Most people probably know already that in acting circles it's considered bad luck to call "MacBeth" by its proper name. To ward off this curse, actors call it "The Scottish Play." Which got me thinking: what if all Shakespearean plays were cursed? What would the alternate titles be?
Tragedies:
- Hamlet - The Danish Play
- Othello - The Racist Play
- King Lear - The Bad Parenting Play
- Timon of Athens - The Misanthropic Play
- Romeo and Juliet - The Completely Avoidable Teen Suicide Play
Comedies:
- The Taming of the Shrew - The Sexist Play
- The Merchant of Venice - The Antisemitic Play
- Measure for Measure - The Ol' Switcheroo Play
- The Tempest - The Revenge-by-Matchmaking Play
- A Comedy of Errors - The Extra Confusing Play
- As You Like It - The "go live in the forest. everything's better in the forest" Play
- A Midsummer Night's Dream - The "this would make a good reality dating show" Play
- A Winter's Tale - The "of course faking your death will restore all relationships" Play
- Twelfth Night - The "Wait, how'd they live happily ever after in this enemy kingdom?" Play
- All's Well That Ends Well - The "how I promised to love my wife if she became a kleptomaniac" Play
This isn't a complete list. If you are disappointed by seeing your favorite play omitted, feel free to make up your own "codeword title" and post it in the comments. I'd love to hear alternate titles to my own as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment