Shakespeare References in In The Boom Boom Room

Shakespeare references continue to pop up in most of the things I read. While Shakespeare and his works aren’t actually referred to in David Rabe’s play In The Boom Boom Room, Shakespeare is mentioned twice at the beginning of the book. The first reference: “In The Boom Boom Room was first produced Off-Broadway by Joseph Papp on December 4, 1974 at The New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater under the direction of Robert Hedley” (p. 5). The second reference is in the description of the set: “The set should be a space with areas and levels similar to a Shakespearean stage, but all within a metaphor of bars and go-go dancing” (p. 8).

The edition I read was the Samuel French publication, the play revised to the original two acts, and includes a note by David Rabe at the end.

William Shakespeare’s Tragedy Of The Sith’s Revenge: Star Wars Part The Third by Ian Doescher (2015) Book Review

Revenge Of The Sith was far and away the best of the three Star Wars prequels. Ian Doescher combines that screenplay with the work of William Shakespeare to create William Shakespeare’s Tragedy Of The Sith’s Revenge: Star Wars Part The Third, completing the six-book series. As with the other volumes, this book is divided into five acts and is presented mostly in iambic pentameter.

The prologue is delivered by the Chorus as a sonnet. As in other books in the series, lines are given to characters that don’t speak in the films. For example, in this book, the vulture droids speak. And of course, there are many references to the works of Shakespeare. Anakin Skywalker turns to Julius Caesar when speaking with Dooku: “Cowards die many times before their deaths;/The Jedi never taste of death but once” (pages 23-24). Of course, in Act II scene ii Caesar says, “The valiant,” not “The Jedi.” Later Anakin has a little play on the title of All’s Well That Ends Well when he says, “Methinks all’s well – that might have ended worse” (p. 27). He also quotes Romeo: “I have more care to stay than will to go” (p. 39).

Anakin turns to Titus Andronicus as well: “If I did tell my sorrows to the stones,/Who, though they cannot answer my distress,/Yet in some sort are better than the Council,/For that they will not intercept my tale:/When I do weep, they humbly at my feet/Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;/And, were they but attired in grave weeds,/Coruscant could afford none like to these./A stone is soft as wax, the Jedi harder,/A stone is silent and offendeth not,/Whilst Jedi by decrees doom me to shame” (p. 57). Of course these lines are slightly different than the original speech by Titus in Act III Scene i: “Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones,/Who, though they cannot answer my distress,/Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,/For that they will not intercept my tale./When I do weep, they humbly at my feet/Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me;/And, were they but attired in grave weeds,/Rome could afford no tribune like to these./A stone is as soft wax, tribunes more hard than stones;/A stone is silent, and offendeth not,/And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.”

Palpatine, interestingly, takes the role of Hamlet when he instructs the players to perform a certain piece for Anakin. He says to Player 1, “I heard thee speak me a speech once, but ‘twas/Ne’er acted; or, if ‘twas, not above once” (p. 64). Player 1 plays the role of Oedipus as a Tusken Raider. Then Anakin use Hamlet’s words about being played “as one would play a pipe” (p. 67). The story of Darth Plagueis is performed by the players, an interesting choice. Anakin turns to Hamlet again when talking to Padme: “I have of late – but wherefore I know not – /Lost all my mirth” (p. 78). And once Anakin becomes Darth Vader, he quotes from Act IV Scene iii of Timon Of Athens: “the moon’s an arrant thief,/And her pale fire she snatches from the sun” (p. 104). Vader also turns to Othello when he goes to the Jedi temple to dispatch the young Jedi: “I would not kill your unprepared spirits;/No, heav’n forfend! I would not kill your souls” (p. 116). The first youngling responds with Desdemona’s line, “Talk you of killing?” Vader also quotes King Lear: “I am a man more sinn’d against than sinning” (p. 143), before returning once again to Hamlet: “Aye, there’s the rub” (p. 143). Vader also refers to Macduff’s line toward the end of Macbeth when he says, “But from that home, that mother, was I ta’en,/Untimely ripp’d from her beloved arms.”

Ian Doescher adds a scene in which two Jedi discuss the mysterious Order 66, which was missing from the written codes. This is a nice bit of foreshadowing, which of course is interesting, because it’s unlikely that anyone who reads this isn’t already familiar with the Star Wars films. And for that reason, the foreshadowing becomes rather humorous.

In addition to Shakespeare, this book makes some other playful references. For example, Mace says, “Prithee, listen not to how the black/Snake moaneth unto thee” (p. 100). Black Snake Moan stars Samuel L. Jackson, the actor who plays Mace in the Star Wars films. Mace then says, “A time to kill hath, in its time, arriv’d.” (A Time To Kill is another film starring Samuel L. Jackson.)

William Shakespeare’s Tragedy Of The Sith’s Revenge: Star Wars Part The Third was published in 2015 by Quirk Books.

William Shakespeare’s The Clone Army Attacketh: Star Wars Part The Second by Ian Doescher (2015) Book Review

Attack Of The Clones had possibly the weakest script of the six Star Wars films (yes, six, as I don’t count that awful Force Awakens movie), but combining that material with Shakespeare certainly helps a great deal. For example, it improves upon those awful lines about sand being coarse. As with previous books, The Clone Army Attacketh is divided into five acts and is presented largely in iambic pentameter.

The prologue is delivered by the Chorus as a sonnet, and its first line contains a reference to Macbeth: “All hurly-burly goes the galaxy” (p. 7). In the first scene of Macbeth, the second witch says, “When the hurlyburly’s done.” Padme’s first line is the first line from The Merchant Of Venice (in that play, spoken by Antonio): “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad” (p. 10). This book jokes lightly with the fact that in the film Anakin was played by a different actor than in The Phantom Menace while Padme was played again by Natalie Portman (with only three years between films): “Though I feel I have ag’d but little since/I last did see him, back on small Naboo,/The change in him doth tell of many years/That evidently fill’d the interim” (p. 18).

As in The Phantom Of Menace, here Jar Jar Binks, when left alone, speaks with eloquence, his clown speech a sort of disguise. “I chose, aye, long ago, to play this role/And I shall play the part unto the end./What would they say if Jar Jar suddenly/Spoke as they do, or show’d an aspect wise?/Why, they would think me mad e’en as I spoke/More sanely than I ever did before” (p. 22). And later Jar Jar even refers to Hamlet’s speech to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: “They would play me as though I were a pipe,/With stops and whistles made for their employ” (p. 113). As in earlier volumes of this series, characters who did not speak in the films are given speeches here, such as Zam Wesell’s probe droid. Also, the Reek, Acklay and Nexu speak, acting as the three witches from Macbeth (the Acklay has the “hurlyburly’s done” line).

This book contains plenty of direct references to Shakespeare’s works. Palpatine, in an aside, says, “What fools these Jedi be!” (p. 39), which is a play on Puck’s “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And Rumor later refers to Puck when he says “to my puckish will shall he be bent” (p. 62).

The love story between Anakin and Padme (one of the film’s weaknesses) makes use of The Taming Of The Shrew. Anakin says, “Come, come, thou wasp: thine hidden secret shout” (p. 72). Padme responds, “If I be waspish, best beware my sting.” Anakin says, “My remedy is, then, to pluck it out.” This, of course, refers to the famous wooing scene of the play. (Anakin will return to Shrew later when he says, “He that knows better how to tame a beast,/Now let him speak; ‘tis charity to show.”) The Anakin and Padme love story makes references to other plays as well, including The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, when Anakin says “What light is light, if Padme be not seen?/What joy is joy, if Padme be not by?” (p. 74). (In the play, Valentine says, “What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?/What joy is joy ,if Silvia be not by?”) Anakin also quotes Love’s Labour’s Lost, saying, “They are the books, the arts, the academes,/That show, contain, and nourish all the world” (p. 75), words spoken by Berowne in Act IV. Anakin also borrows a line from Lysander from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “The course of true love never did run smooth” (p. 77). Padme gets into the game too, using the words of Rosalind from As You Like It: “I pray thee, do not fall in love with me,/For I am falser than vows made in wine” (p. 78), though actually Rosalind says, “I pray you, do not fall in love with me.” She also quotes Viola from Twelfth Night: “O, time! Thou must untangle this, not I;/It is too hard a knot for me t’untie” (p. 79).

At Shmi’s death, Anakin borrows much of Macbeth’s famous speech, saying, “My mother, O! She should have died hereafter,/There would have been a time for such a word./Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow/Creeps in this petty pace from day to day/To the last syllable of recorded time,/And all our yesterdays have lighted fools/The way to dusty death. On, on, lightsaber!” (p. 101). Of course, Macbeth says, “Out, out, brief candle,” not “On, on lightsaber.” And Owen, upon learning of Shmi’s death, sings a funeral dirge that might remind you of Ophelia’s first song of Act IV. Anakin soon quotes from Othello, mentioning “the green-eyed monster, jealousy” (p. 106). And then from Hamlet, “they did make love to this employment” (p. 106).

C-3PO also refers to Hamlet when he says, “O, what a piece of work’s humanity –/How infinite in faculty! In form/And moving, how express and admirable!” (p. 121). C-3PO then acts the part of Mercutio from Romeo And Juliet, saying, “Aye, ask for me/Tomorrow, you shall find me a scrap droid!” (p. 123). (Mercutio says, “ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.”) C-3PO even acts as Bottom from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, saying: “Have they all stolen hence, left me asleep?/R2, I’ve had a most rare vision, yea:/I’ve had a dream, past wit of droid to say/What dream it was: aye, I were but an akk,/If I did go about t’expound this dream./Methought I was – yet no droid can tell what./Methought I was – and too, methought I had – /But I am a patched fool, if I/Will offer to say what methought I had./The eyes of droids have never heard, the ears/Of droids have never seen, droids’ circuitry/Not able been to sense, nor programming/Conceive, nor e’en droids’ core to make report,/What my dream was. I’ll speak no more of it” (p. 143). And, if you hadn’t caught wind of the reference, R2 adds, “It seems the droid hath bottom’d out his sense” (p. 143).

Even the stage directions bring to mind certain plays, as Doescher writes, “Obi-Wan hides behind an arras” (p. 95), making us think of poor Polonius. Ian Doescher adds a scene between two Jedi, a scene in which he plays with the idea of these stories being told at some point in the future in a “galaxy far, far away” (p. 110). Doescher mixes in other, non-Shakespearian references as well. For example, he has C-3PO say, “We’re not in Tatooine,/Not anymore: O, there’s no place like home!” That’s obviously a reference to The Wizard Of Oz. And at one point Obi-Wan Kenobi actually refers to a popular Kenny Rogers song: “’Tis good to know when holding maketh sense,/’Tis better yet to know when one should fold,/’Tis best to know when one should walk away,/Yet now the time hath come for me to run!” And if you might have not have caught the reference yet, he adds, “I’ll join the others – yea, no gambler I!” (p. 133).

William Shakespeare’s The Clone Army Attacketh: Star Wars Part The Second was published in 2015 by Quirk Books.

Shakespeare References in Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes The Way We Think And Feel

Jean Kilbourne’s Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes The Way We Think And Feel (originally published as Deadly Persuasion: Why Women And Girls Must Fight The Addictive Power Of Advertising) contains several Shakespeare references. Even the cover contains a Shakespeare reference, as it lists the foreword as being “By Mary Pipher, Author of Reviving Ophelia.” In that foreword, Pipher writes, “They need to learn not only that all that glitters is not gold, but also that it is sometimes poison” (p. 13). That is a reference to The Merchant Of Venice, when the gold casket is opened and the message inside is read. That message begins, “All that glisters is not gold.”

The next reference is to All’s Well That Ends Well. Jean Kilbourne writes, “Writer and cartoonist Mark O’Donnell suggests that someday there will be tie-ins in literature as well, such as ‘All’s Well That Ends With Pepsi,’ ‘The Old Man, Coppertone and the Sea,’ and ‘Nausea, and Periodic Discomfort Relief’” (p. 61). A little later Kilbourne writes, “And an ad for shoes says, ‘If you feel the need to be smarter and more articulate, read the complete works of Shakespeare. If you like who you are, here are your shoes’” (p. 65). Then: “‘Deny yourself an obvious love affair?’ asks an Audi ad, featuring a picture of the car. ‘Didn’t you read Romeo & Juliet?’” (p. 98). Yes, Shakespeare is mentioned in several advertising campaigns. Kilbourne writes: “A 1997 Lexus campaign, introduced just before Halloween, looks like an ad for a slasher film. In one version, the car emerges, as if from flames, from a forest of bare, blackened trees against an orange sky. The copy, in the script of witchcraft and alluding to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, says: ‘Distant thunder, cold as stone,/a V8 screams down from its throne./One by one, each car succumbs./Something wicked/This way comes’” (p. 105). It is interesting that the witch’s line “Something wicked this way comes” is presented as two lines in the ad. The book contains another reference to Macbeth: “Alas, the parody ‘Absolut Impotence’ comes closer to the real relationship between alcohol and sex. Perhaps Shakespeare put it best when he said that drink ‘provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance’” (p. 249). That is a reference to the Porter’s speech. In the notes at the end of the book, Kilbourne writes: “‘Perhaps Shakespeare put it best’: Shakespeare, W. Macbeth. Act 2, Scene 3” (p. 329). The book also contains a reference to The Tempest: “O brave new world, where Addiction is Freedom and Conformity is Rebellion” (p. 310).

There are even a couple of Shakespeare references in the bibliography. The first: “Mohl, B. (1999, January 13). Lend them your ear, and your call is free. Boston Globe, A1, A10” (p. 343). “Lend them your ear” is of course a reference to the beginning of Antony’s famous speech from Julius Caesar. The second is another reference to Reviving Ophelia: “Pipher, M. (1994). Reviving Ophelia: saving the selves of adolescent girls. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons” (p. 345).

By the way, unrelated to Shakespeare, but related to another passion of mine, Mary Pipher, in the foreword, writes: “As songwriter Glen Brown wrote, we are all living in ‘one big town’” (p. 13). She meant, of course, Greg Brown, who has a song (and an album) titled “One Big Town,” and a line from that song goes, “One big town/We're living in one big town.” You’d think as this book was previously published under another title, that by now she would have corrected that. Oh well. If you get a chance to see Greg Brown in concert, you should definitely check him out.

Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes The Way We Think And Feel was published in 1999. The edition I read was the Touchstone Edition from 2000.