I jumped ahead again and grabbed a play from later in Shakespeare’s career, namely The Two Nobel Kinsmen. Based on Chaucer’s A Knight’s Tale, it is a story of two friends who fall in love with the same girl and then become enemies. Also, there is a really interesting sub-plot that is both funny and tragic (this one is classified as a “tragicomedy”). I though it all hung together quite well, revisiting some old themes (the fickleness of love, mistaken identity, and class difference) while introducing some new stuff (the whole “tragicomedy” thing, for example).
This play is also known for its shared authorship with some guy named John Fletcher (indeed, it was not included in the official canon for a time for this very reason). I can’t tell them apart, but countless dissertations and other scholarly reckonings have picked over the thing and determined that Shakespeare is only responsible for all of Act I, the first scene in Act II, the first scene in Act III, and a bunch of bits and pieces in Act V. Like I said, I tried (and failed) to discern between the two writers. Indeed, I have no idea how they have made such a laser-like dissection of the play and am actually a little skeptical (not of the fact of shared authorship, but of the dissection). But who am I to say.
The reason why I jumped forward was so that I could read the play and then watch a live production. Once again, a local theater was producing the play (Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater), enabling me to do the old one-two punch (read then watch). As in previous cases, I was not sorry and am quickly realizing that this is my favorite way to go. And, as was also previously determined, this playhouse in particular really knows what it’s doing. A great production (the witty, comic portrayal of Theseus and the over-the-top “bromance” between the two male leads was particularly well done)…and I’m not the only one that thinks so. I will be going back to this place often.
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