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There is a thing on TV ...
Saturday, 29 July 2017 01:54 pmOkay, so there is this thing on TV at the moment. It caters to a very specific taste. Imagine putting a costume drama, a rock musical and oriental bazaar in a blender. What you might get would probably look & sound a lot like Will - a William Shakespeare origins story of sorts. It's got the Elizabethan language, a rock soundtrack and punk/rock/flower-power visuals. A refreshing gender and sexual fluidity that does not require definition or explanation or is angsty. You even get a rap battle/poetry slam and a (proper) orgy - and we're only on episode 4 yet.
Will is clearly not made for the Shakespearean purists. It takes Will Shakespeare as a jumping off point, using the fact that so little of his personal biography is known to make him a blank canvas to draw on. To make it modern, surprising and unexpected. It most definitely requires suspension of disbelief on the viewers part, but if you can do that it is a very fun and engaging show at the very least. Think Romeo + Juliet or Farscape. If you could get on board with puppets in space and alien/human BDSM and find it enjoyable, this might be for you.
The trailer maybe doesn't quite capture the full vibrancy of the show, but it's the best I could find (short of vidding it myself, which is a distinctive possibility at this point.)
I think this would be very much up Shakespeare's ally if he was alive now. He had no qualms to borrow from other people's work and make it his own. He asked his audience to beliefe in Fairie Queens and cross-dressing woman going unnoticed. He took his lisence with historic fact to serve the plot. And he was an entertainer first and foremost.
Will is clearly not made for the Shakespearean purists. It takes Will Shakespeare as a jumping off point, using the fact that so little of his personal biography is known to make him a blank canvas to draw on. To make it modern, surprising and unexpected. It most definitely requires suspension of disbelief on the viewers part, but if you can do that it is a very fun and engaging show at the very least. Think Romeo + Juliet or Farscape. If you could get on board with puppets in space and alien/human BDSM and find it enjoyable, this might be for you.
The trailer maybe doesn't quite capture the full vibrancy of the show, but it's the best I could find (short of vidding it myself, which is a distinctive possibility at this point.)
I think this would be very much up Shakespeare's ally if he was alive now. He had no qualms to borrow from other people's work and make it his own. He asked his audience to beliefe in Fairie Queens and cross-dressing woman going unnoticed. He took his lisence with historic fact to serve the plot. And he was an entertainer first and foremost.