Mother's Day after-party: Mothers in Shakespeare part 1: Hearing Voices

IF I WON THE LOTTERY, like Babette in the film, “Babette’s Feast,” [1] I would love to travel the world, see places I’ve never been, places with “strange sounding names” [2] (strange to me, anyway…).

And if I could, it would be wonderful to travel to the many places where all my LinkedIn friends and connections live, and visit over lunch or coffee, and hear the sounds of your voices!

But short of that, for now, if you’ve wondered what my voice sounds like when I’m not doing an imitation of the cartoon character “Goofy” [3], you can hear my voice in the Mother’s Day panel discussion organized by Rodney Hakim and New York Shakespeare, exploring mothers in Shakespeare with Pauline Kiernan and Royston Coppenger:

The video is now available in two parts at YouTube:
Part 1:
https://youtu.be/THvwuGYKQcA
Part 2:
https://youtu.be/7-g43NcarOM

For those interested in the topic of mothers in Shakespeare, there are many things that have been written for popular as well as scholarly audiences. Here are three for popular audiences:

From Shakespeareances-dot-com:
https://www.shakespeareances.com/dialogues/commentary/Mothers-120509.html
 
From The Shakespearean Student:
https://shakespeareanstudent.com/2018/05/12/shakespeares-greatest-mother-characters/

From The Green Eyed Blogger:
https://green-eyedblogger.blogspot.com/2023/05/how-well-do-you-know-mothers-in.html

SOME OF MY PREVIOUS BLOG POSTS about mothers (especially in Hamlet):
Gertrude as Ageus, Claudius as Medea:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/12/poison-cups-and-martyrs-gertrude-medea.html

Gertrude as Recipient & Source of Gifts: Labors of Gratitude and Regret
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/10/gertrude-as-recipient-giver-of-gifts.html

Hamlet to Gertrude: "when you are desirous to be blest, I’ll blessing beg of you" (part 1)
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/11/hamlet-to-gertrude-when-you-are.html
Part 2, Hamlet and inherited debt (2 Kings 4:1-7): "when you are desirous to be blest…"
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/12/part-2-hamlet-and-inherited-debt-2.html
Part 3: When you are desirous to be blest, I’ll blessing beg of you
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/12/part-3-when-you-are-desirous-to-be.html
Part 4: Gertrude's Blessings: Does it matter? - Part 4
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/12/gertrudes-blessings-does-it-matter-part.html

Tanya Pollard's "What's Hecuba to Shakespeare?"
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/11/tanya-pollards-whats-hecuba-to.html

Ophelia's Prayer Book & the Annunciation of Mary
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/05/ophelias-prayer-book-annunciation-of.html

Neglected Religious and Political Meanings of the Annunciation Allusion in Hamlet 3.1
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/12/neglected-religious-and-political.html

More soon!


NOTES

[1] “Babette's Feast (Danish: Babettes Gæstebud) is a 1987 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel. The screenplay, written by Axel, was based on the 1958 story of the same name by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette%27s_Feast

[2] “Far Away Places,” by Alex Kramer / Joan Whitney,
As sung by Vera Lynn in “We’ll Meet Again” (1956):
https://youtu.be/_hDxsjD0DX8
As sung by Bing Crosby:
https://youtu.be/BmGot9zFNoY
As sung much more recently by Michal Johnson:
https://youtu.be/QibmKTd1SU0


[3] I once sang “The Goofy Song” with my son on his Youtube channel; he did the voice of Max, son of Goofy, and I did the voice of Goofy….

IMAGES:
Left: My mom (Eleanor) holding me, 1958. Photo by Charles Fried.

Middle: Screen grab cropped from Zoom Mother’s Day discussion with New York Shakespeare. Note that in the upper right, there are small pictures on the bookcase, seen here left and right in close-up.

Right: Amelia Fried (one of the matriarchs on my father’s side of the family), date (1920 or earlier?), photographer unknown.



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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

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