Good Tickle Brain

Good Tickle Brain is a website exploring Shakespeare with - stick figures? 

This scene is from Macbeth, act 2, scene 3. It's a comic relief scene happening at a curious time, just before they discover Duncan's dead body. The scene is the only appearance of the character of the Porter. It's almost always cut out of contemporary productions, as it's very difficult to do this kind of comic relief tonally. Macbeth is a very dark play, and the comic relief is between 2 very intense scenes. I understand why it's usually cut. I think I've only seen the scene in the play 2 times, one on stage and one on video.   

In any case, this is a great site for Shakespeare devotees, especially if you need a laugh.

Mr. Magoo's A Midsummer Night's Dream

My First Shakespeare

Circa 1965, this is from a series called The Famous Adventures of Mister Magoo, where I also first encountered Moby Dick, Don Quixote, Cyrano De Bergerac and other classic stories. 

This is on Youtube - Do NOT feel like you have to watch this. It is just for the record. Skim through if you will. The art and and abridgment is pretty crude, to my current self.

TFAOMM-A Midnight Summer Dream
John Brennan  23:52

More first impressions of Shakespeare include the 1935 movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and my first introduction to Hamlet via... Gilligan's Island!! 

Clips below the fold...

Blink and You Missed It - Rosaline

There was a movie called Rosaline that went online on Hulu in Oct 2022 and disappeared in May 2023. These are the vagaries of the streaming world in 2023. It's a romantic comedy set around a character in Romeo & Juliet who is mentioned as an old love of Romeo's, but is never seen in the play. It's a good idea. I saw it before it disappeared and it's not great, but not badly done either. 

Trailer and comments below the fold...