Doom makes Shakespeare Picks

Doom disdains dramatic dilettantes. Only the greatest artists may ply their trade before the True King of Latveria, and Shakespeare's words alone will warm not withering Doom's dramaturgical desires. Perhaps a taste of Wagner for an aperitif, but the Bard understands the majesty of Doom's imagination.

And so, the humble players of California bring Doom this treat...

Imagine if Shakespeare's best villains were taken out of their respective plays, reassembled Frankenstein-style, and finally got to be the focus of their own stories. The California Shakespeare Ensemble will do just that in Shakespeare's VILLAINS as they weave three of the Bard's finest antagonists into one engaging 90-minute show, using only Shakespeare's original words.  

Villain is such a relative term, and these Americans have picked three men who are unjustly cast into the role of evil. Shylock, Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth... all more sinned against than sinning. Except Tybalt. He has not the stature to be a villain.

When talk comes to villains, how is Shylock more vicious than Othello? Did he throw a temper tantrum and kill his virtuous wife? King Lear plunged his country into civil war, yet how he is pitied. Macbeth took a throne, his by right of power, and even the accursed Reed Richards would admit that there is a natural aristocracy who must rule the herd.

Poor Macbeth. If he had known magic, like Doom, and not relied on the three wyrd sisters, his dynasty would doubtless still rule Caledonia, and there would never have been an Act Of Union. And they had better not have Shylock doing that hand-rubbing thing to signify Jewishness.

Doom notes that this will another bumper year for Macbeths and Hamlets, and so is attempted to see whether these plays can be wrested from tradition and awarded a genuine contemporary fire. Doom is not pleased with The Lund Players already, however, because their website is about as much use as the shrink rays I used on The Fantastic Four during the 1960s.

The Players of Elsinore have a story to tell. It is the greatest tragedy of all but is yet to be cast. A high energy new adaptation using contemporary multimedia theatre. Melding live music, stunning visual effects and breathtaking physical ensemble work with the simple beauty of Shakespeare's language, they place the destinies of these ill-fated characters in the hands of the audience. 

Before the players string their first chord or hum their first note the genders of the characters need to be decided. What story do you want them to tell?

Doom is suspicious of that last paragraph. The play is named Hamlet and Ophelia, and the world knows what gender these characters are. On the one hand, switching the gender challenges the underlying assumptions in Shakespeare's script about masculine and feminine identity, and perhaps to allow a woman to play The Dane. Done correctly, it can be a bracing examination of audience expectation and reveal profound truths about the way that male and female are perceived.

In much the same way as when the time traveller Rama Tut discovered Doom floating in space after The Fantastic Four turned Doom's plan to maroon them in the vacuum of the galaxy to his disadvantage, the challenging of traditional readings can bring an individual face to face with their very self, albeit in  the distorted form of a man dressed up like an Egyptian pharaoh. The mundane associations with the play can be stripped away, and the audience is returned to Earth, renewed and ready to defeat Richards.

However, if the gender swap goes wrong, this can happen.