Out of a record $368-billion, there is something in next year’s Pentagon budget for everyone, even William Shakespeare. With the help of United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the Bard will get a million.
That is the sum set aside for a new scheme to bring Shakespeare to US military bases for the first time, adding a literary dimension to the army’s single-minded focus on the war on terror.
The playwright had much to say about the value of pre-emptive action and there is vindication for President George W Bush in All’s Well That Ends Well, which has a warning against making ”trifles of terrors … when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear”.
The first productions the soldiers will see will be a New York version of Othello, set in a modern-day British military base, and an Alabaman take on Macbeth,.
”This is the best educated military ever in the history of our country, so we want to provide cultural opportunities consistent with that,” said Felicia Knight, a spokeswoman for the National Endowment for the Arts, which first suggested taking Shakespeare to military bases.
Knight said the choice of plays was coincidental. The productions were scheduled to tour around the country next year and their itineraries have been expanded to take in the bases.
”Macbeth and Othello would resonate with the military community. The plots for one thing are military-centred,” she said.
The first Shakespeare play to be staged as part of the scheme will be Othello, which is to be performed next March in Alaska. — Â