Thursday, July 03, 2014
A jazzy “Midsummer Night’s Dream” set in 1930′s New Orleans
BERKSHIRE ON STAGE and SCREEN: A Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably Shakespeare’s best known and most performed play next to Romeo and Juliet, and while it has within it the seeds of the tragedy about the star crossed lovers, it does not end with a double suicide, but with the joy and happiness of a group wedding. But even more uplifting is that fantasy and reality are what we see married in this Shakespeare classic.
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In storyology this exactly the kind of thing we focus on. How the form of something lends itself to the content of the story. I think a New Orleans setting is fitting for the mess that is ‘Midsummer’s Nights Dream.’ Running around that town is very similar to running around the woods, and there are certainly similar love entanglements in such a place. It would’ve been very easy to buy into this setting despite how far it is from the original. What is particularly interesting to me show is the choice to not make the full jump into the New Orleans environment. The article says how they begin fully in the 1930’s costume, which I assume is to quickly clarify the setting to the audience. Then they shift into costumes that cater more to the origin of the play. Perhaps this was done to make the language seem more fitting in the show.
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