His Will be done

Shakespeare has done for women what Titanic did for girls. Empowered them and enabled them, to use words much favoured by purveyors of Palm Springs8217; psychobabble. In an era where Hollywood women are reduced to props which don8217;t even get to shoot or swerve, unlike guns and cars, here is a writer who understands them. Whether she be a misunderstood lover like Desdemona in Othello or a brave cross-dresser like Viola in Twelfth Night, Shakespeare8217;s women are formidable.

But then that8217;s not the only reason for his revival as a popular writer. He was also truly global at a time when England was even more of a Third World nation than it is now: his plays range from Coriolanus set in ancient Rome to All8217;s Well That Ends Well in medieval France. Which is also why writersand movie-makers think nothing of taking liberties with him 8212; Sir Ian McKellen could portray King Richard the Third as a turn-of-the-century Nazi dictator in Britain while in Delhi, last week, a 23-year-old Kashmir-born Ritesh Shah could set his William Shakespeare8217;s Othello: A Play in Black and White in modern-day Delhi in English, Hindi, and Ahomiya.

That is the essence of Shakespeare8217;s eternal success. That is why he has outlasted Robert Greene who once called him an upstart crow and even Christopher Marlowe, who if you believe Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard8217;s screenplay for the movie, sniggers when he hears Shakespeare8217;s title for the as-yet-unwritten Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate8217;s Daughter.In a sense Shakespeare has now become a truly international playwright, and as all such things are these days, that means he is three-quarters American. Ironically, it was an Irishman who first discovered that Americans were best suited for Shakespeare, which English theatre was too reverential about.

Kenneth Branagh8217;s multicultural casting for Much Ado About Nothing, with its brilliant sparring between the delightful Beatrice and the clownlike Benedick, really predates the playwright8217;s adoption by America. And why not? In their robust physicality, Shakespeare8217;s roles seem designed for Hollywood actors desperate for more than just wham-bam-slam parts.

And as Steven Berkoff, the English actor who is currently touring India with a production of Shakespeare8217;s Villains put it, Americans are also not overawed by the shadow of the great Laurence Olivier. Having no history can in so many ways be a blessing. And Britain, now that it has immersed itself in the special relationship between Bill and Tony thinks nothing of selling its most sacred playwright down the Atlantic. If it gets them more American visitors to Stratford-on-Avon, where again not-so-ironically the biggest eating place is a McDonald8217;s, so be it. The market-driven Cool Britannia can only remain so if it is hot in the US and Japan.

What iseven better about Shakespeare is that so little is really known about him, except that he was born in 1564 on April 23 or was it 26?, went to grammar school till 14 where he learnt Latin, married Anne Hathaway, a farmer8217;s daughter, who was eight ? years older to him in 1582, and left for London 1586 or was it 1587?. It was in the Capital of the sceptred isle that he made his reputation though even then he was criticised for his populism, a charge that is levelled with greater force now that Shakespeare has become a movie star via Joseph Fiennes.

Of course, Shakespeare was quite a prominent actor in his time, so it is only fair that stardom should come to him, even though belatedly. Like Charles Chaplin, another Englishman who travelled to America, almost 400 years later, globalised music hall comedy, and founded with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr the United Artists, Shakespeare set up a new theatre company under the patronage of Lord Chamberlain in 1594.

For those who still maintain he wasonly an ill-educated schoolmaster who had to flee Stratford because of a hunting prosecution, this picture of a man in control of his fate is an anomaly. But it is also instructive that Shakespeare8217;s revival has seen a prettification of the Elizabethan age, to which Shekhar Kapur8217;s Elizabeth is more faithful. The character Geoffrey Rush plays in Shakespeare in Love, Philip Henslowe, a wheeler-dealer with bad teeth, lank hair and a droopy moustache, is the archetypal Tudor stink-bug, but you don8217;t see much of that grime and filth in Miramax8217;s airbrushed Shakespeare in Love.

But as Ben Jonson would say for the soul of our age, the wonder of our stage and the star of poets, this is but a minor flaw. What matters is that Shakespeare is over 400 years old and still kicking up a storm in showbusiness.

8212; KAVEREE BAMZAI