Watching this play gave me memories of high school Shakespeare. It's funny that subjects that used to terrorize us before continues to do so on today's youth, 20 years after taking it! I don't blame them. I grappled through Shakespeare till second year college when we took it in Humanities 1! That time, we even had to study his sonnets! Que horror!
Anyhow, 'William' is a clever production from PETA (Philippine Educational Theatre Association), where they use rap and hip hop to defuse the fears of today's youth whenever they pick up that intimidating book containing the Bard's plays. Through music and the use of contemporary plots (a wife working abroad, broken families, discovering one's homosexuality), the play was effective (at least on the day I saw it) in bringing to the very young audience, the complex yet relevant messages of Shakespeare!
My favorite scene was when one of the actors did Shylock's monologue from The Merchant of Venice. It was exactly the same monologue I did for English class almost 25 years ago! Of course with less dramatic flair than what the actor did. It was great that the writer chose several famous monologues of the Bard and infused it into the lives of each of the characters. At least it would make it less intimidating for the students and it would transcend their usual choice of Romeo and Juliet. Mind you, each of the main characters did their own respective monologues! Hmmm....I'm sure the writer also did that in his own English class in high school!
Interestingly, I might watch one of Shakespeare's most violent plays this weekend in UP - Titus Andronicus. That would be a totally different experience I'm sure. And I think it's going to be in Filipino - patay!
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