STAGE BLOOD AND MOVIE BLOOD.

STAGE BLOOD AND MOVIE BLOOD. I am not persuaded that the violence in Shakespeare’s tragedies prevents a connection with the modern audience because the evidence is all about us that audiences like blood as much as they did in Shakespeare’s day. Jesse Green himself alludes to the Game of Thrones. And action movies that feature mass killings and explosions can do well at the box office. The problem that theater does have with blood and violence is one of technology. Movie audiences are accustomed to skillfully wrought graphic violence. In Shakespeare’s day, the theater was on the cutting edge of special effects, with ghosts and trap doors. Green comments that now “Gloucester’s eyes and Macbeth’s head often elicit titters.” Green concludes that “Theater’s frenzied attempt to compete with digital gore is bound to fail….”