“Fantasy stories work because the writer has interwoven bits and pieces of reality with imagination to form a personal vision.”
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| Drayton as Amberle - with a bit of Photoshop play to the original. |
Armed with Brooks' quote above, and watching the series on Netflix, you get a sense of the didactic world of Brooks. There is very sharp lines between good and evil, innocence and cynicism. Wil Ohmsford is the last of his kind and holds precious magic that can usurp evil, and he must do so in the service of the young queen Amberle, who, in turn, can maintain the 'tree of life'.
And Amberle (Drayton), who's break-out role was on the Downton Abbey, playing Madelein Allsopp, brings an over-vulnerability to Amberle, who has the world upon her shoulders and enemies seemingly on all sides.
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| Drayton as Juliet. |
As Juliet was her role, I thought of the difficult aspects to play in light of Juliet's last speech:
"How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault, [2585]
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,— [2590]
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle, "
"How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault, [2585]
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,— [2590]
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle, "
And someone on youtube (of course) has put together this scene study:
And then I return to Shakespeare.
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And then I return to Shakespeare.
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