Shakespeare Forever

“Vile worm, thou wast o’erlook’d even in thy birth.” - The Merry Wives of...

A very young Richard Burton as the title character in Shakespeare’s Henry V (1951)

shakespeareanheadcanon: Shakespeare’s work WAS written by the man named William Shakespeare. It is...

Sadayakko as Ophelia (1905)

“Sadayakko (貞奴) was her stage name as an actress and dancer, derived from a combination of her real name, Sada Koyama, and her geisha name, Yakko.

Born in 1871, the twelfth child of a Samurai family, which had fallen into poverty, she was indentured to the Hamada okiya (geisha house) in the Yoshi-cho hanamachi (geisha district) of Tokyo at the age of four. In 1893, after a successful career as a geisha, she retired at the age of twenty-two to marry Otojiro Kawakami, a ‘new wave’ actor and theatrical entrepreneur. However, after only a few years of marriage they were in severe financial difficulties when one of his major ventures failed.

So, in 1899 the couple leapt at an opportunity to tour the United States of America where, at the age of twenty-eight she re-invented herself as Sadayakko (or Sada Yacco), the first female actor in Japan for two hundred and fifty years. After a tumultuous beginning, Sadayakko eventually found acclaim and they went on to tour Paris and the European capitals where Sadayakko was feted as a star, her performances influencing artistic luminaries of the time such as, Pablo Picasso, Isadora Duncan and Claude Debussy.

The couple returned to Japan in August 1902 and went on to champion ‘new wave’ theatre and European-style productions at home, re-interpreting many of the Western classics for a Japanese audience.

Her portrayal of Orié (Ophelia) was a triumph, her long black tresses tumbling to her waist, her face like that of a little lost child, wearing a pale water-blue dress trimmed with white lace, flowers in her hair and in her hands, singing snatches of nursery rhymes “rain is falling on his grave…no, not rain, it is tears of blood”.” (source)

“Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.” -...

Actor Alec Guiness performing in Richard III at the Stratford Shakespeare festival.

Orson Welles’ Radio Theatre program presents an excerpt from Julius Caesar, starring Charles Laughton as Cassius and Orson Welles as Brutus

“My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is...

Maggie Smith as Cleopatra and Keith Baxter as Marc Antony in Antony and Cleopatra — 1976

“Tennis Balls”

Kenneth Branagh in the RSC’s 1984 stage production of Shakespeare’s Henry V

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor...

John Hurt reads Shakespeare’s Sonnet 147

My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly express’d;
For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

Marlon Brando as Mark Antony in the 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

“Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart or in the head? How begot, how nourished? ...

A knot you are of damned bloodsuckers. — Richard III

“The world is not thy friend nor the world’s law.” - Shakespeare’s Romeo and...

Roger Allam as Mercutio in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 1983-84 with the RSC.

Via

“Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, When gold and silver becks me to come...

shakespeareishq:

“Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the particulars of my life” from Henry IV part I.

Featuring Keith Baxter as Prince Hal, Orson Welles as Falstaff, and Margaret Rutherford as Mistress Quickly from Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight.

Shakespeare's Insult of the Week

A very young Richard Burton as the title character in...

#5-Something I believe should be everyone's headcanon.

okiya: Sadayakko as Ophelia (1905) “Sadayakko (貞奴) was her...

"Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer."

Actor Alec Guiness performing in Richard III at the Stratford...

Orson Welles’ Radio Theatre program presents an excerpt...

"My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient."

Maggie Smith as Cleopatra and Keith Baxter as Marc Antony in...

“Tennis Balls” Kenneth Branagh in the RSC’s...

"If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s..."

John Hurt reads Shakespeare’s Sonnet 147 My love is as a...

Marlon Brando as Mark Antony in the 1953 film adaptation of...

"Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart or in the head? How begot, how nourished? ..."

Shakespeare's Insult of the Week

Photo

"The world is not thy friend nor the world’s law."

Roger Allam as Mercutio in Shakespeare’s Romeo and...

"Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, When gold and silver becks me to come on."

shakespeareishq: “Do thou stand for my father, and examine me...