espressohhh

[espressohhh]

[espressohhh]

I fucking love repetitive lines that change meaning over a piece of writing yes slay

[espressohhh]

i do love it when people say they're adapting aeschylus' oresteia specifically but you can still spot sophocles sneaking his way in there. another victory for electra against the libation bearers.

[espressohhh]

“hero and leander��� by christopher marlowe | as you like it by william shakespeare

[espressohhh]

Hi Juliet! I want to start with saying I love your Tumblr page! I just saw your post about how there's a clip from Mourning Becomes Electra on National Theatre at Home. I also didn't know there was one and I would love to see it. Do you happen to have a link for it? I tried to find it myself, but so far, no luck. I would be very grateful! Love, Anna

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say!

The clip is from 50 Years on Stage, a video available with a National Theatre at Home subscription. It starts at around 1:46:20 and runs for about six minutes. Here's the link.

It's not from the original 2003 production, though. Helen Mirren and Tim Pigott-Smith reprised a scene from the play in 2013 for the live event celebrating the NT’s 50th anniversary. Still, it’s a gem.

I did a Google search to see if it was available elsewhere, and it is! Here's the link. The quality isn’t as good, but it works just fine.

Hope this helps!

[espressohhh]

[espressohhh]

thinking about older sister lavinia. eldest and only daughter lavinia, watching all her brothers go to war and only four come back. older sister lavinia being supported and protected in her relationship by her younger brothers. older sister lavinia whose brother gave his life so she and bassianus would be safe. older sister lavinia, mutilated and broken, kissing the heads of her bloodied heads of her younger brothers, saying goodnight for the last time the only way she can. think about older sister lavinia.

[espressohhh]

also WHAT is going on with their you/thous here. both of them start out with "you" (which could be derogatory but is probably, because they're on the same social level, more of a formality thing/resisting intimacy). but benedick slips into the intimate loving thou and BEATRICE DOESN'T! SHE KEEPS SAYING YOU! and before she even SAYS you, benedick GOES BACK TO YOU after she resists him the first time. are they fucking okay (no)

[espressohhh]

hey sexy what time do you plan on being done grieving

[espressohhh]

Mamma Mia! (2008) dir. Phyllida Lloyd

[espressohhh]

I have over 1000 pages of archival materials to go through.

The archival materials:

[espressohhh]

ruth wilson in a moon for the misbegotten

[espressohhh]

Jane Austen gets a lot of credit (correctly, obv) for writing banger romance and biting satire about class but I don't think we spend nearly enough time talking about how she absolutely clowns on vanity and self-importance.

[espressohhh]

Chicago (1960)

[espressohhh]

the friar from much ado about nothing after his faking a death scheme actually works: wow, I can't wait to tell my friend in verona about this one weird trick!

[espressohhh]

The diaries can be read here

The movie is linked here

i’m reading emma thompson’s diaries from the filming of sense and sensibility and there are some really great bits

danny de vito sent good-luck flowers on their first day of shooting

in the published draft of the script, colonel brandon and willoughby fight a duel offscreen after brandon confronts him about impregnating beth, brandon’s ward

“kissing hugh [grant] was very lovely. glad i invented it. can’t rely on austen for a snog, that’s for sure. we shoot the scene on a hump-backed bridge. two swans float into shot as if on cue. everyone coos. ‘get rid of them,’ says ang [lee]. ‘too romantic.’

for a number of outdoor scenes, they would fire a shotgun in the air just before the cameras started rolling to get the local crow population to shut the fuck up for a few minutes

there was a dedicated line item in the budget for hiring flocks of sheep for exterior shots, ang lee was determined to use them as often as he could

“later found ang looking at the estuary with a mournful expression. i went and stood beside him. after a moment he said, waving towards the water, ‘tide goes in, tide goes out, tide goes in, tide goes out — and still no sex.’ ‘do you miss it?’ i enquired, after i’d stopped laughing. he nodded sadly. his family won’t be back for weeks.”

while filming the scenes at the palmers’ house with the screaming baby, it turns out that “we’ve hired the calmest babies in the world to play the hysterical thomas. one did finally start to cry but stopped every time chris yelled ‘action’. later: babies smiled all afternoon. buddhist babies. they didn’t cry once. we, however, were all in tears by 5 p.m.”

“very nice lady served us drinks in hotel and was followed in by a cat. we all crooned at it. alan [rickman] to cat (very low and meaning it): ‘fuck off’. the nice lady didn’t turn a hair. the cat looked slightly embarrassed but stayed.”

during the london ballroom scene hugh laurie kept treading on the train of imelda staunton’s gown, “which pulled it down so far it exposed her boobs. keep it in, i said, but she wouldn’t.”

“sunday, 11 june: drank far too much last night and woke at 5:30 a.m. could’ve gone on drinking all night. quite grateful for a hangover, it provides a bit of peace. walked on to my balcony completely naked last night and took the couple that have moved into the suite next door slightly by surprise. walked back in calmly affecting insouciance and then bit all my pillows, one after the other.”

while resetting a scene involving a carriage, “ang rode off on a bicycle and didn’t return. found him locked in the loo at trafalgar, having broken the key. he’s being rescued at present.”

“noon. finish scene with alan. me: ‘oh! i’ve just ovulated.’ alan (long pause): ‘thank you for that.’”

“hugh g. in a spot of bother up la, apparently. something to do with a blow job. it’s all right for some, i thought.”

[espressohhh]

I LOVE IT WHEN ENDINGS CIRCLE BACK TO THE BEGINNING!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS MIRROR EACH OTHER!!!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS SEAL THEIR FATES IN THEIR FIRST SCENES!!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS' GREATEST TRAITS ARE ALSO WHAT DOOM THEM IN THE END!!!!!