Gallery: Remixing Shakespeare, From Verily, a New Hope to Terminator the Second
01William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope
What's in a mash-up? Shakespeare ought to know From all the remixes the Bard has seen: Artists, Kurosawa to Boito, Have dragged our Will 'cross page, and stage and screen. Inspir'd by Whedon's recent *Much Ado*, We've dredged the 'nets for Shakespeare with a twist, Our interest in such projects piqued anew, We now assemble here our humble list: Five entries to enlighten and amuse Even the staunchest purist, who will ne'er Find a better sampling to peruse Of such modern takes on classic fare. And with that promise, we'll bid you adieu, That you may explore onward—just click through! William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope --------------------------------------------------- *[Shakespeare's Star Wars](http://quirkbooks.com/ShakespeareStarWars)* is one of the higher-profile Shakespeare remixes to hit the stands, due out July 2 from Quick Books, who ushered in the era of mash-up classics with *Pride and Prejudice and Zombies*. Since then, they've wrung Austen dry and moved on to Kafka, Tolstoy, and, yes, Shakespeare. The solicitation copy for this advertises that it's reimagined *Star Wars* "in glorious iambic pentameter." A heavy hand with *whences*, *wherefores*, and *verilies* finishes off the treatment, reducing what could have been a pretty fun parody to threadbare mimicry. —*Rachel Edidin*
02Two Gentlemen of Lebowski
Two Gentlemen of Lebowski ------------------------- A good remix doesn't just change the window dressing of a work—it draws the audience's attention to details that might have been lost in the original. For decades, filmmakers and playwrights have underlined the universality of Shakespeare's stories by reframing them in different eras and settings. With *[Two Gentlemen of Lebowski](http://www.runleiarun.com/lebowski/)*, writer Adam Bertocci reverses the tradition, drawing out the Shakespearean elements lying just below the surface of the Coen brothers' classic. *Two Gentlemen of Lebowski* doesn't so much rely on the limited gag of filtering a popular movie through the voice of the Bard as on the idea that *The Big Lebowski* is essentially already a Shakespearean comedy. It's got all the trappings: an unlikely protagonist, witty sidekicks, bumbling villains, bawdy humor, class contrast, and, of course, Shakespeare's favorite trope, mistaken identity. As a result, *Two Gentlemen of Lebowski* is one of the best, and best-fit Shakespeare remixes out there. It falters only rarely—and then, only when it goes out of its way to wedge in recognizable lines from actual Shakespeare plays instead of letting its own jokes run their course. —*Rachel Edidin* Sample text: *BLANCHE: Whither the money, Lebowski? Faith, we are servants to Bonnie; promised by the lady good that thou in turn were good for't. WOO: Bound in honor, we must have our bound; cursed be our tribe if we forgive thee. BLANCHE: Let us soak him in the chamber pot, so as to turn his head.*
03The Shakespeare Mashup
*The Shakespeare Mash-up* ------------------------- Most Shakespeare mash-ups take the Bard's work and mix it with a more contemporary work of art. Not *The Shakespeare Mash-up* (aka *Hellomeorootlietju*). [The remix](http://www.arogundade.com/william-shakespeares-romeo-and-juliet-modern-day-rewritten-version-new-translation-adaptations-interpretations.html) by writer Ben Arogundade takes *Othello* and *Romeo & Juliet* and composes a new play simply by cut-and-pasting their dialog together (sample pairing: Juliet – "You kiss by the book." Othello – "An unauthorized kiss." Juliet – "Amen!"). The plot—a love square if there ever was one—revolves around Othello embarking on an affair with Juliet after hearing word that his wife Desdemona has been unfaithful. In an attempt to win back Othello, Desdemona sets him up with her gay friend Romeo (like you do). This, naturally, backfires and Othello devises a plan that ends in three-fourths of the tangled web of lovers dead. So, basically, it's a Shakespeare play—just with more overt homosexuality. —*Angela Watercutter*
04Terminator-the-Second
Terminator the Second --------------------- Staging *[Terminator 2: Judgment Day](http://www.terminatorthesecond.com/)* would have been ambitious enough, but Nashville, TN theater collective Husky Jackal Theatre went one better: they rewrote the James Cameron movie [entirely in lines and phrases from actual Shakespeare folios](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8kyrq4N2yc), changing only proper nouns, pronouns, and occasionally verb tenses. Husky Jackal cofounder Marshall Weber balks at attempts to classify [*Terminator the Second*](http://www.terminatorthesecond.com/) beside other Shakespeare mash-ups that primarily parrot Elizabethan English. "I think 'Shakespearean style' is a misnomer," Weber told Wired. "There are plenty of other playwrights from the Elizabethan era, and a pop-culture parody that simply mimics the language could easily be called 'Beaumonterean' or 'Marlowearean.'" Partially scored by local concept-rock band the [Protomen]( http://www.protomen.com/)—themselves no strangers to the art of post-apocalyptic mash-up—Terminator the Second is out of theaters for now, but a DVD of the production is due out in late summer or early fall. —*Rachel Edidin* [Sample text](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/huskyjackaltheater/terminator-the-second/posts/67061): What full I know, thou knowest no part Blood and destruction shall be so in use And dreadful objects so familiar That mothers shall smile when they behold Their infants quartered with the hands of war All pity choked with custom of fell deeds... Why, fool, you shall never wake till the Judgment Day!
05Sleep No More
*Sleep No More* --------------- Since it uses none of William Shakespeare's dialog—in fact, it uses no spoken words at all—*[Sleep No More](http://sleepnomorenyc.com/)* might be one of the most un-Bard-like interpretations of *Macbeth* out there. Currently housed at the McKittrick Hotel in New York City, the production takes place in five floors of the "hotel" (it's actually a converted warehouse) that masked attendees are free to move through as they see fit. The play's the thing that is ostensibly going on, even though the actors speak no lines – they simply act out scenes and occasionally pull audience members into them. In addition to having a performance space that's nothing like Shakespeare's Globe Theater, *Sleep No More* also remixes the *Macbeth* story entirely, turning it into a noir tale with flavors of Stanley Kubrick's *Eyes Wide Shut*, a dash of the dream-within-a-dreaminess of *Inception*, and a little bit of Alfred Hitchcock (*Vertigo* also has a McKittrick Hotel). But have no fear that it moves too far from Shakespeare's storytelling ethos, the play will keep you up all night with its layered tragedy – even without the iambic pentameter. —*Angela Watercutter*
