While I was toiling away at San Jose State, trying to get a degree and earn a meager amount for doing meaningful work during my lifetime, I heard about this Marshall McLuhan book. I tried to ignore it because I was trying to stay focused on my main goal of not being tossed out of that historic institution on my ear . . or head, whichever came down first.
In theatre, we always knew this McLuhan’s truism was a truism. You could do Shakespeare as it was in the old days at the Old Globe Theatre, in modern dress, or as aliens on a planet of Limburger cheese. Each venue added something different . . they were nuanced with something that the Old Bard never imagined. You could even change the words to be more natural for our time, all the while changing the communication vehicle, but retaining the essence of the message.
One of the great surprises to me is that now . . and this is especially evident in our politics, is that you can lie with abandon. You can make up anything that is convenient and people will believe it.
It is evident that either people are lacking in the mental strength to think about the message or the medium has now become more important than the message. Twitter, twitter.
I am never going to think that Hamlet in drag or Romeo and Juliet being done by fishes in an aquarium is better than the original. There is something magical about Shakespeare that remains unchanged . . the truth of the underlying feelings, the very human message that people can understand and identify with. This is the truth on which all the rest is built . . and it does not change if guppies are mouthing the words.
Perhaps, the obvious conclusion is that if the message has no merit, then the massage becomes everything.