Stages of discovery: Exploring Shakespeare’s enduring appeal as the Guthrie prepares to open three of his plays
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Shakespeare is still popular.
During the holiday season last year, movie viewers saw a screen interpretation of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” Called “Anyone but You,” and starring young stars Glen Powell and Sidney Sweeney, the film enjoyed a cozy box office of $216.3 million.
The film was another example of the fact that Shakespeare can be endlessly reinterpreted for new audiences — other examples include “Romeo + Juliet,” “10 Things I Hate About You” and “My Own Private Idaho.”
To explore why Shakespeare is still such a dependably popular author, MPR News spoke with Shakespeare experts about his cultural significance.
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Joseph Haj is the artistic director of the Guthrie. The Minneapolis theater will open a set of Shakespeare plays — “Richard II,” “Henry IV” and “Henry V” — to be performed in rotating repertory in mid-April.
“I came to the theater late. And I came to Shakespeare still later,” Haj said. “I managed to go to graduate school without ever having read a Shakespeare play from front to back.”
As a high schooler, Haj wasn’t academically inclined. Theater proved to be a place where he excelled, leading to an acting career. During his time at the University of North Carolina’s MFA in acting program, Haj’s friend introduced him to the world of Shakespeare by walking him through the plot of “Richard II.”
“By the time I got to the end of that play, I was gobsmacked ... I just was so astounded by the writing,” Haj recalled.
Rosa Joshi is the associate artistic director with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She first encountered the Bard earlier in her life than Haj.
“[As] a South Asian person, I first encountered Shakespeare growing up as an expat in the Middle East,” Joshi said.
“That I could read that work and feel like it had spoken to me and said something about my life, I think speaks to the capacity of the work to resonate across cultures and across generations.”
Haj has similar sentiments.
“If an average 10th-grade class, with all of the difference in demographics that might be in that group, can tell you the story of Romeo and Juliet, then Romeo and Juliet belongs to all of us,” he said.
For Haj, Shakespeare represents an important part of the storytelling tradition. Being introduced to Shakespeare is very different from engaging with it, however.
“The plays don’t really come to life until you hear the language. So that can be really difficult for students,” said Katherine Scheil, a professor of English at the University of Minnesota, who specializes in Shakespeare.
“I think you have to try to bring the performance aspect to life, even in the classroom.”
Like Haj and Joshi, Scheil believes Shakespeare’s longevity can be credited to the universal themes he deals with. Take “Henry V.” Although the play is about a specific historical moment, it explores themes of family and the legacy they leave you.
“I like to imagine Shakespeare in his study with his little early modern post-it notes thinking about like large questions of life,” Scheil said.
“I think one of the reasons that we keep coming back to Shakespeare is that he had this uncanny ability of looking at the broader picture and the broader questions that still preoccupy us.”
