August Shakespeare Cat- Lesser Known Works

AUGUST- Shakespeare's Lesser Known Works



While all of Shakespeare's plays have their fans, this month we admit that there's a hierarchy. There are the beloved, popular plays that will always be performed the most, such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth. There are the plays that are often performed and discussed: The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, Richard III... and then there are the plays that get shunted into the attic, discussed only when the whole of Shakespeare's work are being discussed, performed less often, so we are less familiar with them. This is their month to shine, or to give us an explanation as to why the are considered "lesser" works.

Suggestions:
Titus Andronicus
The Winter's Tale
Timon of Athens
Richard II
Troilus and Cressida
Cymbeline
Coriolanus
Love's Labour's Lost
Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Just think of how impressive you'll seem when discussing one of these deep-cut plays.
What will you be reading?

>1 mstrust: I will probably go with Richard II as it's on my shelf and I've already read Titus Andronicus and Coriolanus this year. I think the December read is A Winter's Tale and I will save that for then. Great theme!

Please suggest some themes or other connections to these works for those who prefer to go that route. Thanks!

>2 Tess_W: Good to see you joining us for this theme! Should be interesting!

>3 LadyoftheLodge: I got nothing. With so much of Shakespeare you'll find adaptions such as A Thousand Acres or Warm Bodies, but I looked up a few of these lesser-knowns and didn't come across adaptions. Maybe you may know of one?
There aren't non-fiction studies of these plays for the general public, though you might find something aimed at the scholar.
You can watch a movie version of Titus and maybe a couple of the others here, but even that will be difficult to find for some of them.

I only found these ones - agreed they are difficult to find retellings for the less well known plays.
The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson and Exit, Pursued By A Bear by E.K. Johnstone - retellings of The Winter's Tale

Another option would be to read a prose retelling of the play - they seem to be available for all the plays.

>5 JayneCM: I have found that the "No Fear Shakespeare" volumes are fabulous! They have the original text on the left and the modern text on the right. I often use them on new plays that I'm not familiar with. Saves me from looking up dozens of phrases on the internet and interrupting my reading flow.

>5 JayneCM: Thanks for finding those! I've heard of the Johnstone but didn't realize it was a retelling.

>6 Tess_W: My go-to collection is the Yale Shakespeares from the 20's. They have most of the footnotes and explanations at the bottom of the page.

I think I've settled on Pericles.

>3 LadyoftheLodge: A King Under Siege is Richard II in novel form (Mercedes Rochelle) Also, A Burnable Book takes place during the reign of Richard II who is present in many of the chapters.

>8 Tess_W: Thank you for the suggestions. I will check them out!

I completed Richard II: A Readable Version (Readable Shakespeare Book 16). I liked the book as its basis is very historical. However, this version was too long--although I persevered! 539 pages.

Wow, you deserve some applause!

I read Love's Labour's Lost, and it may be my least favorite Shakespeare, unfortunately. I found the plot slight yet confusing, and I gather it's full of references and in-jokes I would've found hilarious in the 1590's, even more so than most of his work.

>12 susanna.fraser: But if you can dig up the Kenneth Branagh movie, I'd highly recommend it! It's a musical, and it's an oddball delight.

I'm planning to read The Comedy of Errors. As far as tie-ins for lesser known works, since many of them are histories, I would think a lot of historical fiction set in medieval England would work. Henry VIII is read from in Mansfield Park. The Comedy of Errors is about twins. Troilus and Cressida has a Trojan War setting, and there are some recent historical novels set in the same time and place (such as The Silence of the Girls).

>14 cbl_tn: Thanks for suggesting these themes and tie-ins. I was ready to give up on this one.

I'm halfway through Pericles. It's a fast moving historical.

Finished Pericles. There's incest, multiple shipwrecks, death, an attempted murder of a young girl, who is kidnapped and sold to a brothel...and yet, this is probably listed as a comedy due to the happy ending.
I thought it worthy of a reading, lots of action and the scenes of a ship in a storm must have been grand on the stage. But there was a fast pace to it that seemed un-William-ish, and I see that scholars believe that Shakespeare wrote exactly half of this play, the second half.

I finished Act III of Timon of Athens last night. Two acts to go!

September is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/343566

Just wanted to pop a link to the wiki here, in case anyone would like to add what they've been reading! https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2022_ShakespeareCAT

I completed The Gap of Time which is a retelling of The Winter's Tale. I did not like this one much. I did not feel that this is the quality Winterson's work generally has.