NYTimes.com: As the shows open in the coming months, fellow New York Times writers and I will be regularly posting commentaries on aspects of them, engaging larger questions about how today’s theater artists approach these canonical works, and inviting you to add your opinions about how vitally Shakespeare continues to speak to modern audiences.
1 comment:
I found this article very refreshing, as I feel similarly to the other. I have seen one too many productions that have placed some vague "look" or updated time period on a Shakespeare play to make it more accessible. Whether Romeo's on a motorcycle or not, the production will be accessible to its audiences if it is clear and entertaining. As the author said, updated or not, the team taking on a Shakespeare production needs to understand and be comfortable with the text. Updated or not, a bad Shakespeare production is a bad Shakespeare production. I would be intrigued to see a production that didn't have a specific look or period assigned to it. Perhaps the actors would just wear plain black shirts and pants, and the props would be mimed. What would that do to the performance? It would certainly provide a challenge for the people directing and performing the text. Their work would have to be so clear that the audience could identify the social status of characters, the characteristics of a prop, etc. without anything visual to aid in their understanding. This would be a great exercise to do with any play, not just a Shakespeare play, but I think it would be refreshing to see this done with one of Shakespeare's works because of the trend of renovating that has been so popular lately.
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