Saturday, November 20, 2010

Shakespeare

Yesterday  I was fortunate enough to go to a high-school performance of `Twelfth Night' one of my favorite Shakespeare comedies.  The group did an excellent job.  The audience sat right on the edge of the stage.  We were told that if a character asked a question, we should answer.  The idea was to make the experience as close to time-period as possible.  (Well... minus the throwing things at the actors.)  I had no idea Shakespeare was so fond of breaking the fourth wall.  

The set was very minimalistic.  It could have been done in an open park or (in Shakespeare's time) in the courtyard of an inn.  I was impressed by how much the actors did with no backdrops and few props.  They had a stool and a bench they whisked on and off stage.  Without scene changes, the action never lagged.

Because of the difference in Shakespeare's language and because of his reputation as a literary figure, it's easy to forget that Shakespeare's plays are all about entertainment.  People tend to put distance between him and modern audiences with elaborate sets that scream `this is archaic'.  It was nice to see a performance that took away all the false trappings and just left a really great, entertaining story of the sort Shakespeare is so famous for.

6 comments:

  1. That does sound nice. I've never gained a taste for Shakespeare's tragedies, but I'm pretty fond of his comedies. My parents credit that to taking to me to Ashland, CA's annual Shakespeare festival when I was seven. We saw The Comedy of Errors re-set in a circus. One set of twins were clowns, the other were acrobats, and the mother was a clown who kept the Fun House. Not traditional by a long shot, but fun, especially for a small girl. Not even high school and college literature could convince me Shakespeare's comedies weren't fun after that! {AMUSED SMILE, wink}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  2. Comedy of Errors in the circus- that sounds like a lot of fun. :) I like the tragedies as well as the comedies, but I've never been able to get through Shakespeare's histories. Back in high-school I was going to read every play he ever wrote, but I bogged down halfway through the first Henry and never finished it, or any of the rest of the histories.

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  3. Comedy of Errors in a circua really was fun. {SMILE}

    So many people kind of wince when they hear it. I don't know why. This wasn't an English Literature class, it was a performance for people in the middle of summer vacation. It wasn't Hamlet, it was the Comedy of Errors. And I wasn't an English major, I was a seven year old girl who was still discovering children's classics like Oz and Wonderland. Clowns and acrobats made a play "where people talk funny" easier to sit thru. {REALLY BIG GRIN}

    The histories aren't his easiest work, either, are they? The closest I've come to geting thru one of them is reading some of Charles and Mary Lamb's summaries in Tales from Shakespeare. {Smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  4. P.S.

    On second thought, if you ever hear of anyone staging Hamlet in a circus, let me know. The one and only time I enjoyed one of Shakespeare's tragedies was a Macbeth staged in Japanese Kabuki style. I got interested in the costume and staging choices enough that I didn't have my usual struggle to prevent the characters' problems from making me too depressed. {Smile}

    I particuarly liked Margaret. Since she was "a prophetess," they decked her out like a sorceress. Kabuki sorcerer/sorceress makeup inspired the rock band Kiss's extravagant makeup. Only she had flowing, colorful robes and the only light hair on stage, too. She could not avoid stealing her scene in that getup! {REALLY BIG GRIN}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  5. I haven't seen any Japanese theater, but that sounds awesome. :) Macbeth is one of my favorite tragedies because I find the whole self-fulfilling prophecy so creepily interesting.

    I once saw a performance of Macbeth where the setting was a trailer park, with the clans as rival gang members. The three witches also played all sorts of minor characters so it seemed like they were manipulating even more of the action than they actually do in the play.

    The idea behind it was to put on a cool and creepy show for Halloween. It worked frighteningly well. :)

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  6. A trailer park Macbeth does sound creepy. That's very appropriate, both for Halloween, and for Macbeth. {SMILE}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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