Short, soothing summary of my online classes available in the month of May!
Great online classes in Shakespeare and science are available for students all this month at Outschool.com. These classes are Flex Schedule, which means the teacher prepares the activities in advance and allows you to do them at your own pace without direct consultation.
William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is a series of parody plays written by Ian Doescher that takes the prose screenplays of the Star Wars story and transforms them into Elizabethan verse. Last time I mentioned how much I loved the cheeky references to Shakespeare and Star Wars, and how Doescher adapts the cinematic quality into Elizabethan drama very well. In my podcast, I also emphasized the way Doescher gives each character verbose Shakespearean language that works very well for radio and theater:
My podcast episode where I do dramatic readings of “Verily A New Hope.”
I must confess, Return of the Jedi is my favorite Star Wars movie. I’ve seen all 9 films and it’s still my favorite. I adore the effects, the tight storytelling, the emotional farewells, and the dramatic victories. What I want to do with this post, (and the accompanying podcast), is to see whether this edition captures what I love about Jedi. The short answer is- no. It doesn’t capture it, IT EXPANDS IT! In many ways this play is Doescher’s triumph- he manages to capture the tone and characters of Star Wars perfectly, and makes the Shakespearean style his own!
Notes about the play
The first play in the series, “Verily, A New Hope,” took plot and structure inspiration from Henry V; it tells the story as an epic heroic story of Luke’s heroic deeds, much like how Henry V is about a king who grows from boy to man.
The second play “The Empire Striketh Back,” takes inspiration from Hamlet and Macbeth to explore Luke’s temptation by the Dark Side of the Force. It also uses Much Ado About Nothing as an inspiration for the burgeoning relationship between Han and Leia
I would argue that “Jedi Doth Return” is a mixture of all the other plays Doescher took inspiration from. Unlike the previous plays, this feels less like a parody, and more like an adaptation. I feel that Doescher has finally become so comfortable writing in the Shakespearean style, that he rarely needs to flat out parody lines and speeches, and simply uses Shakespearean dialogue to tell the story.
Moments to Watch for:
The Language
I’ll discuss the language of Jedi in greater detail in my podcast, but I’d like to highlight one or two here.
Extended metaphors:
Vader: It is the role I play, my destiny— The grand performance for which I am made. Come, author of the dark side of the Force, Make me the servant of thy quill and write The tale wherein my son and I are seal’d As one. Come, take mine ev’ry doubt from me, And fashion from my heart of flesh and wires A perfect actor: callous, cold, and harsh. Let this, the second Death Star, be the stage, And all the galaxy be setting to The greatest moment of my narrative:
The scene in which the Empire’s fight is won Whilst I decide the Fate of mine own son - The Jedi Doth Return Act I, Scene i
3. Parody Lines
The biggest appeal of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is the fact that it is a parody, and I’ve said for many years that parody and gentle riffing on Shakespeare is a great way to get students to overcome their fear of Shakespeare and engage with him. Students who know Star Wars but don’t know Shakespeare will recognize the familiar characters and plots of the movies and then see how Shakespeare’s language tells the story anew. Similarly, people who know Shakespeare will recognize the way Doescher re-tools famous Shakespeare quotes to give to characters in the Star Wars Universe, like here, where he spoofs the famous “All the World’s A Stage” speech:
In the Educator’s guide, which I’ve attached below, Doescher tells you exactly which lines he has parodied and the plots of the original plays so the students can learn about Shakespeare through these famous speeches. Orson Wells once said: “We sit through Shakespeare to recognize the quotations,” and this edition gives us thrilling space battle, wonderful characters, and witty dialogue to keep us entertained while we wait.
Characterizations
What I love the most about the movie and the play is that it’s a very character-driven story. Instead of long trench runs with pilots we’ve never met, we get duels to the death between characters we’ve known for years. At its heart, Jedi is the story of the Skywalker family reuniting after Darth Vader ripped it apart. It’s also the culmination of Luke growing from a boy to a man. Doescher does an incredible job voicing these characters through the verse, and his use of the language helps highlight each character’s struggle and journey.
Luke/ Vader
Left- production photo of Mark Hamil holding a skull Yorrick-style. Right- AI art I created of Luke as Hamlet.
Luke has more of a duality in this story- sometimes his speeches are hopeful, positive, and full of decisive language, while other times he is bitter, angry, and mournful. This is a perfect characterization for a young man whom the Emperor hopes to turn to the Dark Side, and these speeches excellently bring out his character. Sometimes Luke even repeats lines spoken by Vader and the Emperor just to drive this point home.
Emperor
A speech from “Jedi Doth Return.” Notice how the ideas run on past the ends of lines and how long each sentence is
As for Emperor Palpatine, his speech is similar to Claudius in Hamlet in the sense that he has many run-on lines that only get to the point at the very end. This man knows he has the ea of the entire galaxy, so he can afford to make people wait for him to finish talking. As Luke himself says: “Your overconfidence is your weakness,” and Doescher does a great job conveying that weakness through the language.
Leia/ Han
My favorite part of The Empire Striketh Back was how Doescher conveys the love between Han and Leia. In that play/ movie, it was done through irritating each other in public, and soliloquizing in private. In Jedi, Han and Leia are more of a couple, supporting each other in their fights and the language has more of a romantic tone.
Han (Hal Jourdan) and Leia (Janine Ashley) finally confess their love in this scene.
My Criticism
To sum up, Jedi is a milestone in the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Series where Ian Doescher learned how to make the language his own, rather than borrowing lines and phrases from Shakespeare. It’s a pity there aren’t more books in this series…. right?
If you enjoyed the accompanying podcast episode to this post, please consider subscribing and donating to help me continue making fun and educational content like this!
Concept: To explore the plot, characters, and themes of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar while also gaining an insight into Ancient Roman history and culture.
Student Description: Delve into the passionate speeches of Brutus and Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, which led a whole country to revolution.
Parent Description Using self-paced online activities, and a helpful handout, your child(ren) will analyze the rhetoric and persuasive power in two speeches from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” The course will also cover the culture of Ancient Rome, and the circumstances that led to Julius Caesar’s assasination, which inadvertently led to the birth of the Roman Empire.
Course Organizaiton (the class is divided into 4 parts that students can complete at their own pace over a week-long period
Each lesson will have:
“That Is the Question” (Essential Question)
Lesson Objectives
Set the Scene (Background and context)- 1-3 slides
The Players (biography) 1-3 slides
Go Deeper (Webquest)
Explore military life and the lives of women in Rome using my blog and other websites as a guide.
Post 3 things you learned to the Outschool page or send a photo of your completed handout.
Words, Words Words (Vocabulary, famous lines)
A Taste of Your Quality (Independant Project)
Show us your mettle (Test)
So each class should be 14-15 slides long.
Outline
Class I- Background on Caesar and Roman Culture
That is the Question:
Why did Brutus feel Julius Caesar had to die?
What was the aftermath?
Can one person’s speech effect an entire nation?
Lesson Objectives
To provide historical and political context to explain why Julius Caesar was assassinated, and how his death inadvertantly created the Roman Empire.
To explain the Rhetorical Triangle, the building blocks of persuasive speech.
To go through the story of Julius Caesar focusing on the effect of the speeches.
To study the famous “Friends, Romans Countrymen” speech.
To contrast this speech with some more recent political speeches and you think critically about:
Brutus- Podcast episode. I posit in this episode that Brutus is
Words, Words, Words-
Traitor
Republic
Dictator
Revolution
Ethos
Pathos
Logos
Rhetoric
Colossus
Aeneus
A Taste Of Your Quality:
(Independent work): We’ll examine a painting of Brutus’ ancestor Lucius and learn why Brutus values Rome more than even family.
Show Us Your Mettle:
Quizzes on Brutus
Class 3- Antony and Brutus’ Dueling Speeches
(c) Hartlepool Museums and Heritage Service; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
That Is the Question
After Caesar’s Death, his friend Marc Antony held a funeral for him where he gives the famous “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech. How did Antony’s speech affect the crowd?
Brutus has a speech where he explains why he killed Caesar. What does he say, and how effectively does he say it?
Antony was secretly plotting to take power for himself, and get Brutus and Cassius killed. How did he do it?
Do speeches have the power to change a nation?
Learning Objectives
To explain the Rhetorical Triangle, the building blocks of persuasive speech.
To study the famous “Friends, Romans Countrymen” speech, as well
To look at these speeches and get you to think critically about:
We’ll talk about the consequences of violent revolutions and how Julius Caesar has inspired some of the greatest speeches in political history.
-Patrick Henry
– Gettysburg Address
– Mean Girls
That Is the Question
How have people interpreted the play “Julius Caesar” in America?
Does this play promote violence?
What kind of violent speech do we deal with in politics today?
Learning Objectives
To show the link between American History and Julius Caesar
To address the controversy and the misconception that the play promotes violent assassination.
To end on a cautionary note people must think critically about what they hear in politics and not make rash decisions based on appeals to fear.
Setting the Scene- US History
America was founded using the principles of republican government that Ancient Rome used- with a senate, and a series of checks and balances to ensure no one has too much power.
America was founded in a violent revolution, and some of our country’s early leaders used Brutus as an inspiration- to overcome a tyrannical king.
In later years, however, some people have forgotten what happened to Brutus
Today, we are often bombarded with speech that encourages fear and anger and we must think critically when we hear such speech in whatever forum- Roman, or Reddit.
The Players (use my JC lecture?)
Patrick Henry
Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth
Donald Trump
Go Deeper
-Watch the Caesar Video
– How does the play promote nonviolence?
– How did Brutus’ assassination fail to save the Roman Republic?
Stewart as Cassius in “Julius Caesar”Patterson Joseph in “Julius Caesar”Trailer for “Donald Trump is Julius Caesar” from the YouTube Channel “Never Caesar.”
Funny Sketches from “Horrible Histories”
Live Tweeting Caesar’s Funeral
This is an activity I’m doing with my Shakespeare Club. The idea is to paraphrase the lines of the Roman crowd in the language of social media. For example, I changed this:
If you can’t get enough of “Julius Caesar, consider signing up for my online Julius Caesar class. The class is asynchronous, which means you can take it whenever you want. More details below:
Since International Women’s Day is Friday, I’m devoting the following week to talking about the awesome female characters in Shakespeare’s Roman plays: Titus, Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus
First, here’s my post and an accompanying podcast on Roman women, which includes an analysis of Lavinia, Portia, Valumnia, and Cleopatra:
Here’s a fascinating video about the lives of Roman girls:
And here’s a special section about Cleopatra:
Comedy sketches about Cleopatra from “Horrible Histories” BBC, 2015.
A Lady-Gaga-esque song about Cleopatra from “Horrible Histories,” 2014Infographic from an article about Cleopatra’s beauty regimen. Source: http://socialdiary.pk/
Tonight is the Chinese New Year, beginning the Year of the Dragon. I’ve talked before about the fascinating relationship between Shakespeare and China, and I thought I’d illustrate it here by talking about a shared cultural mythology- the concept of dragons. Both Western and Eastern cultures use dragons in their myths, but as you’ll see, they have very different cultural meanings.
Quotes from Shakespeare About Dragons
Before thee stands this fair Hesperides, With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch’d; For death-like dragons here affright thee hard:
Antiocus, Pericles
Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish; A vapour sometime like a bear or lion, A tower’d citadel, a pendent rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory
Antony and Cleopatra
In Western myths, dragons are symbols of wrath and fierceness. In ancient Greek and Viking myths, dragons are often guards of treasure, (and sometimes in modern stories like Harry Potter). In the myth of Hercules, a multi-headed dragon guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides, (the apples that kept the gods young and immortal). King Antiochus wants to scare Pericles by comparing his daughter to the apples; if he fails to win her love, he’ll be devoured as Hercules almost was.
Coriolanus and Dragons
His CORIOLANUS is grown from man to dragon: he has wings; he’s more than a creeping thing.
Coriolanus
Shakespeare’s Roman general Coriolanus is frequently compared to a dragon in Shakespeare’s play. According to Dr. Peter Saccio of Dartmouth College, this is because the general is unable to relate to other humans- he is solitary, violent, jealous of his power and wealth, and prefers to strike first, then retreat from other people when the battle is won. This is why he utterly fails to get the Roman people to elect him consul in this scene from Ralph Fiennes’ movie. I find it ironic that Fiennes has played not only this character, (who is associated with dragons), but with Lord Voldemort, (who controls several large serpents), and also Francis Dollarhyde in the film Red Dragon:
Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning May bare the raven’s eye! I lodge in fear; Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.
Cymbeline
Sometime he angers me With telling me of the mouldwarp and the ant, Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, And of a dragon and a finless fish, A clip-wing’d griffin and a moulten raven, A couching lion and a ramping cat, And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff As puts me from my faith.
Hotspur, Henry IV, Part I
A thousand hearts are great within my bosom;
Advance our standards, set upon our foes
Our ancient word of “courage,” fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Richard III
St. George and the Dragon
In the medieval story of St. George, the titular knight defeats a dragon, which is basically a stand-in for Satan. George was seen as the ideal knight- virtuous, devoted to his cause, strong, and patriotic. His defeat of the dragon was an allegory for how knights should devote themselves to protecting their lords, ladies, and the innocent against evil. Therefore, it’s intentionally unsettling that Shakespeare has Richard III telling his soldiers to act not like the virtuous St. George, but like the cruel and violent dragon. Richard is Shakespeare’s most villainous king, so it makes sense in context that he would side with the dragon, and thus his defeat would seem even more like a triumph of good over evil. In addition, the real King Richard flew this flag with a dragon on it during the actual Battle of Bosworth Field.
Royal standard of Richard III, using the dragon of St. George
Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
King Lear
Dragons and Chinese Culture
None of the animals is so wise as the dragon. His blessing power is not a false one. He can be smaller than small, bigger than big, higher than high, and lower than low.”
–Chinese scholar Lu Dian (AD 1042-1102)
Qualities of Dragons
Dragons didn’t have the negative connotations of Western myths. In China, they were symbols of good luck, strength, and success. They were also known to be proud and temperamental-sometimes kind but sometimes vengeful to people who didn’t show them proper respect. In a sense, the dragon was like the ancient Greek gods- they should be viewed with respect and gratitude as well as fear.
The Chinese calendar goes by a cycle of years, not months. It has 12 animals that represent various qualities and those qualities will characterize the coming year. So hopefully a year of a dragon will be a year marked with courage, good fortune, and justice.
IV. What would a Chinese Lear look like?
Looking at the quotes I showed you earlier, it’s interesting that King Lear calls himself a dragon, and it made me think- Lear is a powerful warlord who demands absolute loyalty from his children. Would a Chinese version of King Lear work?
There was a Chinese production of King Lear back in 2017, where the translator and director traveled to the Royal Shakespeare Company in England and worked with the actors and directors of a London production to make their production gain insight into the characters’ motivations. However, I wonder how successfully they translated the Western ideas and values of the play for a Chinese audience. One of the reviews from China Daily.com describes the play like this:
Originating from old British legend, King Lear is one of Shakespeare’s four most famous tragedies. Through the internal disorder of the royal family, the rise and fall of King Lear’s fate and the final punishment of evil powers, Shakespeare expresses his optimistic views in the future of society, thereby adding the glory of strong idealism into his work.
The last word I would use to describe King Lear is “optimistic”. It is the only tragedy where not only does everyone die, but the entire future of the monarchy is in question. Nevertheless, reading about this production makes me interested in imagining my own version of King Lear, one that emphasizes Chinese values, but also questions them.
Many Chinese stories stress family loyalty, communalism, and respect for elders. You could portray King Lear as a story about the disastrous consequences of self-interest. After all, Regan and Goneril cast their father out and dismissed his followers, and it led their kingdom into civil war. In that version, Lear is like the Dragon King, who in Chinese folklore, was a powerful ruler of the seas, (giving new meaning to the lines “Blow winds, and crack your cheeks”). As a bonus, historically, many imperial Chinese rulers decorated their palaces with images of dragons, and the emperors themselves were associated with the creature, (especially during the Han Dynasty), so when Lear says “Come not between the dragon and his wrath,” In his mind, he literally is a dragon.
Han Dynasty watercolor print of a Han warrior whose clothing is embroidered with dragons.
In 1736, Jean-Baptiste Du Halde wrote about the Emperor: “His clothing is embroidered with dragons: they are his emblem, and only He can wear dragons with five claws – any infringement to this rule is punished severely.”
That said, some dragons were associated with bad luck and ill omens. I’ve said before that Lear’s biggest flaw is that he fails to take time to examine himself or think about the consequences of his actions until it is too late. Maybe Lear thinks of himself as a benevolent dragon, but really is a bad man cursed with bad luck; he is not a dragon, he just has one on his back. So, in short, a Chinese re-imagining of King Lear could be a fascinating look at Chinese culture and give a fresh re-imagining of Shakespeare’s tragic story.
I hope you enjoyed this look into dragons in Shakespeare and Chinese culture. Joseph Campbell said that all cultures share and interpret archetypes to understand their own culture, but also to grasp what makes us all human. For whatever reason, every culture on Earth has some kind of large serpent- Chinese dragons, European dragons, The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, the Viking Yormungand, even the Piasa of the native tribes of the Mississippi. and they can mean many different things to many different people, which means that we as humans are in some way tied to gether through all these dragon tales (no pun intended).
What think you, coz, Of this young Percy’s pride? the prisoners, Which he in this adventure hath surprised, To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,
This is a story of two boys, centuries apart, but united by their love of theater in general, and the Globe Theater in particular. The first is William Shakespeare, whose story Aliki tells from his birth, to his boyhood days, to his rise to prominence in the theater. The second is Sam Wannamaker, the man who spearheaded the project of re-building the Globe Theater from 1949 to the first performance of the Globe in June of 1997.
Aliki tells this story in the format of an Elizabethan play, dividing it into five acts. Acts I-4 tell the story of Shakespeare’s life while Act V focuses on Sam Wannamaker pursuing his dream. The book concludes with a chronology of Shakespeare’s plays, and a table of his most famous words and expressions, illustrated with adorable characters.
Illustrations: Medium and Style of Illustration
Like many of her books, Aliki’s illustrations are layered and detailed. She uses ink pen outlines to draw her characters, but then fills them in with bright, vibrant colors. She then painstakingly shades them using the crosshatching technique, to create textures that are complex but have a hand-drawn almost impressionistic feel. The characters aren’t ultra-realistic, and the color palette is limited mainly to bright primaries and warm browns, making it look like a child’s box of crayons or colored pencils. This book is designed to appeal to children with its hand-drawn quality.
Format:
Cover- The cover makes the subject of the book clear to the audience. We see Shakespeare and Globe Theater, but also illustrated moments from his plays. This helps establish that this is not only a biography, it is an introduction to Shakespeare’s plays and poems as well.
Front Matter: The book opens with four pages of quotes from Shakespeare’s plays illustrated with fairies, pipers, and Elizabethan men and women. There is no half-title, no frontispiece and no Half title verso.
Title page verso (copyright page) In the center of the copyright page is an Illustration of Shakespeare standing atop a globe, over the famous lines: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Below the quote in very small letters is the copyright date, a short summary, the ISBN data, card catalog information, and the typography information.
Title Page The title is laid out on a white background with a thin black border. Below the title is an image of a boy (presumably Sam Wanamaker), assembling a paper model of Shakespeare’s globe, with a portrait of Shakespeare in the background. This helps establish that this biography focuses on both Shakespeare and Wanamaker, and makes the reader excited to see the real Globe brought to life in full illustration.
Table of Contents As stated before, the book is organized like an Elizabethan play, so rather than Chapter 1, etc. the book has five Acts with 1-4 scenes in them. Each chapter in the table of contents is labeled with a description that sets the scene; either a location (like London, Stratford, The Globe), or what will happen in the scene (such as “Building” or “Uncovering”). The table then details four appendices that are part of the back matter.
Preface: The Preface is referred in the book as an aside, (an Elizabethan theater term meaning something spoken between a character and the audience). This preface acknowledges that, because of the lack of surviving historical information on William Shakespeare, Aliki, like many Shakespearean biographers, has to use some guesswork to fill out the narrative of his life. A second preface (referred to as a Prologue), introduces the story of the book, (namely the lives of Will Shakespeare and Sam Wanamaker). This preface mimics how in Shakespeare’s plays, a prologue would tell the audience what would happen before the narrative started.
Back Matter/ Appendices: There are four appendices in the back matter- A table of Shakespeare’s collected works, a timeline of the book’s events from 1564-1999, an illustrated list of Shakespearean words and expressions, and finally a list of Shakespearean sites to visit in London and Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford Upon Avon. These appendices show the reader that Shakespeare has an important role in history and in the English language, and encourage the reader to learn more about him.
Value As an Educational Tool
This story not only tells Shakespeare’s life, it also introduces the reader to his plays and his influence on the English language through the illustrations and frequent Shakespearean quotations. The reader also gains an insight into Elizabethan life and culture by following Will’s journey from Stratford to London. Finally, by juxtaposing Shakespeare’s life with Sam Wannamaker’s, the reader sees Shakespeare through Sam’s eyes as he works his whole life to restore Shakespeare’s Globe to its former glory. The reader develops a love of Shakespeare, (or at least an empathetic respect), and may feel empowered to read more about Shakespeare, see his plays or maybe even become a Shakespearean artist in the future. In short, Aliki’s book brings the world of Shakespeare to young readers in a way that is beautiful to look at, full of insight, and with enough supplemental materials to encourage them to learn more.
Overall Impression:
Like Prospero’s magic in The Tempest, this story is magically told- it is not intended to create a totally realistic representation of Elizabethan life, but to give an exciting, colorful impression of Will’s life and work to the reader. Due to the scant historical details of Will’s life, Aliki chose not to do a standard biography, but, like Shakespeare’s own history plays, to tell a historically authentic story, rooted in truth that brings a time and a place to life, while portraying it an exciting and visually appealing way.
Citation:
Aliki. (2000). William Shakespeare & the Globe. HarperCollins Publishers.
This list is not about skill or the talent of the actor. This is to honor the contributions of Shakespearean actors who also appeared in one of my favorite film and book franchises of all time: Harry Potter. Accordingly, some of the actors who weren’t essential to either Harry Potter or Shakespeare or both are placed lower on the list even if I personally love the actor or the character they portrayed.
#10: Richard Harris- Albus Dumbledore
The Irish-born actor has been a veteran of stage and screen for decades before his death in 2002, after the second Harry Potter film. Here is him on Johnny Carson, telling a funny story about a production of Macbeth he did early in his career:
#9: Kenneth Branaugh- Gilderoy Lockheart
If you visit this website regularly, you know I’m a fan of Kenneth Branaugh– I’ve reviewed three of his Shakespeare movies and he’s my all-time favorite Hamlet. I’m also aware that he has a reputation of being a bit of an egotist and a womanizer, (since he had affairs with two women on this list), so even though he was a bit too old to play the part, it was nice to see him have a laugh at his own expense as the attention-hogging Gilderoy Lockheart. The humbug professor’s name actually Gilderoy (as in a man painted with false gold), gives away the twist that he takes credit for other witches and wizards’ work and Branaugh shamelessly mugs to the camera whenever he’s on screen. My favorite scene of his though, is the one serious scene where he teaches dueling with the help of the much more competent Professor Snape:
Kenneth Branaugh and Alan Rickman in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, (2002).
If you saw my post on the duel at the end of Hamlet, you can see that the way wizards duel is directly inspired by the way fencers fought in Hamlet, right down to the flashy salute and bow beforehand, and it’s neat to see two legendary Hamlets fight in it.
I couldn’t decide between these fabulous actors, so I grouped them together. After seeing Timothy Spall as the cowardly, foolish incompetent spy and traitor Rosencrantz in Hamlet, I knew that the only Harry Potter role for him would be as Lord Voldemort’s toady and pathetic rat, Peter Pettigrew, aka Wormtail.
Broadbent on the other hand, is completely different and unrecognizable during his excellent portrayal of Lord Buckingham in Ian McKellen’s 1995 film version of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Unlike the meek and easily broken Horace Slughorn, Broadbent as Buckingham is an oily politician who very nearly sells his soul to McKellen’s diabolical Richard:
What unites these two portrayals is that both characters are corrupted by a figure of pure evil, but both have a breaking point- Buckingham, (as you see in the clip above), refuses to be a party to child murder, while Slughorn eventually helps Harry Potter destroy Voldemort. In a way, they’re two sides of a very flawed coin.
#7 Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore 2)
Like Richard Harris, Michael Gambon, (who passed away in September of 2023) was an accomplished stage and screen actor, famous for playing King Lear multiple times, including a famous performance with Antony Sher at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Here are some highlights of his stage work:
I feel I have to give Fiona Shaw a good spot on this list, though I think her talent was wasted in the role of Petunia Dursley. She is an icon of British theater and her work in Shakespeare is superb. She famously played Richard II back in 1995, and in the short film below, she talks about her amazing interpretation of Measure For Measure, with fellow Harry Potter alumn, David Tennant.
I’d also like to include the best-deleted scene from Deathly Hallows with Shaw in it, where she admits to Harry for the first time that she misses her sister Lilly.
#5: Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort)
In a way, Lord Voldemort was a role that Fiennes had trained for all his life. He has played smarmy, serpentine characters before in films like Red Dragon and Schindler’s List. But Fiennes’ Shakespeare training allowed him to tap into the evil megalomaniac at the heart of Voldemort when he played roles like Richard III, (another deformed autocrat), and Coriolanus, the Roman general who is himself compared to a dragon. In the video above, YouTube critic Kyle Kalgren analyzes how Fiennes’ past roles and experience with Shakespeare translated well in his performance and his direction of the 2011 film Coriolanus.
#4 Imelda Stanton (Delores Umbridge)
By contrast, I give more credit to Imelda Stanton, who mainly plays sweet mom-like characters (or nurse-like in the case of Shakespeare In Love), for embodying the utterly loathsome Delores Umbridge. Reportedly, the role made Stanton feel physically ill and unlike Richard III, people hate her character with a passion. By contrast, look at her sweet and charming portrayal of Maria in the 1996 film Twelfth Night, (which also starred Helena Bonham Carter):
#3 Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange)/ Emma Thompson (Sybyl Trelawney)
Again, I had to give credit to both of these women for the startling transformations they did for their Harry Potter characters, as well as their stellar work in Shakespeare. Helena Bonham Carter mainly plays apealing aristocratic characters such as Olivia in Twelfth Night, and Ophelia in Hamlet:
Seeing Ms. Carter as the demented Bellatrix Lestrange was quite a shock for me, yet the performance was no less impressive. I especially love this scene in Deathly Hallows where she has to act like a 17 year old girl, TRYING TO BE BELLATRIX LESTRANGE
#2: Alan Rickman (Severus Snape)
I already wrote a tribute to Alan Rickman after his death in 2016, so I don’t wish to repeat myself. Suffice it to say that Mr. Rickman was always a consummate professional, and his iconic portrayal of Severus Snape was the performance of a lifetime.
Alan Rickman as Achilles in Troilus and Cressida, Royal Shakespeare Company.
Honorable Mention: David Tennent (Barty Crouch)
To be honest, I thought Tennant was miscast in Harry Potter- he can play villains, (as Good Omens fans know well), but he just isn’t great at being maniacal and evil. That said, Tennant is a rising Shakespearean star and has created many memorable performances from Richard II, to Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, to Hamlet.
#1: Dame Maggie Smith (Professor McGonigal)
Say it with me… you probably saw this coming. No one can deny that Dame Maggie’s contributions to Shakespeare, as well as her ubiquitous portrayal of Hogwarts’ current Headmistress Minerva McGonigal, stand the test of time as strongly as the animated chess pieces she placed in the school basement. Let’s look at some of her greatest Shakespearean moments.
Plug for my Acting Class
If you enjoyed this list, you might want to sign up for my Intro to Acting class or my extended acting course, where I delve into Shakespearean acting techniques, and answer the big question, “WHY DO SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS KEEP GETTING CAST AS WITCHES AND WIZARDS?” To sign up, click the link below: https://outschool.com/classes/609658d1-3f9f-4371-8af2-4fe81ad13d8c
Cover art for my Outschool Beginning Acting Class.
The Shakespearean Student 