Eirian Gail Wells

Much Ado About a Fanfic

Bea and Ben: Or, a College of Witcrackers by FledglingDM on Archive of Our Own (AO3) is a 2020 fanfiction of Much Ado About Nothing set in a modern-day university. This adaptation changes the medium and genre to better align with fanfiction and the relationship fiction genre. In changing the medium from a play to fanfiction (“fanfic” or “fic”), not only is the author able to provide more to the story, but the reader is also given more paratext to influence their reading. Stories within the relationship fiction genre are rooted in emotions and character growth; unlike literary fiction which places high value on realism, relationship fiction values catharsis and sympathy (Wyatt and Saricks). In this paper, I will first examine how the paratext of this fic changes the way the story is read. I will then analyze how the new genre and setting affect the story itself. 

When looking at the paratext of fanfiction, a lot can be gleamed before the reader even begins, more so than with a physical book. AO3 uses a tagging system that includes a rating, archive warnings, category, fandoms, relationships, characters, additional tags, language, series, and stats. From this information, the reader will learn that this fic is considered mature by its author and is based on the original Much Ado About Nothing and the 2011 stage production. The story has a sequel, is a complete work, and has over 90,000 words. In the 'additional tags' section, the author tells us this work is set in a modern and college/university ‘Alternate Universe’ and gives tags for potentially triggering topics such as ‘Recreational Drug Use’, ‘Sexual Harassment’, and ‘Underage Drinking’. 

We are also given information regarding how the story might be adapted for the new medium, genre, and time through tags like ‘Taking on the Patriarchy’ and ‘Mentions of Other Shakespeare Women/Characters’; the last tag tells us the author is familiar with not only Much Ado About Nothing but also other works of Shakespeare. When we move onto the summary for the fic, the author chooses to use an excerpt from the first chapter and a one-sentence summation of the concept: “Or, a modern college AU of Much Ado.” From the excerpt chosen, the reader can gauge the dynamic of Benedick and Beatrice, the writing style, and a basic characterization of the two lovers. 

This paratextual information is significant as it influences how the story will be read. Tagging the “Much Ado About Nothing (2011)” fandom inherently shapes how the reader imagines characters and is supported by an author's note at the end of Chapter 4, “i kind of have this mental image in my head of bea looking like a mix of [C]atherine tate and sara bareilles. ben is just a young david tennant because he's the best benedick” (Fledgling DM, Chapter 4 original grammar). We also see a difference between the author’s ‘writing voice’ and ‘actual voice’ as I have labeled them. We see this difference in the tags “Recreational Drug Use” and “(it’s weed).” The former tag uses formal grammar while the latter takes a conversational and online approach; this is mirrored within the text and author’s notes; the story text uses formal grammar while the author’s notes are written with online grammar to differentiate the two. The information at the end of the paratext tells us about the form and length. The word and chapter count is a widely used way to sort and filter fics when searching through AO3, adding to the reader's autonomy in finding stories that suit their interests. So, even before the reader has chosen to read this story, they have a good sense of the tone, form, genre, plot, and characterization of Bea and Ben.

This modern adaptation of Much Ado faithfully follows the original story while adding more character interactions that align with the relationship fiction genre as defined by Wyatt and Saricks. As stated in the tags of the fic, Messina is now the University of Messina, where Margaret, Hero, and Beatrice (Bea) share an apartment next door to Claudio (now Lucas), Pedro, and Benedick (Ben). Bea is a Gender and Woman’s Studies major working on a thesis. This thesis allows the story to explore gendered expectations and violence against women more explicitly. Bea and Ben have an established combative dynamic, which leads Margaret, Hero, Lucas, and Pedro to concoct the same plan as in the play, although this plan plays a minor role within the fic. This adaptation fits soundly in the relationship fiction genre; the story revolves around the relationships between Bea and Ben, Bea and Hero, and Bea and Hero with their respective traumas.

Hero’s storyline sees the most fundamental change in the story; where a woman in the Elizabethan era has limited options to deal with violence, Hero of a modern setting has resources and understanding available to her. In this story, while Hero is in a relationship with Lucas, she is assaulted at a party. While dealing with the immediate aftermath, Lucas breaks up with her because he believes she cheated on him despite her saying she was assaulted. Lucas then goes on to ruin her reputation at the University of Messina. Hero’s journey coping with the trauma of an assault is aided by Bea’s own experience with an abusive relationship, allowing her to help Hero through the aftermath. In both the original Much Ado and the adaptation, Hero has a non-consensual experience at the hands of the Don Jon character (being portrayed in a sexual manner in the play and assault in the fic) and then gets her reputation publicly ruined by Claudio/Lucas, resolving with Claudio/Lucas in some way making small amends. In the original play, Claudio marries Hero, reestablishing her reputation and in this adaptation, Lucas agrees to engage in restorative justice and begins to learn about feminism. 

The adaptation focuses on emotional abuse or hurt against women, specifically harm enacted by the men they date. In the story, we learn of Bea’s experience with an abusive boyfriend in the past, which still affects her relationships with men in the present. Because of her experience, she is overly cautious of men, and when she is unable to protect Hero from harm, she blames herself. After Hero’s assault and the emotional harm from Lucas, Hero uses her school’s Title IX office to hold her assailant accountable and engage in restorative justice with Lucas. The fic goes through the entire process and details how Title IX works, drawing on the author’s experience and training as a rape crisis counselor (FledglingDM, Chapter 10).

Both versions of the story and Beatrice challenge gender norms; the original Beatrice does not follow the expectations of a woman by engaging in a ‘merry war’ with Benedick, while the modern Bea directly challenges the harms that befall women by studying them and prompting others to do the same. The original and the adaptation focus on gendered expectations; the stories show how little it takes for a man to do good toward women; despite this, they still often fail. Benedick has power in being a man, and yet he does not use his power to advocate for the women around him until prompted by Beatrice. Even in these stories, Beatrice must guide Benedick towards doing what is right; we never see anyone guide Beatrice, she does it on her own. The modern story shows how men can “distance themselves from difficult conversations or deflect responsibility when they [are not] given the answers they [want] to hear” (FledglingDM). Beatrice’s ‘Oh If I Were a Man’ speech within the play is not about an inherent difference between genders but about how the institution and policing of gender shapes how a person acts or reacts. Within the adaptation, Ben can engage in feminine-coded emotional acts, but Bea cannot display ‘masculine’ anger. In both stories, Benedick has the power to enact real, social consequences on Claudio/Lucas when Bea cannot because of how gender norms are policed by society. 

In conclusion, the fanfiction Bea and Ben: Or, a College of Witcrackers provides an intriguing example of how a change in medium and genre can impact the reading of a story. By adapting Much Ado About Nothing to a modern day college/university AU fic, the author was able to apply and expand upon Shakespeare's commentary on gender expectations and harm against women to fit the modern context. Additionally, the change to a fanfiction medium allows a new way to engage with Shakespeare, continuing a lineage of exploring medium and genre through a familiar story. Overall, I found this adaptation to be a great example of how Shakespeare's works can apply to modern experiences.

Works Referenced

Driscoll, Beth, et al. Genre Worlds. Page and Screen, 2022.

Hately, Erica. “Criminal Adaptations: Gender, Genre, and Shakespearean Young Adult Literature.” Shakespeare and Millennial Fiction, edited by A.J. Hartley, Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Leavenworth, Maria Lindgren. "The Paratext of Fan Fiction." Narrative, vol. 23 no. 1, 2015, p. 40-60. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2015.0004.

Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing.

TheFledglingDM. Bea and Ben: Or, a College of Wit-Crackers. Archive of Our Own, 8 July 2020, archiveofourown.org/works/20258518?view_full_work=true. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.

Thomas, Bronwen. "What Is Fanfiction and Why Are People Saying Such Nice Things about It?" Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, vol. 3, 2011, p. 1-24. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.5250/storyworlds.3.2011.0001. 

Wyatt, Neal and Saricks, Joyce G. “Relationship Fiction.” The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. pp. 193-212. ALA Editions, 2019. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2034491&site=ehost-live. 

Hamlet (1948) dir. Laurence Olivier — Annotated Bibliography

Albanese, Denise. "School for Scandal? New-Media Hamlet, Olivier, and Camp Connoisseurship." Renaissance Drama, vol. 34, 2005, pp. 185-208. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/school-scandal-new-media-hamlet-olivier-camp/docview/2156520/se-2. 

The latter half of this paper explores a pattern of responses from the author’s class upon viewing Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet. The author notes that her students often laugh at Hamlet’s “affected, exaggerated, self-indulgent, overtheatrical, and wimpy mannerisms” and ambiguous gender performance. She reflects on this reaction and concludes that Olivier’s dandy and oedipal characterization of Hamlet, which was once “dangerous” has become camp as audiences are distanced from its historical moment.

Hamlet. Directed by Laurence Olivier, The Rank Organization, 1948.

Hindle, Maurice. “Laurence Olivier’s ‘Hamlet’ (UK, 1948).” Shakespeare on Film pp. 207-212. 2nd ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

This case study of Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet provides phenomenal insight into the movie from a cinema studies perspective. Interestingly, Hindle notes Olivier’s use of film noir style and German expressionism. This was not something I was able to notice when watching the film but add greatly to my interpretation of the film. German expressionism originated in Weimar Germany in the 1920s; this time in German history was relatively accepting of queer identity, Magnus Hirschfeld did incredible research on sexual and gender identity during this time, unfortunately much of the information him and the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft collected was destroyed under Hitler’s regime.

Russo, Vito. “Who’s a Sissy? Homosexuality According to Tinseltown”, “The way We Weren’t: The Invisible Years”. Celluloid Closet : Homosexuality in the Movies. pp. 3-124. 1981. Harper & Row Publishers, 2007.

Russo’s 1981 book about the history of homosexuality on film has remained one the foundational texts about queer identity on film for good reason. The first chapter I cite here provides information about the ‘sissy’ trope and how gender non-conformity was used in Hollywood. The second chapter talks about queer identity during the Hays Code period in which homosexuality was banned unless it was clearly communicated as a tragedy, leading to many dead queer characters. This book provided necessary context on how Laurence Olivier’s performance as Hamlet fits into a longer pattern of queer subtext.

Sapountzi, Ana Maria. Making Meaning of Laurence Olivier : Reading Queer Sensibilities in His Hollywood Performances, 1939-1960. University of St. Andrews. Department of Film Studies, 2021. 

Unfortunately, I was not able to access this thesis because it is restricted until 2026, but I am including it because from what I was able to read about it, I think it will shed light on the queer nature of Laurence Olivier’s performance.

Steenbergh, Kristine. “Emotion, Performance and Gender in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” Sexed Sentiments : Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender and Emotion, Brill, 2011, pp. 93–116,search-ebscohost-com.proxyum.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=348482&site=ehost-live.

This chapter explores emotion and the performance of emotion through the lens of gender. The author points out that within the play, Hamlet sees himself as not performing masculinity enough; Hamlet understands that he is echoing a rhetoric of passion, the rhetoric of “women and the lower classes … the ranting of prostitutes (whore, drab) and foul-mouthed kitchen servants (scullion).” This aligns Hamlet with a queer community within the original text.

Musical Adaptations of Pilgrim’s Hands in Romeo and Juliet

This paper will analyze three musical adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and how they translate the Pilgrim’s Hands excerpt into the format. To do this, the music, lyrics and dialogue, choreography, staging, and (when applicable) cinematography will be analyzed. These lines—what I call the Pilgrim’s Hands excerpt—were chosen because they are the first interaction between Romeo and Juliet and we see them use religion as innuendo for their devotion and love, an important motif throughout the play. This excerpt includes lines 104-122 of Act I Scene V of Romeo and Juliet and will be compared with the parallel scene(s) in each adaptation. In the story of Romeo and Juliet, this excerpt informs how the audience views the relationship and dynamic of Romeo and Juliet and the way the story regards their love.

Three musical adaptations of Romeo and Juliet were chosen to study. These adaptations were selected because they each show various levels of faithfulness to the source material. The first musical, West Side Story, is the most loyal adaptation set in 1950s New York when there was an influx of Puerto Rican immigrants which, in the story, led to racial tension in the form of opposing gangs—the Sharks and the Jets. The second adaptation is Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, a Bollywood adaptation that follows the story of Romeo and Juliet while also incorporating aspects of the story of Ramayana. The story is set in a fictional village called Ranjhaar which is notorious for the feud between the two families, Rajadi and Sanera. Through a series of events we see Ram and Leela fall in love at first meeting, their love is prevented, and the resolution comes through their deaths (this time a double murder/suicide in which they each kill the other). The final choice of adaptation is the most loosely-based, Bare: A Pop Opera. This musical mirrors Romeo and Juliet in that our two lovers, Jason and Peter, are prevented from being together by the community around this (in this story, a Catholic boarding school in the early 2000s) and the story ends with a preventable death of a teenager—although only one of the lovers. Most interestingly, the plot includes a school production of Romeo and Juliet with Jason cast as Romeo and Peter cast as Mercutio—certainly a nod to queer interpretations of the characters. This paper will use West Side Story, Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, and Bare: A Pop Opera to examine how the significance of the Pilgrim’s Hands excerpt translates into a musical and choreographed medium and what this new medium can tell us about the characters of each adaptation.

1. West Side Story

In West Side Story, the Pilgrim’s Hands scene happens at a school-sponsored function. The Montage and Capulet families are represented by neighborhood gangs who are racially divided. An interesting part of this dynamic is both the school setting and the racial dynamics; these two aspects mean that there is no anonymity to Tony and Maria’s meeting. They meet in hiding—everyone else there would immediately recognize them as members of the opposing gangs. Maria and Tony already know before meeting that they are from opposing sides. They fall into this relationship understanding the social boundaries separating them unlike Romeo and Juliet who ignore the boundaries because they are already in love.

When walking to meet each other behind the bleachers, we see the camera follow them each with a tracking shot (38:20). Maria stays in the right side of the frame when we see her while Tony is kept on the left side of the frame when we watch him. This tracking shot keeps the focus on Maria and Tony, implying they are only seeing each in a crowded room—this is a modern take on the actual blurring of all other dancers in the 1961 version of the film. Their first interaction under the bleachers shows Maria and Tony dancing. Unlike the dancing in the preceding scenes, this music is non-diegetic and slow. We hear a cha-cha, a type of ballroom dance, in contrast to the more ‘common’ mambo music from before. The change in music heightens the significance and grand emotions of the moment; the simple dance Maria and Tony do mirrors this new sound (39:10). Because of the musical format, even though Maria and Tony dancing together is diegetic, the manner in which they dance, and how in-sync they are, is a non-diegetic reflection of their emotions. The choreography is meant to show how they immediately harmonize together. The contrast between Maria dancing with Tony and dancing with Chino (this story’s Paris) is that Maria is enjoying dancing with Tony instead of the way she enjoys dancing, which happens to be, with Chino. The choreography with Chino is impersonal and they never touch; the choreography with Tony is much closer and there is an emphasis on their hands, a reference to the hand motif in the Pilgrim’s Hands excerpt (40:00). 

When Maria and Tony meet under the bleachers Maria takes the left side of the frame while Tony takes the right side (39:10). This switching of positions, from when they walk to the bleachers, suggests a change in the dynamic which is exemplified when Maria kisses Tony first; Tony is the pursuer initially until Maria takes the upper hand. When Maria does kiss Tony, he is surprised and remarks, “I’m a by-the-book type” (41:17), a reference to line 122 in which Juliet replies “You kiss by th’ book” after Romeo kisses her. 

2. Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela

Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela is a Bollywood adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The story follows two feuding families in India and their progenies, Ram and Leela, who fall in love. This is a more direct adaptation but is characterized by the cultural differences and the sexualization of violence in this movie. When we first see Ram and Leela meet, Ram points his gun at Leela and she follows suit (this is a visual foreshadowing to their later murder-suicide). As Ram pulls the trigger we see that his gun is fake while Leela’s is not, she fires her gun into the air (21:25). This, like many other moments in the movie implies that Leela holds the power in the relationship and yet we see actual interactions between the two reflect otherwise. Ram is controlling and, at times, abusive and yet Leela seems to get sexual satisfaction from this behavior. The music throughout the Pilgrim’s Hands excerpt compares the love of Ram and Leela to bloodlust, departing from the typical portrayal of Romeo and Juliet’s love into a more Bonnie-and-Clyde dynamic (Hada). Most of Ram and Leela’s interactions in this scene are non-verbal, we understand their attraction through the choreography. 

At first we use medium close-up, shot-reverse-shot sequence to chronicle Ram and Leela’s sensual cat-and-mouse interaction using colored powder at a Holi celebration. Leela trails the pink powder down her neck and as the music sings “I’ve tasted blood / by touching of lips” Rams brushes the pink across his lips (26:28). Leela then initiates a kiss, which knocks Ram off-kilter (27:20). We then switch to a wide shot of a group dance that Leela first joins and Ram follows in (27:36). It is a full-bodied, high-energy dance to mirror the music which is strong and passionate. A couple times, Ram interrupts the dance with his attraction to Leela’s body, advances that she ignores in favor of the dance itself. There is a push and pull all throughout the dance which both Ram and Leela enjoy. If the Pilgrim’s Hands excerpt from Romeo and Juliet acts to show the love and devotion between the two teenagers through religious allusion, this dance shows the combative lust that colors Ram and Leela’s attraction.

3. Bare: A Pop Opera

Bare: A Pop Opera is not a direct adaptation. We meet Peter and Jason when they are already in a relationship. In the story we see the two torn apart by Peter wanting to come out while Jason cannot imagine a queer life. Peter already accepts his queerness while Jason does not, he still views himself as a part of heterosexual society. This adaptation is also set against a school production of Romeo and Juliet which leads us to the Pilgrims Hands song. Interestingly, Jason is cast as Romeo in the school play while Peter is cast as Mercutio; Romeo and Mercutio’s friendship is commonly read through a queer lens. In this rehearsal, Peter steps in to read Juliet’s lines. The song, despite being the literal Pilgrims Hands excerpt, does not serve the same role in the story. In Romeo and Juliet, the Pilgrim’s Hands excerpt serves to show the two lovers meeting and their initial chemistry. In Bare, we have already established the chemistry between Peter and Jason, however we have seen them be divided and Jason has pulled away from Peter. In this story, Pilgrim’s Hands serves to show us the chemistry that still remains despite the divide between our two star-crossed lovers. When discussing the story-arcs, this scene is more comparable to the balcony scene because both scenes are declarations of love before everything falls apart. Immediately after this scene, Jason learns that he has gotten Ivy pregnant through a one night stand and this begins a series of events leads to Jason’s suicide.

Because of the plot set-up this song uses direct quotes from Romeo and Juliet. Most of what we learn about Jason and Peter is from the choreography and performance. The song begins with another character, Zach, announcing final call for illegal drugs. This is foreshadowing of Jason’s suicide by pills, similar to the foreshadowing of Romeo and Juliet’s fate that we see in the original play. The character who was cast to play Juliet in the school play has not arrived and her understudy must step in. This is where we begin with quotes directly from Shakespeare at line 104 of Romeo and Juliet. Jason and the understudy begin performing but the understudy cannot perform well (this is acted comedically). Here, Peter steps in seamlessly, already knowing the lines and choreography by heart while Jason hesitates (Act 2, 20:28). At line 110, Jason rejoins in the performance and we immediately see that he and Peter have chemistry that was absent from the heterosexual performance earlier. We then see the choreography repeat at line 111, “And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss” when Jason was performing with the girl, their hands touch, kiss, and they are physically close (Act 2, 20:05). At this point Jason and Peter’s hands do not touch and there is physical space between them (Act 2, 20:42). Peter and Jason then stop their choreography as the drug-dealing classmate from earlier, Zach, begins to snicker at the two boys. The teacher, Sister Chantelle, then tells him off, not by defending queerness, but by pointing out that in Shakespeare’s time, all roles would be performed by men, reinforcing the heterosexuality of the performance (Act 2, 20:50). After a heterosexual reading of Jason and Peter’s performance has been validated, we then see Pater and Jason’s hands kiss within the choreography (Act 2, 21:00). As the two begin to dance again, they are closer than Jason was with the girl earlier, the dancers in the background stop, only Peter and Jason are ‘in focus’, we see Peter kiss Jason’s hand (Act 2, 21:06). This is a part of the performance and yet the chemistry is real. At line 115, we see Jason falter on the word lest and Peter steps in to finish the line, showing his confidence and assuredness (Act 2, 21:17). The song ends on line 116 when the original Juliet enters, Jason and Peter can no longer dance in ambiguity—there is no heterosexual reason for them to dance.

4. Conclusion

The similarities between the three musical adaptations are abundant. They are all modern adaptations and therefore the gender and age dynamics are changed to mirror the setting, and there is a sense of tragedy from the start of each story that we can attribute to the audience’s understanding of the plot prior to seeing the adaptation. Both Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela and West Side Story, more direct adaptations, try to make the gender dynamics more egalitarian; by making the Romeo and Juliet characters two boys, it can be argued that Bare does the same. While of note, these are not changes attributed to the musical nature of the adaptation. 

All of these adaptations use dance and choreography to establish the dynamics of the characters in the way the religious allusion of Shakespeare’s dialogue does. West Side Story uses contrast between the exuberant dancing around others and the gentle and quiet dance Maria and Tony have alone to show the tender emotion between the two; they can be themselves around each other. The choreography of Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela is a dialogue. The relationship is not about moving in tandem, it is about how they react to each other. Like West Side Story, Bare uses dance to show how close the Jason and Peter are compared to Jason and another girl. The crux of Bare is Jason’s internal struggle over the who he is and who he wants to be seen as—who he is with Peter and who he is with Ivy. Jason wants to be with a girl and yet it is fake and stilted; his dance with Peter is natural and shows true chemistry. These retellings all emphasize the hands of the characters in these scenes—Ram and Leela trace colors over their skin using their hands, Peter kisses Jason’s hand, Maria and Tony step apart yet remain connected because their hands hold each other. 

These choices are important because choreography is used in this medium to show the audience how the characters feel; the writers of these adaptations have chosen to use the hand imagery Shakespeare intended which shows the impact this passage has when reading or watching Romeo and Juliet. Through analyzing West Side Story, Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, and Bare: A Pop Opera we find that a popular way to adapt the intent of the Pilgrim’s Hands excerpt is through choreography and physicality. All three adaptations decided that the imagery of two hands meeting—kissing—was important enough to include in the new story even when other important and impactful aspects were cut.

Works Cited

(Act 1) Bare: A Pop Opera. Book by Damon Intrabartolo and Jon Hartmere, Directed by Calvin Remsburg. Stage Production, Glory|Struck Productions, 2013. drive.google.com/file/d/17eZz1LVPkHrb4iL_f0Tcof2y6TzR5Mrj/view?usp=drivesdk.‌

(Act 2) Bare: A Pop Opera. Book by Damon Intrabartolo and Jon Hartmere, Directed by Calvin Remsburg. Stage Production, Glory|Struck Productions, 2013. drive.google.com/file/d/12hy5L5cqRkbDl9tvtYIJzbKnMorXwh3q/view?usp=drivesdk.

Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Film, Eros International, 2013.

Hada, Shail. “Lahu Munh Lag Gaya.” Translated by Lyrics Gem, Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, Eros Now Music, 2013. 

West Side Story. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Film, 20th Century Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2021.