forum Shakespeare Retellings You'd Like to See!

Started August 31, 2021 by @HighPockets group

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I know I can't be the only one here who likes Shakespeare; what are some retellings you'd like to see/are writing/would direct?
I'm working on a modern-day take on The Taming of the Shrew where Kate is aro-ace and reluctantly starts up a fake relationship with a guy named Peter so that her very conservative father will pay for her college tuition (since the "my youngest can't be married until my oldest is!" thing doesn't really work since they're both in high school) while Bianca finds herself caught in a love triangle between her sporty best friend Ezra, who she's expected to start dating, and Luci, the girl who agrees to help tutor her in math and who makes Bianca realize that she likes girls too.
Anyways share your thoughts below, I want to hear them!

Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet

That's it that is all

Have you read any good ones?

No and it makes me mad. There are like no Hamlet retellings that I can find

There's one in the That Way Madness Lies anthology, it was pretty good but for some reason they genderbent Hamlet but then didn't have her and Ophelia be together? Idk that was weird to me

I would LOVE to see a Measure For Measure retelling, there's so much untapped potential there-

There's one in the That Way Madness Lies anthology, it was pretty good but for some reason they genderbent Hamlet but then didn't have her and Ophelia be together? Idk that was weird to me

Huh odd

I would LOVE to see a Measure For Measure retelling, there's so much untapped potential there-

Huh haven't read that one, I need to

ROMEO AND JULIET BUT THEY'RE GAY AND TRANS AND IN A LAVENDER MARRIAGE. FUCK YEAH.

I want more Romeo and Juliet retellings to play up the parallels between Romeo and Juliet and Mercutio and Benvolio-

Ooh yeah that could be neat.

The fact that there's no popular As You Like It retellings makes me sad, there's so much chaotic queer energy in that one.

Fair, fair.

I mean come on, the plot is a banished princess fleeing to the woods and crossdressing as a man named Ganymede (which, you know, has some subtext-) to teach her crush how to effectively woo her. Orlando is bi and I WILL die on that hill, he literally pretends to marry "Rosalind" (aka Rosalind as Ganymede pretending to be Rosalind to teach Orlando how to woo her; to Orlando's knowledge, Ganymede is just a slightly androgynous cis man).
Phebe falls in love with Rosalind-as-Ganymede after being chastised by her as well (if I had a nickel for every time an otherwise ill-tempered woman in a Shakespearean comedy fell in love with a crossdressing woman after being scolded by her, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice, the other being Olivia and Viola/Cesario in Twelfth Night); there's also a line at the end of the show where Hymen (goddess of marriage with an…unfortunate name that I had to say straight-faced since I played her) tells Phebe that she needs to marry Silvius or "have a woman to your lord", which in our current English is basically "marry Silvius or you might as well marry a woman, since no man would take you" Justice for Phebe tbh, I love the bitchy Shakespeare ladies sm!
A few people in my theatre group read Le Beau as being in love with Orlando (and I lowkey played it that way) because he goes back to warn him about the danger Duke Frederick poses when they've had no other onstage interaction, and he ends it with "hereafter, in a better world than this/I shall desire more love and knowledge of you"; there was some mild division over if Jaques was aro-ace, in love with Touchstone, or in love with Duke Senior and I basically toed the line between 1 and 3 and okay I'll stop rambling about the Shakespeare characters I get unhealthily attached to in every show I'm in-
A lot of people headcanon Rosalind as nonbinary but personally as far as Shakespearean Crossdressing Heroines Discourse goes I don't think Rosalind is nonbinary but from what I've read of Twelfth Night…I need to read the whole thing but enby Viola eyes emoji

i am making heart eyes at u

:D
<3

u'r cool.

So are you!

aww, thanks lol! But seriously you have good ideas.

A very funny thing in AYLI that I adore is how snail antennas are referred to as horns, like it's the smallest thing but I'm like "that's so funky you go William"

aww, thanks lol! But seriously you have good ideas.

<3!!!!

I'd actually love a modern retelling of Twelfth Night. I haven't read many of Shakespeare's comedies before, but this was super funny, especially with the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance of it with Stephen Fry as Malvolio.

I'd actually love a modern retelling of Twelfth Night. I haven't read many of Shakespeare's comedies before, but this was super funny, especially with the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance of it with Stephen Fry as Malvolio.

I feel like the only comedies that gets adapted are Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew, which is weird to me since from what I've gauged by talking to friends/browsing Shakespeare fan stuff, Twelfth Night is much more popular and beloved than The Taming of the Shrew due to The Taming of the Shrew being….you know….The Taming of the Shrew (I will argue that TOTS is a satire but I won't die on that hill since it really does depend on how it's played)
There's a cute modern Twelfth Night-inspired short story in the That Way Madness Lies anthology, but it's solely the ending of the show and not the entire thing. Also I believe there's a modern retelling coming out soon-ish called Twelfth Grade Night, I think Molly Booth is writing it?

I would LOVE to see a Measure For Measure retelling, there's so much untapped potential there-

To elaborate (I'm spoiling-tagging since MFM deals with sexual coersion)

Also a thing I think is neat is that Isabella has no love interest in the play. At the end, the Duke proposes to her but we never head her accept or reject it.

Ooooooo that would be so good