{"id":8542,"date":"2015-07-13T20:44:59","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T00:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=8542"},"modified":"2026-01-05T15:15:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:15:56","slug":"wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall St. Journal: Washington&#8217;s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"clearfix byline-wrap\">\n<h3 class=\"byline\">Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2015<\/h3>\n<h2 class=\"wsj-article-headline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/a-silenced-shakespeare-in-washington-1436825550\">A Silenced Shakespeare in Washington<\/a><\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"sub-head\">Shakespeare without puns is like French cooking without butter.<\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"byline\">By James Bovard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <time class=\"timestamp\"> <\/time><\/h3>\n<div class=\"comments-count-container\"><em>Washington<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wsj-article-wrap\" class=\"article-wrap\" data-sbid=\"SB12351676079200283713404581078260093418744\">\n<p>In Act 5 of \u201cLove\u2019s Labor Lost,\u201d one character scoffs at pedants: \u201cThey have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.\u201d The latest Shakespeare fashion, at least in the Washington area, is to invite people to a feast of language and serve nothing but grunts, grimaces and grins\u2014with a few gyrations thrown in for dessert.<\/p>\n<p>The Synetic Theater has harvested a bushel of Helen Hayes Awards (the local version of the Tony Awards) for its Silent Shakespeare shows in the past dozen years. The company (whose name blends \u201csynthesis\u201d and \u201ckinetic\u201d) is run by a husband-and-wife team who were raised in Soviet Georgia and pride themselves on making Shakespeare \u201cvery accessible.\u201d Paata Tsikurishvili, described in a Synetic video as a \u201cvisionary director,\u201d explains: \u201cWhy I do Shakespeare, like this with less text, is because we have that vocabulary to express without the words\u2014like crying and laughing; I take it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Omitting words allows Synetic to finish Shakespeare plays in barely half the time they often require. The company has received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and its state affiliate, the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Synetic is known for high-energy performances relying on acrobatics, pantomime and special effects.<\/p>\n<p>But flips and twists cannot suffice for nouns and verbs. John Dryden said of Shakespeare: \u201cWhen he describes anything, you more than see it; you feel it too.\u201d Shakespeare\u2019s depictions often penetrate both the mind and the heart. The Washington Post whooped up one Synetic production: \u201cYou don\u2019t understand this \u2018Hamlet\u2019\u2014you feel it in your gut.\u201d If viewers don\u2019t understand the inner turmoil that propelled Hamlet, their takeaway will be little more than \u201chelluva show!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Silent Shakespeare viewers can distinguish the good guys from the bad guys (thanks to Nazi-style salutes and other flourishes) but are unlikely to recognize the depravity that perennially accompanies power lust throughout history. No fervent gesture can explain contemporary politicians half as well as Lady Macbeth\u2019s outburst: \u201cWhat need we \/ fear who knows it, when none can call our power to \/ account?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without the words, Shakespeare will not mesmerize audiences for hours on end. The Macbeth I saw at Washington\u2019s Folger Theatre in 2008 riveted with perfect acting, deft humor, and just enough special effects to catapult the drama forward. It was so good that attendees forgot they were seeing a play and that Shakespeare\u2019s preposterously pro-English rendition of Scottish history would have gotten him tarred and feathered in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n<p>Shakespeare has retained his popularity for more than 400 years in part because many of his sentences both dazzle and enlighten. In the final act of \u201cRichard II,\u201d the main character utters his own epitaph: \u201cI wasted time, and now doth time waste me.\u201d Having a deposed monarch do a Keystone Kops-style slap of his own forehead doesn\u2019t do justice to either Shakespeare or the audience.<\/p>\n<p>The king who murdered Hamlet\u2019s father bemoans his ineffectual prayers: \u201cMy words fly up, my thoughts remain below: \/ Words without thoughts never to heaven go.\u201d In the same way, pantomime is unlikely to spur epiphanies about life and humanity. Even the most expressive body language cannot compete with the power of words to provoke thoughts decades after a performance ended.<\/p>\n<p>Silent presentations inevitably hit the mute button on almost all of Shakespeare\u2019s humor. Without words, Falstaff and his minions can swagger and strut but forfeit their cavalcade of insults, jests and double-entendres. Shakespeare without puns is like French cooking without butter.<\/p>\n<p>There has never been a shortage of bad Shakespeare productions in America, yet the Bard\u2019s works leave ample room for fruitful, innovative interpretations. Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d has been beautifully adapted by Prokofiev, but that presentation succeeds thanks to magnificent music and viewers\u2019 familiarity with the characters and storyline. \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream,\u201d which Synetic will perform beginning on July 15, is another example of a play that could be entertaining in a dance\/music format. (Happily, Synetic eschews the once-fashionable 1960s bestiality-themed interpretation of that play.)<\/p>\n<p>Still, Silent Shakespeare is akin to mental nouveau cuisine with more flourishes than calories. The fact that many Washingtonians consider Silent Shakespeare an improvement rather than an oxymoron reflects unkindly on the capital\u2019s cultural pretensions. But perhaps we should not be surprised that the city that pioneered obfuscation is now exalting expunging English altogether.<\/p>\n<p><em>Mr. Bovard is the author of \u2018Public Policy Hooligan\u2019 and a member of the USA Today Editorial Page Board of Contributors. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>On Twitter @jimbovard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2015 A Silenced Shakespeare in Washington Shakespeare without puns is like French cooking without butter. By James Bovard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Washington In Act 5 of \u201cLove\u2019s Labor Lost,\u201d one character scoffs at pedants: \u201cThey have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.\u201d The latest Shakespeare fashion, at least [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[633,632,631,634,630],"class_list":["post-8542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art-subsidies","tag-lady-macbeth","tag-muzzled","tag-puns","tag-shakespeare"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wall St. Journal: Washington&#039;s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My Wall Street Journal article scoffing at &quot;Silent Shakespeare&quot; was labeled one of the &quot;local outrages that defined 2015&quot; by Washingtonian magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wall St. Journal: Washington&#039;s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My Wall Street Journal article scoffing at &quot;Silent Shakespeare&quot; was labeled one of the &quot;local outrages that defined 2015&quot; by Washingtonian magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-14T00:44:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-05T20:15:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"583\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Wall St. Journal: Washington&#8217;s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-14T00:44:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-05T20:15:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":789,\"commentCount\":2,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"art subsidies\",\"Lady Macbeth\",\"muzzled\",\"puns\",\"Shakespeare\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/\",\"name\":\"Wall St. Journal: Washington's Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-14T00:44:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-05T20:15:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"description\":\"My Wall Street Journal article scoffing at \\\"Silent Shakespeare\\\" was labeled one of the \\\"local outrages that defined 2015\\\" by Washingtonian magazine\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":583},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/13\\\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wall St. Journal: Washington&#8217;s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wall St. Journal: Washington's Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron - James Bovard","description":"My Wall Street Journal article scoffing at \"Silent Shakespeare\" was labeled one of the \"local outrages that defined 2015\" by Washingtonian magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wall St. Journal: Washington's Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron - James Bovard","og_description":"My Wall Street Journal article scoffing at \"Silent Shakespeare\" was labeled one of the \"local outrages that defined 2015\" by Washingtonian magazine","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2015-07-14T00:44:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-05T20:15:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":583,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Wall St. Journal: Washington&#8217;s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron","datePublished":"2015-07-14T00:44:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-05T20:15:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/"},"wordCount":789,"commentCount":2,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg","keywords":["art subsidies","Lady Macbeth","muzzled","puns","Shakespeare"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/","name":"Wall St. Journal: Washington's Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg","datePublished":"2015-07-14T00:44:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-05T20:15:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"description":"My Wall Street Journal article scoffing at \"Silent Shakespeare\" was labeled one of the \"local outrages that defined 2015\" by Washingtonian magazine","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shakespeare-midsumemr-night-dream-800px-Augustins_-_La_Folie_de_Titania_-_Paul_Jean_Gervais_1897_2004_1_188.jpg","width":800,"height":583},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/13\/wall-st-journal-washingtons-silent-shakespeare-oxymoron\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wall St. Journal: Washington&#8217;s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8542"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20536,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8542\/revisions\/20536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}