1. In preparation for our next Zoom session on Sunday, Nov. 28th, I watched the last episode of the first season of The Hollow Crown, a solid made for television adaption of Shakespeare's Henry V.
The creators of these episodes of The Hollow Crown streamline Shakespeare's original plays so that they run for just over two hours rather than three by cutting lines from speeches and cutting back and cutting out original scenes. Just for the record, I have no problem with this and enjoy watching these episodes as they are and I enjoy ruminating over some of the cuts.
In the episode I watched today, the producers cut out a very long, difficult, and pedantic speech given early in Act I by the Archbishop of Canterbury outlining, for King Henry, a justification for going to war with France. I won't get into that justification here in any detail, but the Archbishop's speech and King Henry's staging of it at court comprise a perfect example of a phrase I see used a lot in contemporary political analysis: performative politics.
If I understand performative politics, it's a phrase used to describe times when politicians are not so much making a substantive argument or presentation during a legislative session or a committee meeting or in front of camera outside the chambers, but are putting on a performance, sometimes with props, as a way of appealing to and pleasing their supporters. It's a common practice in American politics, but I'll give an international example: the so-called Nikita Khrushchev shoe banging incident at the United Nations in October of 1960. Khrushchev's shoe banging was for show. It was performative.
Likewise, in the beginning of Henry V, King Henry, I think, has already decided to go to war with France as a way of uniting his fractured kingdom behind a war effort that will take their minds off of domestic problems. He stages, or performs, his concern that he wants to do so with a clear conscience and so, very publicly in court, pretends to listen to the Archbishop's convoluted justification for war. He then publicly asks the Archbishop if he can proceed in good conscience and, true to his role in this performance, the Archbishop says he can. Keep in mind that the Archbishop has already promised to help fund this war and that the Archbishop wants to please King Henry because Parliament is considering levying a tax that would financially cripple the Church. The Archbishop wants King Henry to scuttle this bill.
In The Hollow Crown, the production cuts right to the chase. King Henry simply verifies with the Archbishop that he can, with a clear conscience, invade France. The Archbishop and the King's performance at court is cut out of this production. (It is, however, again for the record, included in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 movie, Henry V.)
2. After watching this episode of The Hollow Crown, I posted some questions and statements for our Westminster Basement Study Group to ponder, if they want to, about the play. Shakespeare's treatment of history, his creation of a heroic King Henry V, his simultaneous contesting of King Henry's heroism within the play, his questions about the nature kingship itself, and his portrayal of the impact of war upon everyday soldiers invigorates me. Even more so, I love Shakespeare's continual exploration of the power of human imagination and his preoccupation with the ways characters stage plays within his plays. I mean, it's common knowledge that in As You Like It, Jacques declares that "all the world's a stage". But Shakespeare doesn't stop with merely declaring this maxim (cliche?), he returns to it time and time again, giving us scene after scene in play after play when characters enact occurrences for other characters to see as a way of shaping their perception, of persuading them that something is true -- even when it's not. Sometimes these very miniature plays within Shakespeare's plays are entertaining, just like you and I perform little "plays" for one another by reenacting things that have happened, do imitations of one another, and pull pranks. This exploration of imagination and play acting runs throughout The Hollow Crown and it's a crucial element of what makes Shakespeare's history plays more than just a chronicling of Shakespeare's version of England's past.
3. My head and heart full of Shakespeare, I fixed myself a kind of funny dinner mixing fried corn, a broken up salmon patty, and golden couscous topped with Bragg Liquid Amino. Later on, I tried out a couple of rum drinks I thought up -- but they might be real drinks, too. I don't know. For my first cocktail, I mixed rum, Coca Cola, half and half, and cinnamon and enjoyed this concoction. Then, in the bottom of a glass, I mixed rum, hot chocolate powder, half and half, and cinnamon, poured boiling water over it and added some butter to the glass. It was kind of a variation on a hot buttered rum. I enjoyed it too. I enjoyed these nightcaps while messing around on YouTube, playing videos of scenes from The Wire. At first, it was an Omar Little night, but I finished with scenes involving the enigmatic and fascinating Lester Freamon. I was ready to go back and watch the whole series again.
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