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Improvising Four Plays
This is a series of short dramas that are like offshoots from the plays Othello, Macbeth, King Lear and Hamlet. They’re scenes re-imagined in different contexts, mixing Shakespeare’s language with language used today. I hope they’re enjoyable. - Kelly
The playlets can be read and downloaded by clicking on the links below. Here’s a brief sample from “Otto & Santiago”.
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Gnawing at the Surface
[Otto approaches Santiago
on a city side street.]
Your service in arms is welcome
most valiant sir.
I am bound to thee forever.
Though I must warn you to beware.
When devils will the blackest sins
put on they do suggest at first
with heavenly shows.
I don’t understand.
Understand, my lord?
If thou dost love me,
show me thy thought.
What but to thy purpose.
I suspect there’s something else
behind those words.
Something else?
By heaven I’ll know thy thoughts!
You cannot, sir, if my heart
were in your hand.
I’ve had a sneaking suspicion
of late. It’s as though underneath
every fair appearance
there’s something grating.
When devils will the blackest sins
put on they do suggest at first
with heavenly shows.
Huh. I think I might be
seeing a glimpse of something.
Take this handkerchief, for instance,
these delicious strawberries.
Is that what they are,
or something else entirely?
Where did you get that?
Your imagination, I believe.
No, that’s an antique token
my father gave my mother.
Hm. Earlier you said it was
a magic token given to your mother
by an Egyptian as a means
of retaining your father’s love.
Be careful with it. It’s
embroidered most delicately
in the Moorish fashion,
spotted with strawberries.
It looks to me
besmeared with blood,
of lost maidenhood
and future strife…
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