be cynical at times - having been unattached for longer than I care to think about - but I melted while watching the movie, when Claudio, having discovered the woman of his dreams (Hero) is going to become his bride, says to Hero:
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were
but little happy, if I could say how much. Lady, as
you are mine, I am yours.
Reading those words on the page - as I read Shakespeare in high school - the sheer emotion of that moment doesn't translate. But watch the impassioned Claudio on screen, see the look in his eyes as he intensely utters that last phrase - I am yours - and tell me, you cynics, that you don't feel it down to your toes! Who wouldn't want someone to look at us in that way?
If you've never been a fan of Shakespeare, if you found reading him a boring struggle, then perhaps it's time to reacquaint yourself with his brilliance: go out and rent any of the excellent movies of his plays. Even in the original language, you might find, as I did, that while I felt lost when reading him, seeing him brought to life on screen made ALL the difference. I totally "got" Shakespeare. And now he's "got" me, too - he brought out the closeted romantic within me. I'm hooked!
