Shakespeare Monologues

cool palette swaps

you know who reads shakespeare when they don’t have to? gay people

What was it you were hoping I’d bring to the table - quiet obedience? No. I bring the storm, I bring chaos and your imminent destruction. You made a mistake.

Greg can’t we just have a normal dinner for once

Hamlet Act 1, Scene 2: 65-111

I also like the aspect that you have to send over a literal part of your physical self, that you have to cut off something that is so highly connected to prestige and esteem in many cultures and lay it down at the feet of you opponent.

Richardclub: the RSC production takes place in this universe y/n?

But this leaves out the really neat part! The reason we equate the above image with a ninja comes from Kabuki theatre. Within Kabuki theatre there’s a convention of having Kuroko (stage hands) dress in all black (with a full face covering) and move around among the costumed actors in full view, moving scenery, props and costumes. In a similar way, Bunraku puppeteers dress in all black, and only the lead puppeteer’s face would be uncovered. The audience knew to ignore these people and focus on the actors, and to only see that the scene was “magically” changing. So when a play called for a ninja assassin to jump out of nowhere and kill someone, the easiest way to create the surprise reveal was to disguise the ninja in the all black garb of the Kuroko and to remove the face covering and start acting at the last second. This would shock the audience, who were conditioned to not focus on them. Pretty cool, yeah?

WHAT THE FUCK I THOUGHT “STAGE NINJA” WAS JUST A CUTE THEATER TERM FOR CREW. THERE WERE LITERALLY GOD DAMN STAGE NINJAS

AS A FORMER STAGE NINJA I CAN CONFIRM THIS IS BOTH A THING AND AWESOME.

This is the best and most delightful piece of information.

I’m just saying that if your Shakespeare production isn’t a little bit gay then it’s not really a Shakespeare production