Shakespeare Retold
The four cutting-edge productions in this collection bring Shakespeare alive for a 21st century audience.
Macbeth is the chef in a three-star restaurant, slicing apart his celebrity boss, Duncan. Beatrice and Benedick are rival co-anchors on a nightly newscast whose open hostility masks passion of a different kind. Titania and Bottom carouse together in a tawdry theme resort called Dream Park. And the eccentric aristocrat Petruchio sets out to tame the conservative MP Kate in a politically incorrect marriage of convenience. Playful, cunning and passionate, these adaptations breathe new life into four classic plays, perfectly complementing the great BBC Shakespeare tradition.
Member Reviews
Great actors, And an Interesting Spin - Adria
These remakes aren't for everyone, but the cast in each are stellar and the screenplays leave you thinking. I enjoyed them overall. Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing were the two best. Hamlet was good enough, and liking James MacAvoy helped.Uneven - Lina
The quality of these 4 revamped Shakespeare plays is uneven - the best of the bunch, weird but wonderful, is "The Taming of the Shrew" with Shirley Henderson as Kate and Rufus Sewell as Petruccio (on disc 2). "Much Ado About Nothing" on disc 1 is pretty good too, though I kept thinking of the Kenneth Branagh / Emma Thompson version from 1993. The other two, "Macbeth" and "Midsummer Night's Dream" were so-so.Stellar Disappointment! - Lady_Olwen
To be honest I had high hopes for this DVD. I love Shakespeare & I think the concept here is quite novel. Updating Shakespeare’s stories for a more contemporary audience is fantastic in my opinion. Add to that the fact that this DVD has a super cast: Keeley Hawes, James McAvoy, Richard Armitage, Imelda Staunton, Rufus Sewell, Shirley Henderson & Billie Piper to name a few. How could things go wrong? Well they do & horribly. What a complete let down!
Four Shakespeare plays are done here – Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing & A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Out of these the only interesting one is Much Ado. Making Beatrice & Benedict competiting co-anchors of a news cast was great & the chemistry between the two leads was completely believable. The other three stories just come across as tedious, uninteresting & highly over acted. The Macbeth was so over the top stylized in its look & feel, I couldn’t relate to it all. The two leads in Taming of the Shrew were both so loud & annoying, that they came across as nothing more than a pain in the butt. By the time I got to A Midsummer Night’s Dream – I couldn’t go on & turned it off.
I was looking forward to watching this & was royally disappointed. My advice – stay with the classic interpretations of Shakespeare, they are a safer bet.
Member Reviews
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Great actors, And an Interesting Spin - Adria
These remakes aren't for everyone, but the cast in each are stellar and the screenplays leave you thinking. I enjoyed them overall. Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing were the two best. Hamlet was good enough, and liking James MacAvoy helped.Uneven - Lina
The quality of these 4 revamped Shakespeare plays is uneven - the best of the bunch, weird but wonderful, is "The Taming of the Shrew" with Shirley Henderson as Kate and Rufus Sewell as Petruccio (on disc 2). "Much Ado About Nothing" on disc 1 is pretty good ...Stellar Disappointment! - Lady_Olwen
To be honest I had high hopes for this DVD. I love Shakespeare & I think the concept here is quite novel. Updating Shakespeare’s stories for a more contemporary audience is fantastic in my opinion. Add to that the fact that this DVD has a super cast: Keeley ...