On the last night (Wed 24th Sept) of the Labour Party conference in Manchester, when the hurly-burly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won, there is a special performance of Macbeth at the Salford Lowry Centre, performed by the National Youth Theatre, and that's where you'll find local MP Hazel Blears and her husband…A play about plotting and assassination…a nice change from Labour Party conference.
'If it were done when ’t is done, then ’t were well It were done quickly.'
....Come to my woman's breasts,
ReplyDeleteAnd take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers
Wherever in your sightless substancesYou wait on nature's mischief! ....
When I look at Labour at the moment - and especially at Brown, the play I'm most reminded of is Richard II...
ReplyDelete"Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
To foreign passages, and in the end,
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else
But that I was a journeyman to grief?"
'stand nor on the order of thy going but GO'!!!
ReplyDeleteYep, bring the curtain down on the Scottish play !
ReplyDeleteAlan Douglas
Anon 11:21am
ReplyDelete"... und GEHEN JETZT " [et ALLEZ VITE]
Oh, if only the knife would slip!!
ReplyDelete.... the jealousy of Othello, the ambition of Macbeth and the indecision of Hamlet......
ReplyDeleteNow who could that be ?
the jealousy of Othello, the ambition of Macbeth and the indecision of Hamlet......
ReplyDeleteand the sanity of Lear? The morals of Angelo? The looks of Caliban, the efficiency of Bottom, the powerlust of Richard III combined with the touchiness and self-delusion of Richard II, the priggish self-importance of Malvolio and King John's grasp of realpolitik.
Good job it was Marlowe that wrote Edward II. Wouldn't want to draw any similarities with that play.
Nice work Mr. Jilted .Malvolio !Brilliant if we could just persuade some focus group to recommend yellow garters and a horribly unnatural smile ...ahhhh...
ReplyDelete....The honesty of Iago , the sheer good nature of John the Bastard , the physical beauty of Thersites , the Gravitas of Sir Andrew Aguecheek , the sweet nature of Caliban the loyalty of Gonnerill .The centrality , and longevity of Rosencratz and Gilderstein...
'tis better playing with a lion's whelp than with an old one dying.
ReplyDeleteWhat a literary appreciative lot we are.
There's something of the young Hal about Cameron - you know, forgetting his licentious Eton chums in the face of the exigencies of impending high office.
I feel sorry for the poor Bardolphs who got expelled.
Where are they now?
Is this a description of Milliband, Straw, Harman, Johnston, Hain, Blears,et al?
ReplyDelete"This was the noblest of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar ( office);
He,only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that nature might stand up
And say to all the world"This was a man!"
Silly question.
I couldn't have put it better myself
ReplyDeleteIain,I'm sorry, I can't take any joy in you poster's erudition. None of Shakespeare's characters should be saddled with Brown's character.
ReplyDeleteMind you, there's one character on the Eurpean stage that has all the attributes of a wonderful Shakespearean charcacter. One man who I would like to have dinner with and while away an hour or two. One man who doesn't give a stuff about PC, spin or any other nonsense that makes our lives less than they could be.
I am of course referring to Falstaff - the only really real person Shakespeare ever wrote about.
And a dead ringer for Berlusconi, including the cowardice bit....
Stuff Bill Shakespeare. I think more of "Carry on Cleo"
ReplyDelete"Infamy! Infamy!, they've all got it in for me"