Re-reading A Midsummer Night's Dream is like spending the night with a former lover -- full of so many remembered enjoyments. This play certainly doesn't need my word to convince anyone of its quality. There has been enough written about that. So instead, I will talk about the two aspects I don't like about this play. Really they are more issues I have in performance that straight from the text.
1. Theseus and Hippolyta. Dear directors -- just because their parts are small doesn't mean they have to be BORING. For some reason, productions seem to ignore these parts, especially when they are doubled with Oberon and Titania. Yes, I will grant you that Shakespeare has underwritten these parts, but frankly there are lots of lords in the history plays and that doesn't mean any of them are allowed to be boring either. Especially since Shakespeare is naming these characters after mythological characters. Theseus and Hippolyta had the blood of gods running in them, they were warriors, they were conquerors; so you can make them many things, but boring is not one of them.
I also want to comment on the two general ways of playing Hippolyta. The first, that she is happy to be with Theseus (at least until he screws up the whole Hermia thing). The second, that she is a prisoner of way and hates Theseus. I've even heard of productions that bring her out in a cage. Now I'm all for going dark, and sometimes you can convince me that going against the text is a good thing, but I do want to point out that textually, I really think the first way is the way to go. What evidence do I have? Speak her lines out loud. Shakespeare was a master of sounds.
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night
Four nights will quickly dream away the time
Try saying that while angry, or through clenched teeth. You just can't. There are two many long sounds: the "ay" in day, "ee" in steep, the m's, the n's, "dream away the time" That phrase is just so caressing, making an actor play Hippolyta as a captive, or angry is just making her have to work twice as hard. I am not saying you can't make that choice. I just think you need to be away of what you are doing.
2. The mechanicals. Blech. I know, for most people the mechanicals are their favorite parts of the play. But it's well-known among my friends that I have a personal, strong dislike of clown characters. And this is never so much evident to me as in Midsummer Night's Dream, and with Bottom. Now again, clown characters are something I object to more on the stage than on the page. Here's why. I think it is quite, quite difficult to find actors who can play these roles well. Too often the actor knows that he or she is the "funny" character, and so plays with this awareness. He or she works to be "funny." And this always ruins it for me. And Bottoms (and Dogberrys) are the most frequent offenders. Stop trying to be funny! Just play your objective! The funny will take care of itself.
Since I spoke briefly about different possible characterizations of Hippolyta, I will do the same with Bottom. The prevailing opinion is that Bottom is ultimately a likeable fellow, that he has a good soul. This is the Bottom that Kevin Kline plays (and quite successfully). It's the Bottom that Harold Bloom believes in (even if he takes it too far). This way works very well. However, I wish I could have seen the production that the American Shakespeare Center did where John Harrell played Bottom. I didn't, but I listened to him speak about the role in their podcast. He said that he knows everyone gets behind the "good soul" Bottom, but he tried doing something different. So he played the character as that obnoxious guy we all know. Harrell points out the number of ass references - Bottom's name, he gets turned into an ass, there are lots of ass jokes, etc. So Harrell tried to come up with what our modern idea of an "ass" is and play Bottom that way, as a, as Harrell puts it, "douche-bag arts student."
I mentioned Kevin Kline's turn as Bottom, so I wanted to also say that I actually have seen all the major film versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Five or six of them, I think? Anyway, my favorite is the 1968 version stuffed full of amazing actors. Because it is so old, the film is not the clearest, but who cares? Seriously, Diana Rigg, David Warner, Ian Richardson, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench... Seek it out if you haven't seen it yet.
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Favorite Female Character:
Helena (I think I've just always fancied two men fighting over me in a forest)
Favorite Male Character:
Puck
"That's what she said!":
Thisbe My cherry lips have often kissed they stones,
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
How insulting:
Lysander Get you gone, you dwarf
You minimus of hindering knot-grass made
You bead, you acorn!
Oh, misogyny:
Theseus What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid
To you your father should be as a god
Boys are silly:
Hermia I swear to thee...
By all the vows that ever men have broke--
In number more than ever women spoke--
Favorite Moment/Line:
Oberon Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
11:38 Henry V
What can I say? This is a great play. Shakespeare is at the height of his poetic prowess. O for a muse of fire. The St. Crispin's speech. Once more into the breech. The delightful French scene. Henry's response to the tennis balls. The Ceremony speech. etc. etc. Shakespeare really knocks this one out of the park
There is something very interesting going on in this play with civil unrest. In the other history plays, the English are embroiled in civil wars. Here they are fighting the French for the entire play, and English-English fighting is relegated to comic subplot. But I think the point is, that it is still there. It may not be the main battle, but it still exists, and even if it exists in funny form, maybe we can't be so quick to assume there will be a happily-ever-after (which of course, there won't be, as we will discover next week).
I was having a discussion with friends recently about the proper staging of the comic subplot -- the Funny Accents Brigade, as we can call them. I think there are four ways to stage these characters:
1. Ignore the accents completely.
2. Have the actors use "authentic" stage accents.
3. Have the actors use exagerrated, silly accents for comic effect.
4. Have the actors use bad accents because you can't be bothered to learn it properly.
Option 1, I think we can dismiss as an outright mistake. One has to have accents because Shakespeare is showing the clash between different areas of England (Great Britain).
Option 4 no one would actually set out to do, of course. It just might happen.
So that leaves us 2 and 3. I was questioning whether Option 3 works only in Great Britain or not. Can you use silly accents in an American production, or would that just read like Option 4? It would be the same situation if we saw a play where a character had a ridiculous Texan accent. An American audience would understand the caricature, but would that false accent mean the same thing to an non-American audience?
-------------------------------
Favorite Female Character:
Katherine (not really much choice here)
Favorite Male Character:
Henry V
Laugh out loud:
Orleans I know him to be valiant.
Constable I was told that by one that knows him better than you.
Orleans What's he?
Constable Marry, he told me so himself, and he said he cared not who knew it.
"That's what she said!":
Orleans Your mistress bears well.
Dauphin Me well, which is the prescript praise and perfection of a good and particular mistress.
How insulting:
Pistol Thou prick-eared cur of Iceland!
Oh, misogyny:
Henry V I will tell thee in French, which I am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off.
Boys are silly:
Boy for indeed three such antics do not amount to a man.
Favorite Moment/Line:
Henry V We shall your tawny ground with your red blood / Discolor.
There is something very interesting going on in this play with civil unrest. In the other history plays, the English are embroiled in civil wars. Here they are fighting the French for the entire play, and English-English fighting is relegated to comic subplot. But I think the point is, that it is still there. It may not be the main battle, but it still exists, and even if it exists in funny form, maybe we can't be so quick to assume there will be a happily-ever-after (which of course, there won't be, as we will discover next week).
I was having a discussion with friends recently about the proper staging of the comic subplot -- the Funny Accents Brigade, as we can call them. I think there are four ways to stage these characters:
1. Ignore the accents completely.
2. Have the actors use "authentic" stage accents.
3. Have the actors use exagerrated, silly accents for comic effect.
4. Have the actors use bad accents because you can't be bothered to learn it properly.
Option 1, I think we can dismiss as an outright mistake. One has to have accents because Shakespeare is showing the clash between different areas of England (Great Britain).
Option 4 no one would actually set out to do, of course. It just might happen.
So that leaves us 2 and 3. I was questioning whether Option 3 works only in Great Britain or not. Can you use silly accents in an American production, or would that just read like Option 4? It would be the same situation if we saw a play where a character had a ridiculous Texan accent. An American audience would understand the caricature, but would that false accent mean the same thing to an non-American audience?
-------------------------------
Favorite Female Character:
Katherine (not really much choice here)
Favorite Male Character:
Henry V
Laugh out loud:
Orleans I know him to be valiant.
Constable I was told that by one that knows him better than you.
Orleans What's he?
Constable Marry, he told me so himself, and he said he cared not who knew it.
"That's what she said!":
Orleans Your mistress bears well.
Dauphin Me well, which is the prescript praise and perfection of a good and particular mistress.
How insulting:
Pistol Thou prick-eared cur of Iceland!
Oh, misogyny:
Henry V I will tell thee in French, which I am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off.
Boys are silly:
Boy for indeed three such antics do not amount to a man.
Favorite Moment/Line:
Henry V We shall your tawny ground with your red blood / Discolor.
10:38 Henry IV, part 2
I'm not really a big fan of the Henry IV plays. Actually of the eight tetralogy plays, these two are my least favorite. I don't find the poetry as striking, instead I feel like Shakespeare is spending all his time in Eastcheap writing as many insults as he can come up with. The characters don't grab me in the same way on the page as characters do in the other plays. And I'm just not charmed by Falstaff. I know that everyone is in love with him and Harold Bloom wishes he could have sex with Falstaff, but I just can't bring myself to care about that character. And part of my distaste for him comes from the fact that whenever one or both of the Henry IV plays are done, they are usually done expressly for the actor playing Falstaff. Then the staging and cutting are geared toward that actor, and the play becomes all about Falstaff, to the detriment of the other characters.
Of the two parts of Henry IV, part one is more often performed, though I'm not convinced that it is actually more dramatically viable than part two. I actually prefer part two. There are corresponding battles, comic scenes, and great speeches between the two parts, and both of them equally like part of a larger story (as opposed to one standing on its own better than the other). The only thing that part one has that part two doesn't is Hotspur, and he is a well-liked character. But part two -- part two has some moments that I love: The "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" speech. The scene between Hal and his father right before the king dies, containing the "o polished perturbation" speech. The pathos of the scene where Hal denies Falstaff -- "I know thee not, old man" -- and Falstaff attempts to keep up a brave front -- "I shall be sent for in private to him." And I also love the assholery of Prince John in regards to the rebels. He promises them peace, they dismiss their armies, and then he arrests them as traitors.
Does anyone find one part more dramatically interesting than the other?
----------------------------------
Favorite Female Character:
Doll Tearsheet
Favorite Male Character:
King Henry IV
Laugh out loud:
Chief Justice Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.
Falstaff I would it were otherwise: I would my means were greater and my waist slenderer.
How insulting:
Doll you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate!
Oh, misogyny:
Falstaff If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the diseases, Doll: we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you.
Favorite Moment/Line:
I love the two speeches I mentioned above, but what particularly struck me on this reading were the following lines of King Henry:
O God! that one might read the book of fate,
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,—
Weary of solid firmness,—melt itself
Into the sea! and, other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune’s hips; how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O! if this were seen,
The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,
Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.
Of the two parts of Henry IV, part one is more often performed, though I'm not convinced that it is actually more dramatically viable than part two. I actually prefer part two. There are corresponding battles, comic scenes, and great speeches between the two parts, and both of them equally like part of a larger story (as opposed to one standing on its own better than the other). The only thing that part one has that part two doesn't is Hotspur, and he is a well-liked character. But part two -- part two has some moments that I love: The "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" speech. The scene between Hal and his father right before the king dies, containing the "o polished perturbation" speech. The pathos of the scene where Hal denies Falstaff -- "I know thee not, old man" -- and Falstaff attempts to keep up a brave front -- "I shall be sent for in private to him." And I also love the assholery of Prince John in regards to the rebels. He promises them peace, they dismiss their armies, and then he arrests them as traitors.
Does anyone find one part more dramatically interesting than the other?
----------------------------------
Favorite Female Character:
Doll Tearsheet
Favorite Male Character:
King Henry IV
Laugh out loud:
Chief Justice Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.
Falstaff I would it were otherwise: I would my means were greater and my waist slenderer.
How insulting:
Doll you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate!
Oh, misogyny:
Falstaff If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the diseases, Doll: we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you.
Favorite Moment/Line:
I love the two speeches I mentioned above, but what particularly struck me on this reading were the following lines of King Henry:
O God! that one might read the book of fate,
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,—
Weary of solid firmness,—melt itself
Into the sea! and, other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune’s hips; how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O! if this were seen,
The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,
Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
SWAN Day: Life 101
SWAN Day/Support Women Artists Now Day is an international holiday that celebrates women artists. It is an annual event taking place on the last Saturday of March (Women’s History Month) and the surrounding weeks.
In Washington DC, SWAN days events are organized through the tireless dedication of Catherine Aselford and the Georgetown Theatre Company. On Saturday, March 27, head to Georgetown for a full day of panel discussions, staged readings, performances and films.
At Grace Church, between 1 and 6pm there will be a staged reading marathon of works written and directed by female artists. I'm excited to announce that I will be directing one of the staged readings, Life 101, written by Robin Rice Lichtig and starring husband-and-wife performing powerhouse team Amy Rauch and Christopher Davis.
Amy is long time performer in the DC area, especially in classical roles, starring in productions of Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar. She can next be seen in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie with the Heritage O'Neill Theatre Company.
The face of Chris is familiar to renaissance festival fans in the area, as he has been performing as the Renaissance Man at the Maryland Renaissance Festival for many years. He also tours his shows to local schools, with the goal of making history and literature more accessible and enjoyable, while giving audience members a chance to take a meaningful role in the performance.
In Washington DC, SWAN days events are organized through the tireless dedication of Catherine Aselford and the Georgetown Theatre Company. On Saturday, March 27, head to Georgetown for a full day of panel discussions, staged readings, performances and films.
At Grace Church, between 1 and 6pm there will be a staged reading marathon of works written and directed by female artists. I'm excited to announce that I will be directing one of the staged readings, Life 101, written by Robin Rice Lichtig and starring husband-and-wife performing powerhouse team Amy Rauch and Christopher Davis.
Amy is long time performer in the DC area, especially in classical roles, starring in productions of Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar. She can next be seen in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie with the Heritage O'Neill Theatre Company.
The face of Chris is familiar to renaissance festival fans in the area, as he has been performing as the Renaissance Man at the Maryland Renaissance Festival for many years. He also tours his shows to local schools, with the goal of making history and literature more accessible and enjoyable, while giving audience members a chance to take a meaningful role in the performance.
9:38 Henry IV, part 1
Favorite Female Character:
Lady Percy (she has a lot in common with Portia in Julius Caesar)
Favorite Male Character:
Sorry Harold Bloom, but it's not Falstaff. It's all about the hot-blooded Hotspur.
Laugh out loud:
Glendower I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur Why so can I, or so can any man,
But will they come when you do call for them?
"That's what she said!":
Hotspur Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down.
How insulting:
Hal thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch
Oh, misogyny:
Northumberland Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
Art thou, to break into this woman's mood,
Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
Favorite Moment/Line:
Falstaff If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked!
Lady Percy (she has a lot in common with Portia in Julius Caesar)
Favorite Male Character:
Sorry Harold Bloom, but it's not Falstaff. It's all about the hot-blooded Hotspur.
Laugh out loud:
Glendower I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur Why so can I, or so can any man,
But will they come when you do call for them?
"That's what she said!":
Hotspur Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down.
How insulting:
Hal thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch
Oh, misogyny:
Northumberland Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
Art thou, to break into this woman's mood,
Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!
Favorite Moment/Line:
Falstaff If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked!
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