cymbeline

Date: 2007
Posted by: lostfoxx
Credits: Created by lostfoxx
Cast: Dominic Kelly (Posthumus)
Duration: 4.12

This is a particularly strong Shakespeare video. Actor Dominic Kelly has produced this rendition of Posthumus’ bitter speech, “Is there no way for men to be but women / Must be half-workers? We are all bastards” from Cymbeline (Act 2 Scene 5) as a showcase for his talents, but he has made a proper film of it. Kelly/Posthumus is cycling through London streets, addressing the camera, which cuts between speech, shots of the bicycle and shots of the street (strictly speaking, when Posthumus speaks he is pushing his bicycle; when pedalling he is silent). The speech is therefore broken up by the mundanity of the urban scene, while the speech comes out as ragged mental notes that occur to Posthumus as he proceeds, an effect accentuated by close shots taken either side of him, and his repetition of the vices in man that woman causes: ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain, nice longing, slanders, mutability – as though he were arguing with himself.

As much care has gone into the creativity of the filming as the performance (which is good enough in itself). The actor works with the camera, which frames and ironically counterparts the character’s thoughts. The editing is sharp (with just a touch of the jump-cut Godard of A bout de souffle), and the city itself provides the background ‘music’. A fine piece of work.

Links:
YouTube page
Dominic Kelly’s personal site

Apemantus and Timon

Date: 2007
Posted by: peterbruce01
Credits: Filmed by Peter Bruce, for the Balmain Picture Company
Cast: Not named
Duration: 1.47

This is an extract from an Australian ‘grunge’ version of Timon of Athens, information on which is hard to find. As an extract alone, it is startling and fresh. The sequence shows the confrontation between the caustic Apemantus and Timon’ from Act 1 Scene 1 (“Thou art proud, Apemantus.” “Of nothing so much as that I am not like Timon.”), rawly filmed on miniDV in the bright sunshine of Sydney, making the confrontation look like an everyday street brawl. The realism is intriguingly counterpointed by the use of on-screen text relaying the dialogue.

Such immediacy and roughness of technique might prove a little wearing over the course of an entire film/play, but that’s an unfair judgement without having seen the thing. There is also a ‘preview’ of sorts with a range of clips from the full work (entitled Timon of Athens) indicating something original, rough-hewn and exciting.

Date: 2007
Posted by: peterbruce01
Credits: Filmed by Peter Bruce, for the Balmain Picture Company
Cast: Not named
Duration: 1.23

Links
Apemantus and Timon YouTube page
Timon of Athens Preview YouTube page

Hamlet on the Street

Date: 2007
Posted by: Chris Barrett
Credits: Filmed by Chris Barrett. Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment
Cast: Craig Bazan (Hamlet)
Duration: 3.10

One of the most celebrated and most watched of original Shakespeare online videos in the short history of the genre. Eighteen year old Craig Bazan, a student at the Creative Arts High School, delivers the ‘O what a rogue and peasant slave am I’ soliloquy from Hamlet (Act 2 Scene 2), in a single shot with fixed camera on a street in Camden, New Jersey. Its its raw and immediate power comes as much from its setting as the passion of the performance. There is a real feeling that this is where Shakespeare belongs.

The video made such an impact that Bazan subsequently published a follow-up YouTube video to say thank you for all of the positive responses that had been received. Barrett and Bazan have now made Hamlet on the Street – Scene 2, in which Bazan plays the scene where Hamlet meets his father’s ghost and becomes possessed by it.

Date: 2007
Posted by: Chris Barrett
Credits: Filmed by Chris Barrett. Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment
Cast: Craig Bazan (Hamlet)
Duration: 4.18

Powerful once more, perhaps with a bit too much shouting, and not quite the impact of the inspired first video.

Links
Hamlet on the Street YouTube page
Hamlet on the Street – Scene 2 YouTube page