Although one might be inclined to think that a visual Cliff Notes-like troupe named the Standard Deviants would, to quote their subject, "mock the meat it feeds on" when it came to limning the origins and style of the world's greatest author, Shakespeare Tragedies: Origins and Style pulls off a bit of a hat trick: the program is serious when it needs to be, zany whenever the opportunity arises, and knowledgeable throughout. Aimed primarily at a high school/undergraduate level audience, the video delivers a primer on Shakespeare's life and work, the Elizabethan milieu in which he toiled, the history of tragedy (from Aristotelian definition through a staged--with paper dolls--explication of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex), a guide to stage conventions, and an overview of Shakespeare's use of unrhymed iambic pentameter. Reviews of key concepts are generously sprinkled throughout the proceedings, which, on the whole, zip along very quickly in keeping with a brief survey/cram session (depending on how you look at it). Two additional identically priced volumes in the series look at 6 specific plays: Shakespeare Tragedies: Othello, Macbeth, King Lear and Shakespeare Tragedies: Titus Andronicus, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet. Sure to be both very popular and extremely useful, the Shakespeare Tragedies tapes are definitely recommended. And, for the brown wedge--where doth the "mock the meat" quote come from? If you answered an internal memo at McDonald's, then hand over the dice, bro. The correct answer is: Othello (spoken by Iago, on the subject of jealousy). Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
Shakespeare Tragedies: Origins and Style
(2000) 50 min. VHS or DVD: $19.99. Cerebellum. PPR. Color cover. ISBN: 1-58198-068-X. Vol. 15, Issue 5
Shakespeare Tragedies: Origins and Style
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