Well done!!! ( )

Sometimes cheesy, but often clever. Very enjoyable when listened to. The commentaries by the guards were really the most amusing parts. I wish someone somewhere would do a performance that I could watch in person. ( )

This was delightful. I'm more in the camp of appreciating Shakespeare rather than actually enjoying his style, but every time I slid a CD into the player, I got a stupid grin on my face that didn't go away until the disk ended. You can tell that the author loves both Shakespeare and Star Wars - lots of little jokes and playing with the material. It has this sense of playfulness and this irreverent "why not?" attitude.

There are so many things to enjoy, like the stormtroopers who hilariously comment on the play's proceedings, and hearing Luke complain about power converters in iambic pentameter. Probably my favorite little thing was how the movies were converted into something that could be staged as a play. Darth Vader walks on stage dangling a rebel by the throat (presumably a dummy, as you couldn't do this to a real actor on stage). The result was that I didn't see the movie as I was listening - I saw how the movie would be performed on a stage.

I also got the sense that I was experiencing Shakespeare in a way that was probably common for audiences in the 16th & 17th centuries: as a beautiful version of a beloved, well-known story. Listening to my favorite moments be transformed into lyrical verse opened my eyes to what that must have been like for audiences of the past.

I'm not a fan of reading plays, so I picked up the audio book (really an audio drama). The voice actors do a great job, and it has music and sound effects from the movies. Not to mention a Globe Theater emcee - I don't know if that's in the books, but it it was great little introduction to each play. ( )

Ian Doescher's adaptations of the first two Star Wars movies are presented here by an ensemble complete with sound effects and theme music from the very familiar films. I found myself laughing aloud in the car and eager for red lights to allow me to stay with the story longer. The narrators were chosen for their close resemblance to the original actors so it was very easy to picture the action from the films as I listened to the plays.

Shakespeare purists may cringe at the amateurish readings of the lines but I don't think anyone expects anything but a romp. ( )