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THE GLOBE COMES TO AUSTRALIA By Jim White

of fire, that would….ascend the brightest...
heaven of invention.....”. Oh HELL!. We were
expected to read a script for a play that can only
come to life when it is performed.

Most of Shakespeare's 34 plays have been
regularly performed for over 400 years. In our
times, his plays and various adaptations have
been produced for film and shown all over the
world - from the days of silent movies to today's
blockbusters and now television. The BBC
alone has produced and broadcast every one of
his plays. So there have been plenty of
opportunities to see them, with over 250 titles
on film, including 42 versions of Hamlet.

Many of these films have been outstanding.
One such was Laurence Olivier's 1945 Henry V,
a highly stylised adaptation which began with
a recreation of its first performance in the first
Globe theatre in 1600. The classic sets and
costumes of Roger and Margaret Furse, the
brutally realistic battle of Agincourt filmed on
hat was your introduction to location in Ireland, its excellent cast and the
WShakespeare? Was it something you music of William Walton made it one of the lifelong interest. Olivier went on to produce
would rather forget? For many of us, it came at best. and star in his black-and-white version of
school. “Take out your books. Turn to page Hamlet and, later, Richard the Third. In 1989,
179. We'll begin with the Prologue to Henry It certainly brought Shakespeare to life! As a Kenneth Branagh produced his Henry V - a
the Fifth - one of Shakespeare's most famous 15 year-old at the time, I walked out of the mighty, realistic spectacle that focused the
history plays. WHITE! Stand up. Read from cinema stunned and thrilled. It was an response of its characters swept up in Henry's
the beginning of the Chorus”. "Oh for a muse.... introduction to Shakespeare which lead to a growth from play-boy prince to king,

30 CINEMARECORD # 99