Audiobook Review: 'William Shakespeare's Star Wars Collection'
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| (C) 2014 Random House Audio, Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL), and The Walt Disney Company. Illustrations by Nicolas Delort |
As a result, Marvel Comics, Del Rey Books, and even smaller publishers like Quirk Books have published new Star Wars books, including Star Wars: Thrawn, Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View, and the long-awaited William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh, the latter two being published in October.
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| The Force Awakens gets the Ian Doescher treatment in William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh (C) 2017 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Published on February 14, 2017, this 15-CD box set is a humorous yet intriguing audio version of author Ian Doescher's take on the original Star Wars trilogy. Doescher's premise is based on this qiestion: What if the Bard of Avon had written A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi for the stage in the Elizabethan era?
Based on the works of Shakespeare and George Lucas, the first three of Doescher's seven William Shakespeare's Star Wars books are:
William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope
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| (C) 2013 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
The saga of a wise (Jedi) Knight and an evil (Sith) Lord, of
a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars
abounds with all the valor and villainy of William Shakespeare’s greatest
plays. ’Tis a tale told by fretful droids, full of faithful Wookiees and
fearsome Stormtroopers, signifying… pretty much everything.
The first five discs of William Shakespeare's Star Wars Collection present director Kevin Thomsen's dramatization of Doescher's first mashup of Star Wars and Shakespeare's blend of drama and poetry. It is a retelling of the Special Edition of George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope presented in iambic pentameter that includes the face-off between Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt in Mos Eisley's Docking Bay 94.
William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back: Star Wars Part the Fifth
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| (C) 2014 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Many a fortnight have passed since the destruction of the
Death Star. Young Luke Skywalker and his friends have taken refuge on the ice
planet of Hoth, where the evil Darth Vader has hatched a cold-blooded plan to
capture them. Only with the help of a little green Jedi Master—and a swaggering
rascal named Lando Calrissian—can our heroes escape the Empire’s wrath. And
only then will Lord Vader learn how sharper than a tauntaun’s tooth it is to
have a Jedi child.
Discs 6-10 contain director Thomsen's audio production of Doescher's Shakespearean version of Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan's screenplay for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Again, the author uses iambic pentameter, soliloquies, puns, and - to distinguish the 900-year-old Jedi Master Yoda from the rest of the characters - haikus to retell the story of what many fans consider to be the best of the Original Trilogy films.
Doescher adheres to Lucas's revised version of Empire by adapting the scene in which Vader and Emperor Palpatine's hologram discuss the Empire's new enemy, Luke Skywalker, to match the 2004 DVD edition rather than the 1980 original. In addition, Doescher fleshes out Lando Calrissian's character by giving him soliloquies and asides that serve to explain his motives vis a vis his betrayal of Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca at Cloud City on Bespin.
The Jedi Doth Return: Star Wars Part the Sixth
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| (C) 2014 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Prithee, attend the tale so far: Han Solo entombed in
carbonite, the princess taken captive, the Rebel Alliance besieged, and Jabba
the Hutt engorged. Now Luke Skywalker and his Rebel band must seek fresh allies
in their quest to thwart construction of a new Imperial Death Star. But whom
can they trust to fight by their side in the great battle to come? Cry “Ewok”
and let slip the dogs of war!
Discs 11-15 present Thomsen's audio adaptation of Doescher's third trippy Shakespeare-meets-Lucas jaunt to a galaxy far, far away. The five-act play wraps up the tale of a farmboy-turned-Jedi who challenges a tyrannical Emperor Palpatine and attempts to redeem his fallen father, Darth Vader, and restore him to the light side of the Force.
Each play is divided into five acts, as was the custom in Shakespeare's time, and Doescher uses many of the Bard's techniques in adapting a late 20th Century space-fantasy saga into a 16th Century stage-bound production worthy of the Globe Theater itself.
Consequently, each play is presented in five CDs, with one disc per act.
To make the audio version of William Shakespeare's Star Wars Collection come to life, executive producer Aaron Blank assembled a creative team that included writer Ian Doescher and actors Danny Davis, Jonathan Davis, Jeff Gurner, January LaVoy, and Marc Thompson to perform the unabridged production of all three plays. In addition, composer Robert Lopez (Frozen, Avenue Q) supplements the music performed by the "Max Rebo Band" with an original song written for William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope.
Like Quirk Books' best-selling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars series is marketed by Penguin Random House under the Humor category. And for good reason, too; Doescher infuses the entire project with laugh-out-loud comic riffs on Star Wars, its characters, and even some of the odd plot conventions that appear in the films. He also adds puns, throwaway cultural references to classic songs, movies, TV shows, and yes, Shakespeare's plays.
But as the book critic for Boing-Boing observed in a review, Doescher's work is "not a campy or goofy parody but a surprisingly well done tribute, this is a special treat." These words were written for the original printed books, but they apply even more to the audio book version.
On the printed page (and enhanced with Nicolas Delort's Elizabethan-style art work), Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars series is a loving tribute to the works of both Shakespeare and George Lucas. Readers familiar with both the Bard and Star Wars will find much to enjoy in the seven existing "parts" of the saga.
In this audio presentation, though, Doescher's Shakespeare "parody" truly comes to life. The soliloquies, rhymes, puns, and cultural references are more fun for the listener when they are performed by actors, especially those who are familiar with Shakespeare's great plays and George Lucas's Star Wars movies. Enhanced by excellent line readings by the cast and the listener's imagination, Willliam Shakespeare's Star Wars Collection is an enjoyable journey to that famous galaxy far, far away.
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| (C) 2014 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Art by Nicolas Delort |
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