OSF 2010 Season opens February 19th!

In this sometimes dreary third week of February, Clan Murphy is all a-quiver that the wheel has not only turned on another new season of LOST, but is about to turn on another new season of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Previews begin on February the 19th! Your Humble Bardolater will be attending (with her better [...]

Shakespeare in Love directed by John Madden

© 2006 John Murphy
Bard-love received an unexpected shot-in-the-arm with the 1998 release of this buoyant, multi-Academy Award-winning imagining of the “making-of” Romeo and Juliet. The smart script by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard smoothly mixes Bard biography/mythology, Romeo and Juliet, and some Shax-worthy comedic high-jinks: mistaken identity, cross-dressing, and flights of verbal fancy, courtesy of [...]

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) directed by Michael Hoffman

Starring Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, David Strathairn, Stanley Fucci, Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale, Sam Rockwell, John Sessions, and Sophie Marceau
reviewed by Debra & John Murphy

Debra Murphy:
Michael Hoffman’s film depicts a universe freely inhabited by faeries and dwarves, satyrs and all sorts of benign if mischievous forest folk, who weave in and [...]

The Merchant of Venice (2004) directed by Michael Radford and starring Al Pacino

Like The Passion of the Christ released a year before, Michael Radford’s film of The Merchant of Venice is doomed to pre-viewing judgment. Is the play anti-Semitic? This question resurfaces anytime and anywhere the play is produced. Renowned lit critic Harold Bloom offered these memorable words, “One would have to be blind, deaf, and dumb [...]

Looking for Richard (1996) directed by and starring Al Pacino

In his directing debut, Al Pacino has given us one of the most accessible Shakespeare spinoffs ever for the screen. Smart, witty and energetic, Looking for Richard is a delight to watch, offering insight into Shakespeare and his iconic Richard III, and giving the viewer a behind-the-scenes look at how a production of the play [...]

The Merchant of Venice (1973) starring Laurence Olivier

directed by John Sichel, based on the Jonathan Miller stage production at the National Theatre

© 2005 John Murphy
I watched this 1973 adaptation of The Merchant of Venice on the heels of viewing Michael Radford’s recent film and, I’ll tell you, the comparison doesn’t flatter the former. Most who seek out this version are probably curious [...]

The Taming of the Shrew (BBC 1980) directed by Jonathan Miller and starring John Cleese

© 2005 John Murphy
From the back of the box: “John Cleese stars in Shakespeare’s comedy about a spoiled brat who meets her match and her mate — all rolled into one heck of a pugnacious package. Sweet-natured Bianca can’t marry until her quick-tempered sister, Katherine, does. Intent on marrying Bianca, Lucentio assumes his servant’s identity [...]

Vidclips from Titus (1999) directed by Julie Taymor

If ever there was a “you-re not in Kansas anymore” Shakespeare adaptation, it is Julie Taymor’s gorgeous and horrifically violent screen adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming. Here are some way cool bardclips therefrom:
First, here’s the trailer:
This is the amazing scene-setting opening, probably my favorite scene:
And, if you can stomach it, The [...]

Titus (1999) directed by Julie Taymor and starring Anthony Hopkins

© 2000 John Murphy
Roger Ebert pretty much hit the nail on the head with his statement about this movie: “It’s what the play deserved.” That’s exactly right. The original play by William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus is a gratuitously violent, overblown, hambone piece of trite trash. And I love it. I loved every minute of this [...]

Shakespeare in Love(1998) directed by Guy Madden

© 2006 John Murphy
Bard-love received an unexpected shot-in-the-arm with the 1998 release of this buoyant, multi-Academy Award-winning imagining of the “making-of” Romeo and Juliet. The smart script by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard smoothly mixes Bard biography/mythology, Romeo and Juliet, and some Shax-worthy comedic high-jinks: mistaken identity, cross-dressing, and flights of verbal fancy, courtesy of [...]

Next Page »