There is a lot of interesting background on this play. First of
all it was not even performed for almost 300 years after he wrote it. I find
this strange because it seems perfect for the stage. Having had done a small
section of it with my group for the scene study really made me appreciate it
more than simply reading it in class. Reading and interpreting the lines, and
then acting them out convincingly makes you understand the characters, the
setting, and the point of everything much more. It really drives home the point
that Shakespeare’s work is best appreciated on the stage, by good actors,
performers, sound, design, and music, than simply reading the lines, act by act, in your head.
It was also considered Shakespeare’s least successful and most
unpopular play until the last few decades. The story focuses on Troilus and
Cressida, two characters that never existed in Homer’s Iliad, which Shakespeare
drew inspiration for from Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. One of the things
that bothered me, or at least made me a little disappointed, is that none of
the gods found in Homer’s poems are present here. It would have been
interesting to see Shakespeare’s take on the supernatural in terms of Greek
gods than having grounded the play much more heavily in realism.
