William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy Read online

  R2-D2

  —Beep, squeak.

  [Darth Vader shoots. R2-D2 is hit.

  Ahh hoo!

  LUKE

  —Small R2-D2 hath been lost!

  COMPUTER

  The Death Star now has come within our range.

  TARKIN

  Commander, thou may’st fire when thou hast made

  All goodly preparation thereunto.

  VADER

  Now face thy death, thou rebel.

  PILOT

  —Sir, take heed!

  CHORUS

  Now in a trice brave Han is on the scene!

  The smuggler hath return’d on errand kind.

  With sly approach he makes his way unseen

  And slays th’Imperi’l pilots from behind.

  [Enter Han Solo with Chewbacca, firing on

  Darth Vader and Imperial Pilots. Explosion.

  Imperial Pilots 1 and 2 die.

  VADER

  But how?—

  [Darth Vader exits in confusion, his ship spinning out of control.

  HAN

  —Thy path is clear, young Luke. Now do

  Thy deed and let us all make way back home.

  LUKE

  I stretch my feelings out and use the Force,

  And on the instant seems the porthole vast—

  Not small or difficult to strike, but large.

  The ship is arm’d, and now I take the chance—

  The blast’s away, and with it all our hopes!

  [Luke shoots and hits the target.

  CHORUS

  The laser hits its mark with certain aim,

  And as the Death Star arms to strike the base

  The chain reaction sets the orb aflame:

  The Death Star hath exploded into space.

  HAN

  Thy timely blast hath hit the perfect mark—

  One in a million was thy Force-fill’d shot!

  GHOST

  Remember me, O Luke, remember me,

  And ever shall the Force remain with thee.

  [Exeunt.

  SCENE 6.

  The rebel base on Yavin IV.

  Enter LUKE SKYWALKER from ship, with PRINCESS LEIA and various rebels.

  REBELS

  Hurrah!

  LUKE

  —O Leia!

  LEIA

  —Luke! Thou didst succeed!

  Enter HAN SOLO.

  HAN

  Heigh-ho!

  LUKE

  —Good friend! I knew thou wouldst return.

  I knew thou must, ’twas in thy spirit good.

  HAN

  Nay, should a pirate let another take

  His own reward?

  LEIA

  —Thou gentle soul, I knew

  Thou wert of sterner stuff than money made.

  Enter R2-D2, injured, and C-3PO.

  C-3PO

  O R2, R2, canst thou hear me? Speak!

  Canst thou repair him? Say thou canst, I beg!

  If any of my parts may be of use,

  Pray say the word!

  LUKE

  —Fear not, he’ll be made whole.

  REBEL 2

  We shall at once begin our best repair.

  [Exeunt C-3PO with R2-D2 and Rebel Leader 2.

  LUKE

  Now ends a noble quest, a battle won.

  Now hath a true adventure reach’d its goal.

  Now hath the good Rebellion fac’d its foe

  And triumph’d though it seem’d that all was lost.

  LEIA

  Along the way, dear friends were lost and made,

  Along the way, strange creatures have we found.

  The stories have been told, the villains met,

  The griefs and exultations all play’d out.

  HAN

  A chance for new beginnings we have made,

  Directing hearts unto the rebels’ cause.

  These are the star wars we have fought and won—

  For now our battles and our scenes are done.

  Enter CHORUS as epilogue.

  CHORUS

  Now dawns a new day with the sun of Peace,

  The day whereon the rebels welcome Fate.

  For from their enemies they find release

  And now with mirth they come to celebrate.

  Young Luke, strong in the Force, doth walk beside

  The noble Han, whose valor won the day.

  The rebels form an aisle and rise with pride,

  As Luke and Han march forth in grand display.

  Now Leia smiles and gives them their reward,

  As each bows low with hope and joy sincere.

  C-3PO and R2, now restor’d,

  Look on as brave Chewbacca sounds the cheer.

  There let our heroes rest free from attack,

  Till darkness rise and Empire striketh back.

  [Exeunt omnes.

  END.

  AFTERWORD.

  William Shakespeare’s Star Wars.

  At first glance, the title seems absurd.

  But there’s a surprising and very real connection between George Lucas’s cinematic masterpiece and the thirty-seven (give or take) plays of William Shakespeare. That connection is a man named Joseph Campbell, author of the landmark book The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

  Campbell was famous for his pioneering work as a mythologist. He studied legends and myths from throughout world history to identify the recurring elements—or archetypes—that power all great storytelling. Through his research, Campbell discovered that certain archetypes appeared again and again in narratives separated by hundreds of years, from ancient Greek mythologies to classic Hollywood westerns. Naturally, the plays of William Shakespeare were an important source for Campbell’s scholarship, with brooding prince Hamlet among his cadre of archetypal heroes.

  George Lucas was among the first filmmakers to consciously apply Campbell’s scholarship to motion pictures. “In reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” he told Campbell’s biographers, “I began to realize that my first draft of Star Wars was following classic motifs … so I modified my next draft according to what I’d been learning about classical motifs and made it a little bit more consistent.”

  To put it more simply, Campbell studied Shakespeare to produce The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and Lucas studied Campbell to produce Star Wars. So it’s not at all surprising that the Star Wars saga features archetypal characters and relationships similar to those found in Shakespearean drama. The complicated parent/child relationship of Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker (and the mentor/student relationship of Obi-Wan Kenobi/Luke Skywalker) recalls plays like Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, The Tempest, and Hamlet. Like Sith lords, many of Shakespeare’s villains are easily identifiable and almost entirely evil, with notable baddies including Iago (Othello), Edmund (King Lear), and Don John (Much Ado about Nothing). Still others, like Darth Vader, are more conflicted and complex in their malevolence: Hamlet’s Claudius and the band of conspirators in Julius Caesar. Destiny and fate are key themes of Star Wars, as they are in Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Macbeth.

  Shakespeare’s plays and Star Wars also feature a host of colorful supporting players. C-3PO and R2-D2 observe and comment on the action like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Chewbacca is as untamable as Caliban. Lando is as smooth and self-interested (at first) as Brutus. Obi-Wan Kenobi is like a wise Prospero (before death) or a haunting King Hamlet (after). Jabba the Hutt enjoys a diet worthy of Falstaff. Boba Fett is like Richard III’s murderers 1, 2, and 3, but with a jetpack and blaster instead of a knife. Yoda’s speech is as backward as Dogberry’s but as wise as Polonius’s.

  The works of Shakespeare and the Star Wars movies also share a comparable level of popularity and relevance. All well-rounded postmodern cultural connoisseurs are expected to have at least passing familiarity with both sets of stories, and both have percolated into our everyday language: you’re as likely to hear one of Shakespeare’s enduring phrases (“good riddanc
e,” “faint-hearted,” “elbow room,” and many others) as an encouragement to “use the force.” If Star Wars were an actual Shakespearean play, we would most likely classify it as a fantasy, in the vein of The Tempest. However, it also has elements of a history (the story of the Galactic Empire with all the intrigue of Richard III), a comedy (all’s well that ends well, after all), or, taken as a six-movie arc, the Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker.

  I had the idea for William Shakespeare’s Star Wars after watching the original trilogy for the millionth time and (soon afterward) attending four shows at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I’d already committed every scene and speech of the Star Wars saga to memory, but the Shakespeare festival introduced me to something new: The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa, an adaptation by Alison Carey of the classic comedy set in contemporary Iowa among a populace happily embracing gay marriage. I saw the appeal of applying the Shakespearean tradition to surprising and nontraditional story elements, and the next morning I woke up with the idea for this book.

  My interests in language and wordplay came in handy while attempting to translate so much classic movie dialogue into iambic pentameter. For those unfamiliar with the phrase, iambic pentameter is the metrical form that Shakespeare uses in his plays and sonnets. An iamb is the syllable pattern unstressed-stressed, and pentameter means each line has five iambs, so a line of iambic pentameter sounds like this: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM (Simon and Garfunkel’s “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail” is a perfect example). The rhythm of iambic pentameter feels natural and intuitive to me, so I had a lot of fun writing 3,076 lines of it. Geeky trivia: this puts William Shakespeare’s Star Wars at an average length for a Shakespearean play (A Comedy of Errors is the shortest, at 1,786 lines; Hamlet is the longest, at 4,024).

  This has been a labor of love, and I’ve enjoyed every syllable.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

  The process of writing this, my first book, has been a thrilling journey into the publishing world, and I am grateful to all those who made the way clear. Thank you to Jason Rekulak, my editor at Quirk Books, for believing in this book and for encouraging me to write it in the first place. Thank you to Adriann Ranta, my agent, for guiding me through the maze of contracts and answering the thousand questions of a first-time author. Thanks to both Jennifer Heddle and Carol Roeder at Lucasfilm for making the editorial process a smooth one, to Nicolas Delort for his amazing illustrations, and to the rest of the Quirk and Lucasfilm staff for their wonderful contributions.

  Great thanks to my literal and metaphorical brothers Erik Doescher, Josh Hicks, and Ethan Youngerman for being early readers of the manuscript and constant cheerleaders along the way. Thank you to my parents, Beth and Bob Doescher, for their unconditional love and for making Star Wars a part of my reality since before I can remember.

  Profound thanks to Murray Biggs, my college English professor and good friend. Murray performed a Herculean task for this book, poring over the manuscript and making minor corrections to improve my Shakespearean pastiche (and teaching me the word pastiche). Thank you to Jane Bidwell, my high school English teacher, for instilling in me a love of Shakespeare and an understanding of iambic pentameter.

  Additional thanks to others who offered help and support: Heidi Altman, Jeff and Caryl Creswell, Mark Fordice, Holly Havens, Jim and Nancy Hicks, Apricot Irving, Steve Maddoux, Chris Martin, Matt Matros, Joan and Grady Miller, Michael Morrill, Dave Nieuwstraten, Naomi Walcott, and Doug Zabroski.

  Finally, thank you to my spouse, Jennifer Creswell, and our children Liam and Graham. Though not a lover of Shakespeare—and possessing a general antipathy toward Star Wars—Jennifer has shown support, love, and encouragement throughout the development of this book. Liam and Graham have been excited about “daddy’s book” from the start and (he notes with pride) have become big Star Wars fans in the process.

  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

  (1564–1616) was a poet and playwright. He is widely considered one of the greatest writers in the English language.

  GEORGE LUCAS is a film producer, screenwriter, director, and the creator of the Star Wars motion picture saga. He lives in California.

  IAN DOESCHER is the New York Times best-selling author of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family. Visit him at IanDoescher.com.

  PRAISE FOR WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S STAR WARS

  “Two of the most creative minds

  in the universe collide with

  spectacular, hilarious, and surprisingly

  touching insight into

  the original classic. This is truly

  Star Wars as you like it.”

  —Joe Schreiber,

  author of Star Wars: Death Troopers

  “The Bard at his finest, with all

  the depth of character, insightful

  soliloquies, and clever

  wordplay we’ve come to expect

  from the master.”

  —Timothy Zahn,

  New York Times best-selling author of Scoundrels

  QUIRKBOOKS.COM

  WWW.STARWARS.COM

  quirkbooks.com/shakespearestarwarsbooks

  Copyright © 2014 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved.

  Used under authorization.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2013913273

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-59474-716-8

  Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-59474-715-1

  Hardcover Designed by Gregg Kulick

  Text by Ian Doescher

  Illustrations by Nicolas Delort

  Hardcover Production Management by John J. McGurk

  Quirk Books

  215 Church Street

  Philadelphia, PA 19106

  quirkbooks.com

  v3.1

  FOR MURRAY BIGGS:

  THE YODA TO MY LUKE

  FOR JOSH HICKS:

  SOUNDING BOARD AND JEDI KNIGHT

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Dramatis Personae

  Prologue

  Act I Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Scene 6

  Scene 7

  Act II Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Scene 6

  Scene 7

  Act III Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Scene 6

  Scene 7

  Act VI Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Act V Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  About the Authors

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  CHORUS

  LUKE SKYWALKER, a Jedi trainee

  GHOST OF OBI-WAN KENOBI, a Jedi Knight

  YODA, a Jedi Master

  PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA, of Alderaan

  HAN SOLO, a rebel captain

  CHEWBACCA, his Wookiee and first mate

  C-3PO, a droid

  R2-D2, his companion

  LANDO OF CALRISSIAN, a scoundrel

  LOBOT, his man-at-arms

  GENERAL RIEEKAN, of the Rebellion

  WEDGE ANTILLES, a rebel pilot

  DACK, DERLIN, HOBBIE, JANSON, and ZEV, soldiers of the Rebellion

  EMPEROR PALPATINE, ruler of the Empire

  DARTH VADER, a Sith Lord

  PIETT, OZZEL, VEERS, and NEEDA, gentlemen of the Empire

  BOBA FETT, a bounty hunter

  WAMPA ICE CREATURE, of Hoth

  EXOGORTH, of the asteroid field


  UGNAUGHTS, merry dwarves of Bespin

  REBEL PILOTS, LIEUTENANTS, CONTROLLERS, AIDES, DROIDS, BOUNTY HUNTERS, AT-ATS, IMPERIAL TROOPS, OFFICERS, GUARDS, and SOLDIERS

  PROLOGUE.

  Outer space.

  Enter CHORUS.

  CHORUS

  O, ’tis for the Rebellion a dark time.

  For though they have the Death Star all destroy’d,

  Imperi’l troops did from the ashes climb

  And push the rebels closer to the void.

  Across the galaxy pursu’d with speed,

  The rebels flee th’Imperi’l Starfleet vast.

  A group with Luke Skywalker in the lead

  Hath to the ice world known as Hoth flown fast.

  Meanwhile, the cruel Darth Vader is obsess’d

  With finding young Skywalker. Thus he hath

  Through ev’ry point of space begun his quest

  By sending robot probes to aid his wrath.

  In time so long ago begins our play,

  In war-torn galaxy far, far away.

  [Exit.

  SCENE 1.

  The ice world of Hoth.

  Enter LUKE SKYWALKER.

  LUKE

  If flurries be the food of quests, snow on.

  Belike upon this Hoth, this barren rock,

  My next adventure waits. ’Tis time shall tell.

  And yet, is it adventure that I seek?

  Shall danger, fear, and action fill my days?

  Shall all my life be spent in keen pursuit

  Of great adventure and her fickle fame?

  It seemeth I have had enough of life