I also really like Gail’s idea of starting with children of storms and moving on to the softening of hearts. One of the reasons that the reconciliation scenes are so powerful is that they were preceded by jolting dislocations—monumental storms, whether meteorological or personal. When Cordelia says that she has “no cause, no cause,” we recall that she indeed has cause to resent her thundering father. When Hermione emerges warm and alive from her statue-like posture, we recall her previously standing stony-still in a trial-like setting while Leontes charged her with infidelity and treason. So, if feasible within our format, we might want to include earlier scenes from the same plays that fuel the emotions that we feel when we see and hear these reconciliation scenes. And as Jeff observes, scenes from different plays can also reverberate and infuse and reinforce themes. The possibilities are truly infinite. Below are a bunch of ideas, some of which incorporate scene suggestions already made, some of which are new (for example, the silly songs from the TV series “Slings and Arrow), and some of which are designed just to continue the conversation about how to mix and match all of the ideas that are coming in. The list below divides the themes of Mystery/Magic/Reunion/Reconciliation into two broad categories (mystery/magic on the one hand, and reunion/reconciliation on the other) separated by an intermission, but that’s just arbitrary on my part. If I had to pick only a few personal favorites from the list below, I would go with the statue scene in The Winter’s Tale, Lear’s awakening before Cordelia, and the Falstaff scenes.
Part 1: Magic and Mystery
A bell rings twelve times.
Prologue: ‘Tis now the very witching time of night,…(Hamlet 3.2)(“‘Tis now the very witching time of night” through “To give them seals never my soul consent”)
Scene 1: The Weird Sisters, the Three Apparitions and the Show of Eight Kings and Banquo (Macbeth 4.1)(“Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed” through end)
Alternative Scene 1: The Weird Sisters (Macbeth 1.3)(“Where has thou been sister?” through “Till then enough—Come friends.”)
Transition 1: The Mackers Song (from the Canadian television series Slings and Arrows):
Call me superstitious or cowardly or weak
But I’ll never play a character
Whose name one dare not speak
I’ll play Hamlet
In doublet and hose
Or either of the Dromios
But sorry, I won’t play Mackers
I’ll play Richard the Third
With a hump and wig
Or Henry the Eighth
That selfish pig
But sorry, I don’t do Mackers
Every soul that plays this role
Risks injury or death
I’d rather sweep the bloody stage
Than ever do
Mac-you-know-who
So gimme King Lear
Cleopatra
Romeo, Juliet
Doesn’t matter
I’ll play them all for free
But I’d be crackers
To take on Mackers
You see, I’m skittish about the Scottish tragedy
Scene 2: Bottom’s Transformation and a Spell-bound Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 3.1)(“I see their knavery. This is to make an ass of me” through “Tie up my love’s tongue; bring him silently.)
Transition 2: Mercutio’s Queen Mab Speech (Romeo and Juliet, 1.4)(“O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you” through “Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.”)
Scene 3: Othello’s Denial of Sorcery (Othello, 1.2) (“O thou foul thief, where has thou stored my daughter?/Damned as thou art, thou has enchanted her,/For I’ll refer me to all things of sense/If she in chains of magic were not bound” through “She lov’d me for the dangers I had pass’d,/And I lov’d her that she did pity them./This only is the witchcraft I have us’d’)
Alternative Scene 3: “There’s witchcraft in your lips”--Henry’s wooing of Katherine” (Henry V, 5.2)(“Fair Katherine, and most fair/Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms” through “There’s witchcraft in your lips)
Transition 3: What potions have I drunk (Sonnet 119):
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,
Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within,
Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears,
Still losing when I saw myself to win!
What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never!
How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted
In the distraction of this madding fever!
O benefit of ill! now I find true
That better is by evil still made better;
And ruin'd love, when it is built anew,
Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
So I return rebuked to my content
And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.
Scene 4: Apollo’s oracle reveals the truth to an unbelieving Leontes (The Winter’s Tale 3.2)(This scene, which incorporates the trial of Hermione, fills the emotional reservoir eventually tapped by the statue scene in Act 5)
Transition 4: Antigonus’s dream (The Winter’s Tale 3.3)(Come, poor babe:/I have heard but not believed,/The spirits o’ the dead/May walk again…” through “Exit, pursued by a bear”)
Scene 5: The Resuscitation of Thaisa (Pericles 3.2)
Transition 5: Prospero’s riff on Medea’s Incantation a/k/a “Ye elves” speech (Tempest 5.1, 1-56)(“Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves” through “I’ll drown my book”)
{Intermission}
Part 2: Reunion and Reconciliation
Prologue: A bitter reunion—Hal banishes Falstaff (2 Henry IV 5.4)(Trumpets sound. A royal procession swells the stage. “God save thy grace, King Hal, my royal Hal” through “Take them away”)
Scene 1: The family reunion from hell—Lear and his daughters (King Lear 1.1)(Lear’s scorching treatment of his youngest daughter would be cause for resentment by most children—which renders all the more astonishing her words “No cause, no cause” in Act 4, scene 7.)
Transition 1: A Walk in the Rain (song from Slings and Arrows):
When life takes its toll
When fate treats you bad
You used to be king
And now you’ve been had
Alone with your fool
You think you’ll go mad
It’s nice to take a walk in the rain
A stomp through a storm
Is what I’d advise
When people you trust
Tell nothing but lies
And kidnap your friend
And gouge out his eyes
It’s nice to take a walk in the rain
You say your daughters
Are evil plotters
A pitter patter shower will keep you sane
When all has been said
And all have been slain
It’s good to take a walk in the rain
For several hours
Helps to have a howl in the rain
Without your clothes on
Nice to take a walk in the rain.
Scene 2: Feste’s reunion with Olivia—the fool consoles the fool (Twelfth Night 1.5)(“Nay, either tell me where thou has been…” through “the fool should look to the madman”)[to echo the prior comical song “A Walk in the Rain” in transition 1, Feste could perhaps enter singing a couple of stanzas of “When that I was and a tiny little boy/With hey, ho, the wind and the rain]
Transition 2: “Remembrance of Things Past” (Sonnet 30):
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
Scene 3: Hermione Reunites with Perdita (The Winter’s Tale 5.3)
Transition 3: The Dance of the Twelve Satyrs (The Winter’s Tale, IV, iv)(“Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, …” through “Here a dance of twelve Satyrs
Scene 4: Thaisa Reunites with Pericles and Marina (Pericles 5.3)
Transition 4: “Full Fathom Five” (song from The Tempest”)
Scene 5: A reunion on heaven’s threshold—Lear awakens to Cordelia (King Lear 4.7)
Transition 5: The Chimes at Midnight—Falstaff and Shallow remember good times (2 Henry IV 3.2)(“Come, I will go drink with you,…” through “Jesus, the days that we have seen. Come, come.”)(In stark contrast to the ambitious Hal, Justice Shallow is the steadfast friend to the fat knight.)
A bell rings twelve times.
And maybe a robust finale consisting of a song and/or dance, perhaps Cole Porter’s “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” or the following song from Season One of the television series “Slings and Arrows”:
Cheer Up, Hamlet
Cheer up, Hamlet
Chin up, Hamlet
Buck up, you melancholy Dane
So your uncle is a cad
Who murdered Dad and married Mum
That’s really no excuse to be as glum as you’ve become
So wise up, Hamlet
Rise up, Hamlet
Buck up and sing the new refrain
Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui
Your antic disposition is embarrassing to see
And by the way, you sulky brat, the answer is “TO BE”!
You’re driving poor Ophelia insane
So shut up, you rogue and peasant
Grow up, it’s most unpleasant
Cheer up, you melancholy Dane
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