(Edited by Dara Lind, 6/2; via Pam Green.)
Here's a basic rule: if you're reading or watching a Shakespeare play, and you're not imagining the actors standing in front of a mosh pit of jeering Londoners waiting to throw vegetables at the stage, you're doing it wrong. Shakespeare might have written the best works in the English language, or given us profound insight into the nature of humanity, or whatever — but his works wouldn't have survived to our day if he hadn't been popular when he was alive, and he wouldn't have been popular when he was alive if he hadn't been able to please the crowd. And that includes a lot of dirty jokes. A lot. Sometimes in incredibly inappropriate places.
We're here to rescue a few of those for you, and retroactively embarrass the heck out of your fourteen-year-old self, who had to stand up in English class and read things that, in retrospect, are absolutely filthy.
Stage Voices Publishing for archived posts and sign up for free e-mail updates: http 2015:// www.stagevoices.com/ . If you would like to contribute a review, monologue, or other work related to theatre, please write to Bob Shuman at Bobjshuman@gmail.com.