Monday, February 07, 2011
Theater review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ from Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Orlando Sentinel: "Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is comedy as light as the wings of the fairies that populate the story. So when director David Karl Lee populates the gossamer-thin plot with pratfalls, sight gags and references to Lady Gaga, a curious unevenness arises.
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6 comments:
It's not uncommon for theater companies to try to modernized Shakespeare because the sound storyline is there but the majority of the humor tends to go over people's heads because they are outdated or lost in the language. Also, atypical theater goers are more apt to see modern production. For example, there are numerous teenagers (well, they probably aren't teenagers anymore) who aren't prone to see "Romeo and Juliet" but can't get enough of "Romeo + Juliet: The movie" because that production got them to connect to the story. It seems like in this production the re-writes were funny but simply over-done or obvious, which could bring down any comedy. It seems there were good moments but the audience was tired of the actors spelling it out for them. I am sure a few revisions or cut-downs could easily improve the show without damaging or losing the intent they went for.
Coming From Orlando Florida and having experience in the very minute theatre scene in the area it is good to see news of theatre events continuing to come out of the area. the fact that the shakespeare center is doing modernization is not surprising at all . Orlando's theatre scene is small and the older the work the less braud your audience is, in this are making it tiny. with modernizations you increase your audience and in this area is necessary for survival . knowing the shakespeare center will do the production with respect to the original text is good and the production of imagine will turn out to be very successful.
While the pictures of the production make it seem interesting, I'm always put on edge when people modernize Shakespeare. Truth be told, Shakespeare needs to be adapted for it to be accessible for LARGE audiences, but there comes a point where you have to step back and ask if it has been done so much that the production loses value. Does a ninja pillow fight or a lightsaber battler or karate chopping really belong in Midsummer? Or does that take the show and dumb it down to the point where we can't really appreciate it? It's a fine line. I rarely see Shakespeare produced without being adapted, but there is a difference between logically setting something in a new period or context and completely moving away from the play's natural comedy and replacing it with Lady Gaga jokes...
I agree with what others have said, it is hard to modernized Shakespeare, but I think that it can be done. I saw a production of Midsummer (At California Shakespeare) in which there were many popular songs that had been adapted to fit into the story. While this sounds like it could come off as cheesy or unnecessary, I think that it adds a lot of reliability and special. We are intrigued and it draws us in because we can relate it to now. On the same note I they made of the mechanicals different high school stereotypes which were hilarious and available to the schemas we have set up in our heads. I think that it can be bad to set Shakespeare now if you don't have a clear point of why you are doing it or a clear way of showing it. I also think to go half way and set some of the show in just a "magical" landscape can be effective; I don't think it necessarily has to be "modern".
I find this result of modern adaptions of Shakespeare to be common and, in my opinion, it has now reached it's point of annoyance. I find that people attempt to "modernize" Shakespeare but end up getting lost in time and end up in a nowhere land, drowned with extravagant assumptions of the audiences expectations paired with unrealistic pokes at the future. From this I learn once again the importance of a time period or setting and having that be understood amongst the entire production team. Most of the shows that I found myself getting lost in where the one's in which the "time" of the piece was unclear because it was neither conceivable or relatable. If you're going to set a Shakespearean piece in another time era, make sure it's clear, I beg of thee.
I find this result of modern adaptions of Shakespeare to be common and, in my opinion, it has now reached it's point of annoyance. I find that people attempt to "modernize" Shakespeare but end up getting lost in time and end up in a nowhere land, drowned with extravagant assumptions of the audiences expectations paired with unrealistic pokes at the future. From this I learn once again the importance of a time period or setting and having that be understood amongst the entire production team. Most of the shows that I found myself getting lost in where the one's in which the "time" of the piece was unclear because it was neither conceivable or relatable. If you're going to set a Shakespearean piece in another time era, make sure it's clear, I beg of thee.
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