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Post by loserdyke on Nov 25, 2022 18:12:55 GMT -5
i work mostly in shakespeare as of right now and i simply can’t stop thinking about tragedies as horror and horror and the modern tragedy. hamlet is a ghost story, macbeth is a supernatural thriller, and titus andronicus is down right nasty!!!!!! there are definitely exceptions to my rule here (romeo and juliet is more grounded being about gang violence and tribalism) but ain’t that the way about genre all the time?
i know shakespeare seems loftier than modern horror but it’s decidedly not. it was for the illiterate masses and has more blood, guts, ghosts, curses, witches, and cannibalism, than the uninitiated expect.
i would love to see shakespeare handled more like horror in theatre and film and i LOVE when horror leans into the shakespearean roots (and i’m always looking for recommendations for that).
tldr: horatio is the original final girl.
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Post by eldritchcatgirl on Nov 26, 2022 11:49:26 GMT -5
You know, I think there is a lot of horror potential in Shakespeare and works inspired by him, and another angle which I find interesting is the sort of cosmic horror quality of the more mystical elements of his plays. Obviously you mentioned Hamlet and the ghost of his father, an interpretation of a ghost which invokes existential dread in both Hamlet himself and the audience, since his existence suggests that life and death are nothing more than a cruel performance that locks you into the petty perversities of your human failings. Moreover, works like A Midsummer Nights Dream and The Tempest are more unnerving and strange than they're really given credit for, and I think Neil Gaiman's The Sandman is the only work I'm familiar with that has really played with this dreadful aspect of Shakespeare's work.
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Post by withswords on Nov 27, 2022 10:25:26 GMT -5
i feel like in general horror the way people talk about it in the mainstream doesn't read well on stage because people think of the function of horror as 'trying to scare you' rather than all the other things horror sets out to do, for the same reason that i've seen people say horror anime is impossible to do. like, there are plenty of successful pieces in both mediums that are horror stories, but because these things have an extra layer of separation to them it's harder to get an immersion scare the way you can with a book or a movie where there isn't that kayfabe element, and that's what people seem to look for when they talk about horror. that being said, i think the best piece of on stage horror i've ever seen personally was a production of taming that they played deathly straight
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Post by loserdyke on Nov 27, 2022 20:49:51 GMT -5
Obviously you mentioned Hamlet and the ghost of his father, an interpretation of a ghost which invokes existential dread in both Hamlet himself and the audience, since his existence suggests that life and death are nothing more than a cruel performance that locks you into the petty perversities of your human failings. Yes!!! hamlets dead ghost dad confirming hell being real is really disturbing to him and the audience and along with that there is a fear that the ghost is not Really his father. until the king freaks out during the play within the play it’s a very real possibility to Hamlet and Horatio that the entity they are interacting with could be a demon or dark spirit of some kind that is trying to trick a grief-stricken son into killing his innocent uncle and damning his soul. i love this detail because it adds to the sickly irony that the play thrives depicting. if hamlet trusted the ghost immediately and killed his uncle then he could have prevented all the misery and death but that would have been unreasonable to do at the time. it’s like so many horror stories about the supernatural in that way.
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Post by loserdyke on Nov 27, 2022 21:01:07 GMT -5
i feel like in general horror the way people talk about it in the mainstream doesn't read well on stage because people think of the function of horror as 'trying to scare you' rather than all the other things horror sets out to do, for the same reason that i've seen people say horror anime is impossible to do. like, there are plenty of successful pieces in both mediums that are horror stories, but because these things have an extra layer of separation to them it's harder to get an immersion scare the way you can with a book or a movie where there isn't that kayfabe element, and that's what people seem to look for when they talk about horror. that being said, i think the best piece of on stage horror i've ever seen personally was a production of taming that they played deathly straight immersive theatre is the future of horror theatre imo. you could argue any haunted hayride or evil farmhouse attraction is immersive theatre (and i’d agree tbh) but immersive theatre is such a successful way to unsettle someone that now the industry has to figure out how to tell a story that is not only scary but fulfilling and well constructed. (that’s where my “video games and theatre are the same thing” obsession starts to leak in but that’s another can of worms). the best horror in theatre i’ve ever seen was probably the crucible with saoirse ronan on broadway. the best i’ve ever read, however, was the pillowman by martin mcdonagh which i HIGHLY recommend everyone read (i have a pdf i can link if anyone needs help finding one) i’m foaming at the mouth to see a production of that live. i would also say a lot sarah kane’s plays toe the line but are less easily placed in the genre conventions. she combines showing the audience very graphic moments of extreme violence (in THEATRE!!!!!!!!) and moments of surrealism and magic realism. i’m like…. lowkey the number one sarah kane fan i think lol. excluding immersive theatre for a moment, i think her work gets at some of the best of what horror can bring to theatre.
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Post by wormsday on Jan 13, 2023 14:53:44 GMT -5
i thought about this thread when we were fumbling the ball over the tempest
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