William Shakespeare breathed life into Prince Hal and Marc Antony when he portrayed them in his plays. He took some historical accounts and turned them into…? Into what? Well, into dramatic personae. They joined Oedipus and Socrates and all the other characters that we know from the drama. And not that the characters are historically accurate; they’re not. They’re the invention of the playwright. But they’re better than accurate. They’re vivid. Alive. We know them. We know them better than we know any real personalities from history or even the news of the day. So, in a way they’re immortal. Millions and millions of human beings have watched and heard and read the words spoken by Hamlet and Falstaff and Macbeth. They’ve thought about the words, the intonation, the feelings the characters portrayed to understand what the characters were feeling and thinking. This is a level of existence that otherwise only occurs for most people within the confines of their own family. And in fact, rarely even there. Which of us is so witty or profound or emotional that the day-to-day dialog we share with our spouses or children or friends does more than just bounce off of their consciousness? It’s almost background noise in a way. It’s only in moments of crisis or discussions about important matters that we choose our words carefully and fully listen to what is being said.
Outside of drama we rarely listen with our full attention to what people around us say. Maybe during times of crisis. I remember very clearly after September 11th 2001 that Bush gave a few very carful and important speeches and I remember that I was glad that his rhetoric wasn’t too flowery. It was more about retribution and I was glad for it. But that was an exception. Most of what gets said by talking heads in the news goes in one ear and out the other and rightly so.
But it makes you think.
Who will be the next Shakespeare? When will we get another dramatic poet of his stature? And who will he write about? I was thinking, “Will someone write a play called Josef Stalin or FDR or Donald Trump?” It could happen. These were men who defined their times. If a great poet came along and breathed life into the character and made the story compelling future readers and viewers would be mesmerized by scenes where these characters mouthed the words that the author heard in his soul.
Of course, it might be a hundred years from now or even a couple of thousand. Shakespeare’s closest foray into recent history was one of his last plays, “Henry the Eighth” and it was hardly in line with his greater works. In fact, it’s doubtful he wrote most of it. If an audience a thousand years from now watches (or however entertainment is sensed at that point) about Donald Trump it’s doubtful that the real Trump will shine through at all. Only a comic genius, a futuristic Aristophanes could capture the bombast and swagger that “The Donald” provides in all of his speeches and interviews. And if he did manage to capture that spirit would the audiences (especially the critics) reject it as too over the top and exaggerated? They probably would. But I’d go see the show on the first night.