Mariam - All's Well That Ends Well ⭐⭐⭐.5

I began this play with a pretty bad attitude. I was bored before it even started. Mostly, this had to do with the visuals. It's from the 80s and it's worse than black and white in that the edges are completely gone. It's like watching something through a peephole. And because they weren't filming black and white, they didn't adjust coloring and lighting and so whole thing looks like it's taking place in a very dim, evening, indoor setting. 

I first started to really pay attention when the king and Helena kissed because I KNEW that wasn't part of the story. I was like wait just one dang minute. 

Anyway, they never followed up with that. So I don't know what the point of that kiss was. But it got my attention. 

This is how I feel about Helena. If she was a man, we would think she's despicable. To pressure a man to marry her and then to force his hand was wrong. It makes me think she was a little self-aware how pious, righteous, beautiful, good she was because she must have believed after marriage he would see her charms. 

He was pretty despicable himself trying to get a girl to sleep with him that would be ruined afterwards. 

Actually, I quite liked Diana. She was a girl's girl and she did much more for Helena than she really had to. Maybe she enjoyed the drama and doing something exciting. She's also quite beautiful.  

Lots of virginity talk. Just a note, lol.

The mom was alright in the end. I don't know how I feel about her disowning her son for the reasons she did. There were other reasons that I'd be ok with her disowning him for lol. Her heart was in the right place, I think.

The whole Parolles storyline was not worth much commentary. Was Bertram a dumb for not seeing right through him? Yes, but also I think this whole arc was supposed to be ridiculous and slapstick and not realistic. 

I'm giving it a half extra star more than I ought to because given the bad attitude I started with, I ended it with much more interest. For sure, I was waiting to see how the whole king and Helena chemistry was going to play out. I think if they could have given it a new interpretation without departing from the text, I would have been impressed. But they didn't.

Also, I think it was in the scene where the women are looking down over the balcony that I thought, if this film wasn't degraded so badly, I bet this was supposed to visually appeal to us like A Midsummer Night Dream or Much Ado About Nothing. Flowers and sun and old brick walls. And I felt the spirit of that even if I couldn't see it. 

We have a poem break next. 

Missy - Alls Well that Ends Well ⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Alls Well that Ends Well is not particularly well known. I’d argue that it deserves its anonymity.

I’m pretty sure I saw it once at the Carter Barron when I was a teenager, but it’s very fuzzy in my mind. Please watch the above summary to get a feel for the plot. I certainly did. It’s not hyper memorable.

Here is our Helen. She is wise and beautiful, virtuous and ingratiating. She has terrible taste in men. She loves above her station. The King likes her.

Her father is dead. She is very sad.

Here is Parolles. He’s like the ugly duckling child of Iago in terms of malice and Antonio from the Tempest in terms of cowardice and bad planning. 

Most of the bad moves in this play can be traced back to him. On the other hand the protagonist’s seem fully capable of making bad decisions on their own so he’s more of a catalyst than an actual villain.

This is Bertram. He is self centered and foolish but apparently attractive. He’s recently become Count and is about to go make a name for himself at court.

His father is dead and Bertram is about to go live up to his good name (fail).

The main actions go like this.

Poralles convinces Helen to go get the man she wants (Bertram)  because her virginity is withering away.

Poralles convinces Bertram to run away to the wars rather than sleep with his own new wife because …? You’re not the boss of me?

Various chasing of uninterested parties and identity swaps ensue. This is Shakespeare after all.

In the exciting denouement a not very good riddle is told and Bertram and Helen fall magically in love and the King says something wise.

I’m giving this one 3 stars for plot and character.

There was a strange directorial decision to have the King and Helen kiss, for no apparent reason.

But I think the cast and crew did well with the play they had. I particularly thought the king had a very kingly voice and mean.

When we were about to start this play Mariam texted me that there is finally a mom and even a pretty good mom in one of our watches for this project.

I was delighted. 

The mom (Bertrand mom and Helen guardian then mother in law) is a pretty good mom and I’ll give her 4 stars for doing what she could with the son she had. Minus one star for being sort of ineffective but really not bad.

Even though we actually get a mom here I was struck by the missing dads from the beginning.

Their loss is world shattering and defining in a way it could not be today. Helen spends the first few acts completely at a loss for the absence of her father and likewise Bertram is defined only through the lens of his missing parent.

In a world where men held the lives and livelyhoods of their family’s in their hands,  a death like either of these would call for complete realignment.

I imagined Shakespeare imagining how lost and bereft his own daughters would be without him. There’s a certain amount of self aggrandizement  and martyrdom to the imagining though.

All of this  reminded me of this juvenile impulse that Henry VIII had. He loved this song about a beautiful beloved and gallant knight who’s died and how all the world morns for him.

He used to have it sung to him when he was feeling low, and thought it was very deep. To me it’s always smacked of a 7 year old telling everyone “You’ll be sorry when I’m dead!”.

This is all speculation but it’s what the play made me think about.

Now I also will be self indulgent and afflict you with my version of that song Henry VIII made people sing to him.