A big issue with how we understand Shakespeare and how we're introduced to it is we sit down and read it. But Shakespeare's plays, like any play, are meant to be heard, to be experienced.
Baz Luhrmann reinvented Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as a gangbanger love tragedy of the present day, with Mexico City standing in for an imaginary urban place called Verona Beach. The result was a terrific success, more of a success, I suspect, than Luhrmann ever had again; it was irreverent and questioning in just the right way, a sunburst of energy, but instinctively respectful to the story.
A movie about a visionary man whose genius made him one of the greatest figures in literature. William Shakespeare is played by Paul Mescal, an actor who leaves no demographic unravished by his outrageous levels of magnetism. And yet Hamnet is a film that sidelines both of these men to supporting roles. The film is about Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, long viewed as a dumpy, illiterate woman unworthy of attention abandoned by Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon when he swanned off to London.
It started with a book launch in 2021. I'd been living in London as a social media journalist when I asked my then-publication's culture editor to send me to one of these exclusive-sounding events, as 1) I'd never been and 2) I just really wanted to be a person who "has a book launch to go to." Thankfully, there was one that exact day-and he put my name on the list for the release of Mary Beard's Emperor of Rome. Huzzah.
Who's ready for more bad news for PC gaming? Samsung and SK Hynix are reportedly dropping NAND production to focus on DRAM. That could mean even more expensive SSDs. Bad timing for me to replace the PC I built back in 2015 with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960. Christopher Judge has weighed in on Ryan Hurst being Kratos in the Prime TV series
, the hit play at Studio 54, is writer and director Robert Ickes' modern - and riveting - version of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Since that play was written around 425 B.C., I'm not spilling the beans by telling you it's about the King of Thebes (Oedipus) who unknowingly fulfills his destiny by killing his father and marrying his mother. When he discovers what he has done - what he can never "unsee" - he gouges out his eyes.
In 2017, New Zealand artist Rachel Smythe started publishing the webcomic Lore Olympus on her Tumblr page. It was a lush, watercolor reimagining of the story of Hades and Persephone in a world where Hades is a sensitive but guarded romantic hero dressed in business suits, and Persephone is a bright-pink young woman whose hair reveals her emotions. The bright colors of Lore Olympus will be reflected in an animated series.
Midway through the credits was a first look at the next season, confirming that Season 3 will premiere later this year. In the preview, Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) takes Percy's (Walker Scobell) hand, as she leads him through a dance hall full of balloons and twinkly lights. They take to the floor as "Until I Found You" by Stephen Sanchez plays. This is a huge treat for all of those #Percabeth fans.
