No they aren’t. They’re the baseline for a superabundance of modern cinema and theater.
Romeo x Juliet is the cornerstone of a thousand romance novels and heist thrillers. Hamlet is the backbone of modern horror. Julius Caeser is every political drama. The Tempest, every disaster movie. Comic books draw on them. Musically draw on them.
Every graduate of Julliard has performed in a dozen Shakespeare plays. Every British comedian can recite a few works by heart. The periodic remake still consistently fills theaters.
Shakespeare is the most playgerized man in history.
No they aren’t. They’re the baseline for a superabundance of modern cinema and theater.
Romeo x Juliet is the cornerstone of a thousand romance novels and heist thrillers. Hamlet is the backbone of modern horror. Julius Caeser is every political drama. The Tempest, every disaster movie. Comic books draw on them. Musically draw on them.
Every graduate of Julliard has performed in a dozen Shakespeare plays. Every British comedian can recite a few works by heart. The periodic remake still consistently fills theaters.
Shakespeare is the most playgerized man in history.
Its not like those are all original ideas though. Romeo and Juliet is the poem “The tragical history of Romeus and Juliet” just tweaked into a play.
Sure. Half of Shakespeare’s work is adoption or embellishments on Greek myth and British folklore.
But we get a blockbuster every year or three that’s just King Lear with the serial numbers filed off