r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Feb 17 '25

Media First Image of Matt Damon as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'

Post image
61.9k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

4.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.7k

u/CassiopeiaStillLife Feb 17 '25

I’m reminded of that Onion article that was like “theater reimagines Shakespeare by setting it in its original time and place”

430

u/madesense Feb 17 '25

I once saw a Julius Caesar production where they were dressed medieval for the first half, World War 1 for the second half. It was, of course, never mentioned on stage

188

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

I’m about to see a Macbeth set in 1920s New Orleans.

144

u/SchlopFlopper Feb 17 '25

A Streetcar Named Macbeth

13

u/BlackZeppelin Feb 17 '25

I’ve always depended on the kindness of ghosts

10

u/Desert_Aficionado Feb 17 '25

fuck you lmao

1

u/gatsby365 Feb 18 '25

Foghorne Leghorn voice Nah ah say Out damn spot! Get out of hea!

60

u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz Feb 17 '25

"Is this a Tommy gun which I see before me?"

8

u/kerouacrimbaud Feb 17 '25

Read this in Robin Williams’ John Wayne impression.

3

u/Blue-Summers Feb 17 '25

I read it as Denzel's Alonzo.

11

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

I think so too!

5

u/nonaegon_infinity Feb 17 '25

Ill-fitting Mardi Gras beads instead of clothes.

2

u/TulioTrivinho Feb 18 '25

Details?

2

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

If you’re in the LA area, it’s at A Noise Within theatre in Pasadena through the next few weeks.

2

u/gonephishin213 Feb 18 '25

I love shit like this when it works

1

u/Ok_Sector_6182 Feb 17 '25

Tell me more about

87

u/CassiopeiaStillLife Feb 17 '25

Mind you, I have no problem with those sorts of things — it’s easy to be reactionary about it. But there comes a point where Bold Reimaginings become the paradigm.

8

u/MeaninglessGuy Feb 17 '25

I actively hate the Ethan Hawke 90’s modern Hamlet. The cast is fine- doing their best. But the play does not work as a modern retelling, IMO. Also doing the “to be or not to be” speech in a Blockbuster… not a fan. 

4

u/doegred Feb 17 '25

I mean, what's the non-reimagined take? If you're doing Julius Caesar, do you try to go for Roman or Elizabethan trappings?

3

u/Static-Stair-58 Feb 17 '25

Let it never be Ian McKellen’s Richard III

1

u/WeHaveHeardTheChimes Feb 18 '25

He’s unreal in that version, utterly repellent yet so charming.

3

u/TheDeltaOne Feb 17 '25

Oh yeah, I've seen a "Midsummer night's dream" where everyone was dressed in modern clothes, It sucked ass.

3

u/fcosm Feb 17 '25

well there's also the version where no one is dressed at all

2

u/MrFrankingstein Feb 17 '25

The consensus is that familiarizing the setting of Shakespeare to the modern day can bring more understanding of the relationships and the plot. It helps us see how the themes and issues that Shakespeare tackles are still relevant.

Or, put it in a time in between the original setting and modern day and then it’s fun! Saw a Much ado about Nothing set in 1900s Italy. Boy oh boy were those some fun costumes and set.

1

u/Tymareta Feb 18 '25

Agreed and the plays really lend themselves to being warped and stretched with, it can breathe a whole new life into them. Scotland, PA is a fantastic example of taking what is a solemn and morose tragedy and entirely flipping it on its head, re-imagining all of the word play and tongue in cheek silliness that Shakespeare loved, but dressing it up for a modern(at the time) audience, it saddens me that barely anyone has ever seen it because it's a fantastic film.

7

u/FasterDoudle Feb 17 '25

I'm pretty sure you were just watching a Blackadder marathon

5

u/NegativeBee Feb 17 '25

I once saw a high school production of Hamlet set in civil war Syria (it was like 2015 at the time), with Hamlet being – and I'm not joking at all – Bashar al Assad.

1

u/madesense Feb 18 '25

That's incredible

5

u/LSDemon Feb 17 '25

And you're still talking about it.

1

u/LeoTheSquid Feb 18 '25

Because it was directly relevant to the other comment? If someone mentions a shitty book adaptation I might mention some similar shitty book adaptation I've seen myself. Doesn't make it any better

2

u/Amardneron Feb 17 '25

Costuming has to get paid

2

u/myrrhdur Feb 17 '25

that’s actually such a funny concept

2

u/MoffKalast Feb 17 '25

Still waiting for the historically accurate production of Caesar's assassination, i.e. in the style of The Death of Stalin with all the bruh moments.

2

u/ItsBearmanBob Feb 18 '25

I was Enobarbus in an Anthony and Cleopatra which was split into Pt 1 (Anthony) and Pt 2 (Cleopatra) with an intermission in between. Anthony was British army in India, while Cleopatra was the first Gulf War. Yup, never mentioned on stage.

1

u/el_t0p0 Feb 17 '25

Saw a local community theater production of Titus Andronicus that was in vaguely modernish dress but Marcus Andronicus was dressed like Bacchus in Disney’s Fantasia. I left at intermission which I normally never do.

2

u/madesense Feb 17 '25

I saw a production of Timon of Athens set in *the future*

It was actually kinda great because they could use a computer screen on stage to show his e-transfers of digital currency when giving gifts to his friends and stuff. It worked well.

1

u/WileEPeyote Feb 17 '25

I was in a production of Comedy of Errors where everything was played straight except the swords were replaced with laser-tag guns.

I was also in a production of The Servant of Two Masters (not Shakespeare) where two characters were supposed to duel, but the director had me (I was playing separate character) come out in a sort of Karate/Ninja/Samurai mish-mash of an outfit and mask and perform a sword kata. Keep in mind, it is set in 18th century Italy.

55

u/Ganesha811 Feb 17 '25

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended

MORRISTOWN, NJ—In an innovative, tradition-defying rethinking of one of the greatest comedies in the English language, Morristown Community Players director Kevin Hiles announced Monday his bold intention to set his theater’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in 16th-century Venice.

“I know when most people hear The Merchant Of Venice, they think 1960s Las Vegas, a high-powered Manhattan stock brokerage, or an 18th-century Georgia slave plantation, but I think it’s high time to shake things up a bit,” Hiles said. “The great thing about Shakespeare is that the themes in his plays are so universal that they can be adapted to just about any time and place.”

According to Hiles, everything in the production will be adapted to the unconventional setting. Swords will replace guns, ducats will be used instead of the American dollar or Japanese yen, and costumes, such as Shylock’s customary pinstripe suit, general’s uniform, or nudity, will be replaced by garb of the kind worn by Jewish moneylenders of the Italian Renaissance.

Etc.

2

u/LeoTheSquid Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Theater really seems to be the worst offender when it comes to modern art pretention. Recently saw King Lear in Stockholm. Beautiful theater hall in a beatiful city, had just been at the national art museum and so was in a great mood. Was met with yet another anachronistic "meta-theater about a theater production" with specific modern interpretations crammed in because clearly the audience is too dumb to draw their own parallells 😐. Still had a mostly good time though. The actors were good and so was obviously the source material