Drunk Shakespeare

Here are some things I wrote down while re-reading Much Ado About Nothing for the first time in twenty years after three glasses of wine. Like what you see? You can support this project by throwing the money from that weird jar next to your bed at me via the link below: 
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• Why is the Arden Shakespeare half introduction? That’s too much introduction.
• Totally never knew there was a dude named Hugh Oatcake in this play.
• I always think the play starts with the Hey Nonny Nonny song like in the movie but it doesn’t. That Hey Nonny Nonny song was like the Song Of The Summer 1599.
• OH man it’s gonna be hard to set that song to something other than the melody from the movie, shit.
• “For indeed I promised to eat all of his killing” YES MOM DESTROY HIM
• HA I totally missed a joke in previous readings - Leonato says Hero has to be his kid cause that wife stealing slut Benedick was a kid when she was born. That’s a solid burn.
• Beatrice is REALLY EAGER to start bantering with this guy. I get it. I too confuse arguing with foreplay.
• Here’s the thing - I think there’s a lot of different ways to interpret B and B’s relationship, but to my eye they’ve been playing this game for a while. They’re not being tricked into falling in love, they’re being tricked into admitting it.
• Claudio is so boring.
• I know it’s different from a modern pov, but god i hate the “she’s pretty i love her now” trope, esp when compared to this well rehearsed vaudeville act the other couple have.
• Why do people in plays always think it’s a good idea to wear a disguise and woo in one another’s stead wait hang on does that work?
• “The sadness is without limit” Don John is so emo, i love him.
• “It must not be denied i am a plain dealing villain” do i have a crush on Don John now, that’s new. And troubling.
• B O R A C H I OOOOOOOO
• Lots of eavesdropping in this play. Also lots of people pretending to be other people, don’t any of them have jobs? Who’s running this county?
• Hero has some great moments with the prince in the dance scene. She’s clever, and not just the dutiful daughter. There’s a sweetness to her banter that’s a contrast to beatrice’s habitual shots to the jugular.
• OH YEAH MARGARET’S HERE. we love margaret.
• The party scene is def a song. All skate! Sigh No More should be used here, like it’s a pop hit. SONG OF THE SUMMER 1599.
• OH MAN there’s some good stuff in the footnotes about Borachio and Margaret basically doing a role play of Claudio and Hero. Kinky Sex + Class Wars, a classic combo.
• Do i have to include michael keaton? Those scenes always bored the hell out of me.
• I can’t disavow my one true love hugh oatcake tho.
• I think structure wise the act break needs to be after Claudio fucks up his own wedding.
• “Shakespeare gives way too much power to friars” - My Mom
• Beatrice’s big speech here is TOTALLY CORRECT CLAUDIO IS A LITTLE SHIT I HOPE SHE DOES EAT HIS HEART IN THE MARKETPLACE I WILL ALSO HAVE SOME
• Conrade is pretty fussed about everyone knowing he’s a gentleman. Why does this sentence make me think of the “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” video?  (I paused here to watch the I Write Sins Not Tragedies video and why did they bleep out the word god but leave the terrifying mime guests?)
• Yeah, michael keaton is getting one number max, and that is only because he’s a plot device, and because he’s friends with Hugh Oatcake.
• Ooooooo i forgot the part where Benedick tries to write Beatrice a song, this is good shit. Maybe he plays guitar. Anyway, here’s Wonderwall. Anyway, here’s Sigh No More the SONG OF THE SUMMER 1599.
• This scene is sweet. They’ve been too vulnerable with each other and now they’re having to find a way to speak that isn’t sparring. Plus she wants him to kill his friend, so that’s not ideal.
• I'm having a really hard time getting behind the Hero/Claudio coupling in 2018. Is there a way to comment on that without making it too dark? My first instinct is to switch the reunions, have b and b go first. But the point of this is to study the structure, so we’re going to go with Shakespeare’s instinct here. Mine are usually terrible anyway.
• So how to end this? I really hate when shows have big corny closing numbers, plus i need to reckon with one of the heroines being saddled to a total piece of shit who publicly shamed her at her own wedding for kinky sex she didn’t even get to have. Also Ursula is a person in this play who I have completely ignored up until this point.