re-cover nr.103

Hamlet - William Shakespeare

These pictures were taken in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam in 2009.

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright.
Hamlet was first published around 1600.

Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Kenneth Branagh, and more recently Jude Law, among others, all played Hamlet both on stage or on screen.
The first adaptation of Hamlet to screen though was Sarah Bernhardt's five-minute film of the fencing scene in 1899.
The film The Bad Sleep Well (1960), by Akira Kurosawa, is also based upon the play.
Heiner Müller, in 1977, wrote a postmodernist version of Hamlet, Die Hamletmaschine.

"To be or not to be - that is the question"

re-cover nr.102

The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare

This picture was taken in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam in 2009.
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright. The Merchant of Venice was first published around 1600.

In 1914, The Merchant of Venice was for the first time adapted to cinema by Lois Weber.

"I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.".