Scan barcode
A review by lisa_mc
William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return by Ian Doescher
4.0
As with the previous books in this series, "The Jedi Doth Return" retells a Star Wars movie in the style of William Shakespeare: the characters speak largely in iambic pentameter, asides and soliloquies give the reader a window into the characters’ feelings, and a chorus fills in the unseen action. The plot follows the movie, and the lines more or less mirror the original dialogue, with a Shakespearean flavor: Yoda speaks in haiku, the Ewoks chirp in pidgin-English rhymes, the rancor sings, and Salacious Crumb plays the Fool.
The original movie’s big set pieces -- the speeder bike chase, the Endor forest battle and the Rebel fleet vs. the Death Star -- by necessity take place mostly offstage in the book, hinted at by a few snippets of dialogue or described by the chorus. While these scenes were exciting on screen, the stage version does not suffer from the lack of them, since it focuses more on the human (and non-human, as the case may be) drama of the saga. And, honestly, trimming down the Ewoks’ presence was an improvement.
The true conflict of the movie -- the struggle between Luke Skywalker and the Emperor for the soul of Darth Vader (and, oh yeah, the fate of the whole galaxy) -- is only enhanced by a Shakespearean presentation. Swap the lightsabers for swords and it’s a perfect fit.
What’s been fun about this series is not only seeing classic lines rendered in Elizabethan English (“Fie, ’tis a trap!”) but also hearing characters who have no lines in the movies speak. R2-D2 gets asides in all three books, Darth Vader shows a more conflicted mind through his soliloquies, and even the rancor keeper, whose “pet” is a carnivorous monster, expresses his grief at the death of his beloved companion in a page-long lament.
Whether the enjoyment from these books speaks to the timeliness of Shakespeare or the timelessness of Star Wars, or perhaps both, is for the reader to decide, but fans of both will enjoy them, indeed.
The original movie’s big set pieces -- the speeder bike chase, the Endor forest battle and the Rebel fleet vs. the Death Star -- by necessity take place mostly offstage in the book, hinted at by a few snippets of dialogue or described by the chorus. While these scenes were exciting on screen, the stage version does not suffer from the lack of them, since it focuses more on the human (and non-human, as the case may be) drama of the saga. And, honestly, trimming down the Ewoks’ presence was an improvement.
The true conflict of the movie -- the struggle between Luke Skywalker and the Emperor for the soul of Darth Vader (and, oh yeah, the fate of the whole galaxy) -- is only enhanced by a Shakespearean presentation. Swap the lightsabers for swords and it’s a perfect fit.
What’s been fun about this series is not only seeing classic lines rendered in Elizabethan English (“Fie, ’tis a trap!”) but also hearing characters who have no lines in the movies speak. R2-D2 gets asides in all three books, Darth Vader shows a more conflicted mind through his soliloquies, and even the rancor keeper, whose “pet” is a carnivorous monster, expresses his grief at the death of his beloved companion in a page-long lament.
Whether the enjoyment from these books speaks to the timeliness of Shakespeare or the timelessness of Star Wars, or perhaps both, is for the reader to decide, but fans of both will enjoy them, indeed.