There’s a twenty something year old film, Shakespeare in Love, that is a guilty pleasure of mine. In the movie, William Shakespeare is a young, befuddled, and lovelorn playwright. The character displays all the attributes of a tormented artist. He is muse-less. His ideas are flat and uninspired, and he is stymied by an insurmountable case of writer's block. Not to spoil a twenty year old film (and I guess the history of theater), but this fictionalized Shakespeare conquers his writer’s block; he finds love, then churns out pages and poems as if they were on a conveyor belt.
This is such a great piece, Nate. I’ll have to see you perform when you’re in Philly!