The Great Shakespearean Challenge Day 140

 

     103 out of 1194 pages read

     Last week I was privileged enough to go to London, England for a week with my family. Needless to say, it was pretty much one of the best trips ever. And part of what made the trip so amazing was that I got to visit to this place:

 

     If you are unable to identify the above building, then we cannot be friends.

     Just kidding.

 

     Except not really.

 

     For those of you who have just been demoted to acquaintance status, you are looking at a photo of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. No, unfortunately it is not Shakespeare's original Globe Theater, but, the theater is as close and as accurate to the original Globe as any theater ever will be. It's an incredible building.

 

    And as if seeing the theater itself wasn't amazing enough, I was also able to talk my parents into getting the three of us tickets to see A Midsummer Night's Dream.

     We waited until the last minute to get our tickets (my mom was worried about the weather), so we had a limited choice in seats but luckily we were able to get three seats next to each other. It was either that or standing room only, which my old and feeble parents  (just kidding, love you Mom and Dad) refused to do. As it was, they weren't completely sold on the idea on seeing a play at the Globe, so standing for three hours while watching said play was completely out of the question.

    The Globe is an open theater, which is why my mom was so concerned about the rain. However, what we did not know, and what was a pleasant surprise, is that the bench seats (literally, the seats are wooden benches) are, in fact, covered. As for the 700 or so people in the standing area, they are completely exposed to the elements. The stage, of course, is covered by an overhang.

     Even though it was a little chilly on the day we went, everyone is sitting so close together that the seats were actually very cozy. That, and the theater is well-insulated from the wind. Also, as I mentioned before, the seats are literally backless wooden benches. But before entering the theater, there is a little kiosk where pampered ticketholders can rent blankets, seat cushions, and seat backs. My parents and I rented seat cushions (they were one pound a piece) and, needless to say, doing so was a very good investment of three pounds.

     The show started at 2:00 but they started letting people in at 1:30. At about fifteen minutes or so before the show started, a small group of musicians in 16th century garb came onto the stage and played some tunes on Shakespearean-era instruments. Not only was this entertainment for the audience, but it also created a Shakespearean ambience. Aside from the fact that everyone around us was wearing brightly colored rain slickers and most were on their phones, it was easy to believe we were actually in Elizabethan England, waiting to watch A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Shakespeare himself.

    The show itself was absolutely fabulous. The actors were incredible and the show was well choreographed. As often is done in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the actors who played Oberon and Titania were the same actors who played Theseus and Hippolyta. This is, of course, done to reinforce the parallels between these two couples as well as to reinforce parallels between the dreamy fairy world and the normal human world.

    Bottom's little troupe of misfit actors tap-danced their way on and off the stage in clog-like shoes, a wonderfully humorous addition that reinforced their silly dialogue. There was an especially funny moment in the second half of the play where Bottom and Peter Quince have a little dance-off (clog-off?). The clogs were especially ingenious because you could always hear Bottom and his friends before they came onto the stage. This was especially clever for the scenes when they went through the crowd in the standing section to get onto the stage.

     Seeing this play was a reminder that plays are, in truth, not meant to be read. They're meant to be seen. To be honest, I never realized just how funny A Midsummer Night's Dream is until I saw that play. I read the play in my sophomore English class. We read the play out loud as a class and watched the movie version of it, but not even the movie conveyed Shakespeare's wit half as well as the play. Obviously, when reading the play, you understand the humor, but you don't fully appreciate it. As for the movie, whoever directed the film didn't fully see the humor either because the actors all read their lines with a seriousness fitting for Romeo and Juliet.

     In short, seeing this play taught me that Shakespeare's plays cannot be fully appreciated unless they're performed in front of a live audience. It's the way the actors interact with the audience and the random things that are going on in the background of the stage that truly bring to life Shakespeare's brilliance.

     The clogs are, of course, a perfect example of the actors interacting with the audience and bringing to life Shakespeare's genius. It was the little things that brought everything together. Like when Demetrius, after Puck doused him in love potion, did a backflip when he saw Helena. Or when Oberon was climbing up the columns and swinging from ropes while the young lovers were arguing and chasing each other through the woods. So many little things that cannot even be explained or appreciated in stage directions made this production hilariously entertaining. Even my parents, who were unsure about seeing the play, were laughing along with me.

     The production was (dare I say it?) perfect. Even with the occasional airplane flying over the theater, the phone that went off, and the sudden downpour of rain three-fourths of the way through the play.

   It was amazing.

    

*Blogger is being a buttface right now (please excuse my language) and is not letting me make my pictures smaller. Sooo I did want to put up more pictures but Blogger isn't really letting me. Hopefully I'll be able to add them up later.