New series: Shakespeare on Film

HONESDALE — Film adaptations of Shakespeare plays will be shown at the Cooperage in Honesdale as part of a new monthly series.

"Such Sweet Thunder: Shakespeare on Film" will be curated by Robert Dugan, Ph.D., who will introduce each play with a brief background and orientation. It begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25, with one of Shakespeare’s funniest and most popular comedies, director Michael Hoffman’s version of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," starring Calista Flockheart, Stanley Tucci, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Kevin Klein.

“Shakespeare is fun and profound because the plays are so resilient and adaptable," said Dugan. "There are no definitive or final versions, so they remain alive and relevant.”

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the most influential playwright of the English speaking world and among the greatest literary artists who has ever lived. Shakespeare, himself an actor, intended that his plays be seen and heard, not read. During the first three centuries of their existence, presentations necessarily took the form of staged productions performed before live audiences.

This all changed in 1899 with the film adaptation of King John, directed by William K. L. Dickinson and Walter Pfeffer Dando and featuring the great English actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Dozens of adaptations — many considered masterpieces in their own right — have followed ranging from The Taming of the Shrew (1929) with Mary Pickford and Paul Czinner’s As You Like It (1936) to Kenneth Branugh’s Much Ado About Nothing (1993) and Ralph Fienne’s Coriolanus (2012), to name but a few.

Shakespeare is more popular now than ever, and one major reason for this is the availability of his plays on film.

“You can do anything to Shakespeare except change the words," said Dugan. "Once you alter the language, it is no longer Shakespeare.”

Each showing will be followed by a discussion.

Donations will collected at the door.

For more information call 570-253-2020.