GUESS WHO GOT TICKETS TO GO SEE DAVID TENNANT IN MACBETH

Happy death/birth(?)day, William Shakespeare!

Look, I love Much Ado. Absolutely my favorite Shakespeare play, hands down.

But there's always that moment when you have to accept that Hero isn't going to tell Claudio to shove off this time either.

Ophelia just drowned herself in her grief-driven madness and the next stage directions are "enter two clowns" gotta love Shakespeare

You know what's so devastating to me about "God that I were a man"? It's the way that in this situation, Beatrice is not exceptional. In the first acts, she appears to be exempt from the gender roles that everyone around her complies with: she has avoided marriage so far, and she has license to playfully criticize and reject being "over-master'd with a piece of valiant dust" (2.2.55-56). She even suggests to Hero that she claim some agency over her engagement: "it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy, and say, 'father, as it please you.' But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say, 'father, as it please me'" (2.1.48-51). Beatrice has carved out an existence for herself that everyone else tolerates; her wit allows her to live outside of people's expectations of womanhood.

But Beatrice is not exempt from being a woman. When it actually matters, when Hero is disgraced by powerful men with no regard for her wellbeing or humanity, Beatrice can't do anything about it. And "God that I were a man" is so painful because it reminds us--and Benedick--that no matter how transcendent Beatrice appears to be, she is still constrained by her role in Messina's society. Back in act one and act two, the reason that she was allowed to poke fun at men wasn't that she couldn't be stopped; it was that it didn't matter. She has no actual power to change the order of things, and so her verbal sparring is not a threat.

(An aside: I think that Benedick is taken aback by "God that I were a man" because this has never really occurred to him. He sees Beatrice as his intellectual equal, and he has watched her carve out space for herself effectively (they know each other of old). In the 2011 production with David Tennant, the costuming and acting choices show how Benedick starts actively performing masculinity only when he accepts Beatrice's request to kill Claudio--when he has to "be a man for [Beatrice's] sake" (4.1.314). In the first acts, he wears tight clothes, a crop top, and a miniskirt. From the wedding on, he wears his military uniform and then a suit. His body language also changes; he abandons physical comedy, stands tall, and emotes less when he speaks to Claudio and Don Pedro. He wields his masculinity as a weapon because he now realizes it's a weapon that Beatrice cannot wield herself.)

The crashing realization of Beatrice's limits is so devastating to me because it's so familiar. I can only speak from experiences I've had, but as a queer woman I know that tolerance is different than empowerment. That having grown up evading dating and romance with made-up excuses to hide my queerness, having realized the extent of the misogyny in an organization I cared about and having grappled with how that misogyny prevented me from effecting change, being allowed to exist is not the same as being able to participate, to make things different. God, that I were a man. I would eat his heart in the marketplace.

Rosalind ayli drives me Insane like how was shakespeare writing that shit in the 16th fucking century. Like at the time it would have been a man playing a woman playing a man playing a woman who also occasionally refers to herself as a man. Gender is literally a performance. It's playacting, it's theatre, it's a social gambit. It's a role you put on.

Ben Jonson's dedication to shakespeare at the beginning of the first folio getting me unreasonably emotional this fine evening

Finally acquired a copy of Antony Sher's Year of the Fat Knight but refuse to open it because I just know that doing so will instantly plunge me into a months long obsession with the Henries again, derailing any and all other things I might have wanted to get done and I have other stuff I need to focus on rn

Following people on tumblr became so awkward now that I have to search their page for key words every time.

Hey, you have this niche interest I have too! Would really love to follow you, but, um... Sorry, this is awkward... It truly is nothing personal, I ask every new person this... Are you by any chance antisemitic? Oh, you are? And you use the word "zionist" meaning "evil Jew"? Like USSR government did? Okay, nevermind, won't see you, bye.

People have GOTTA stop calling Rosalind the smartest woman in Shakespeare. That girl is not even the smartest woman in her play. I love her but Jesus Christ girlie.

2017 national theatre twelfth night really has it all. Lesbian Malvolia. Sir Andrew in a pink suit and hot pink socks. Sebastian and Antonio kiss. Orsino throwing a shitty birthday party and wearing a 'Big 40' badge in one of the scenes. Sir Andrew's delivery of 'I was adored once'. The Elephant is a drag bar meaning Antonio invited Sebastian to a drag bar as a safe rendezvous spot in Illyria. Sir Andrew calling the drag queen 'miss'. Female Feste. Sir Andrew trying to slow dance with Sir Toby as feste sings. Both Orsino and Olivia get gaykissed. There is a lesbian malvolia. Truly the production ever.

My fairly niche Much Ado About Nothing take is that Don John should be a teenager. Give me sulky teen Don John being dragged along by his much older half brother. He's "not of many words" because he doesn't want to be there, and he's on his phone in every group scene. Conrade and Borachio are his little high school buddies who suck. Everyone else is having a great time as twenty-/thirty-year-olds and Don John is bored out of his mind and decides to cause problems on purpose.

i relate to Olivia from twelfth night on a spiritual because I too would see a smart attractive androgynous-looking person saying shit like 'halloo your name to the reverberate hills' and fall instantly in love before accidentally marrying their equally attractive identical twin who just happens to be in town. she is my bisexual disaster icon and I love her forever.

[DAZED FROM BLOOD LOSS] hey not to kill the vibe completely but i think i am in love with you

et tu?

Every shakespeare character is at least a little bit fruity. If you try hard enough.