11 June 2006

All's Well That Ends Well

Tonight we had the great pleasure of watching the BBC production of Shakespeare's play "All's Well That Ends Well". We thoroughly enjoyed the play. Our plan of starting with Shakespeare's comedies is paying off well. The unfamiliar language and styles of speech are no longer intimidating, we are used to detailed plots and now know that all the threads will be gathered together at the end. As the closing credits were displayed, we were all smiling broadly and James (10) informed me, "I liked that play Dad."
This play covers Marriage, fidelity, virtue, honesty, vanity of wealth and titles, just rewards for good and bad all interwoven into a clever plot. Initially the earlier scenes appeared to have no role in the story. Then in the final scene every previous section came crashing to a brilliant ending.
I'm not going to give away the plot as that may ruin the surprise.
Make sure you watch the play with subtitles as this is the best way to catch all the important dialogue. Later we will watch the play again and gather even more of the clues strewn about in the earlier scenes.
The play led to several discussions about what makes a valid marriage, the importance of "knowing" before one can truly love, how the person's virtue and honesty are worth a "far greater dowry than titles".

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