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kestrellI realize that this is my fourth post in less than twenty-four hours and that this will seriously send the Snarkometer toward dangerous levels of vitriol corrosive enough to potentially eat through the computer screen, but I really felt that this information could save the lives of those in my community. Or, at least, it could save two hours of your life which, hey, is just about the level of superhero I feel up to today.
The first suspicious sign was when the person taking our tickets said to each individual person, "This is a two-hour show and there will be no intermission."
In retrospect, I realized that this could be interpreted as, "We're afraid that if we let you leave for the intermission, most of the audience will not come back."
Second suspicious sign: when the music being played over the PA system kept getting louder, until it made conversation impossible. It turned out that that was the sign that the play was starting. This actually made me miss those dweeby speeches usually given by the artistic director or someone in marketing.
Third suspicious sign: Letting Hermia sing. I am not musically gifted myself, I respect how difficult it is to sing in front of an audience, but there were wrong notes and wandering keys involved. And the songs were drawn out to signify emotional commitment. I began to miss the PA system.
Fourth suspicious sign: Interpretive dance. 'Nuf said.
Fifth suspicious sign: Murky lighting. I was sorry that lj user alexx_kay didn't get to really enjoy the nudity, but was somewhat amused by the fact that he complained a few times that he couldn't tell the characters apart due to the murk.
Sixth suspicious sign: Murky interpretations. Theseus may have been a vampire. Puck may have been a demon from Hell. Demetrius may have been a werewolf who tore off all his clothes and ran howling throught he forest covered in blood. Okay, I made that last one up, but the rest are true. However, I'm not really certain if these were impressions intended by the actors, as they seemed to pick up and drop tones and delivery styles from one scene to the next. I sensed a lot of "What is my motivation? What is my intention? Why am I wandering around with thisplate of sardines?", and I'm not sure there was even a director for this production. However, when it doubt, yell, even if it makes no sense as to why the actor is yelling at that point. Also, the yelling made Hermia really shrill.
Okay, so that was about the first fifteen minutes.
It did get better after that, kind of, but it was about then that I realized that there would be no rude mechanicals and *no Bottom*. I mean, Bottom is a liminal character who totally binds together the worlds of the mortals and the fairies, and his words are so vital to what I think of as "Midsummer" that it really felt like the heart of the play, the real emotional and poetic core, had been sacrificed.
There was also a *lot* of dead air, and more actors singing inexplicable tunes by the Beatles (okay, only one of the songs was a Beatles tune). But Theseus, Oberon, Puck, and Helena were all good, if sometimes confusing in their delivery, and Puck was female, which was interesting. I really began to like the interpretive dance to tunes by Marilyn Manson and other gothy types.
Basically, if you like your Shakespeare really experimental and can bear having no Bottom in the show, you may be intrigued enough to check this production out.
Lastly, this has nothing to do with the show itself except that it happened on the way to the show: another blind woman's guide dog tried to herd me in South station. Also, the other blind woman did sardonic really well as she said, "Yes, Jody, it's a second blind person..." (I may be misremembering the dog's name).
The first suspicious sign was when the person taking our tickets said to each individual person, "This is a two-hour show and there will be no intermission."
In retrospect, I realized that this could be interpreted as, "We're afraid that if we let you leave for the intermission, most of the audience will not come back."
Second suspicious sign: when the music being played over the PA system kept getting louder, until it made conversation impossible. It turned out that that was the sign that the play was starting. This actually made me miss those dweeby speeches usually given by the artistic director or someone in marketing.
Third suspicious sign: Letting Hermia sing. I am not musically gifted myself, I respect how difficult it is to sing in front of an audience, but there were wrong notes and wandering keys involved. And the songs were drawn out to signify emotional commitment. I began to miss the PA system.
Fourth suspicious sign: Interpretive dance. 'Nuf said.
Fifth suspicious sign: Murky lighting. I was sorry that lj user alexx_kay didn't get to really enjoy the nudity, but was somewhat amused by the fact that he complained a few times that he couldn't tell the characters apart due to the murk.
Sixth suspicious sign: Murky interpretations. Theseus may have been a vampire. Puck may have been a demon from Hell. Demetrius may have been a werewolf who tore off all his clothes and ran howling throught he forest covered in blood. Okay, I made that last one up, but the rest are true. However, I'm not really certain if these were impressions intended by the actors, as they seemed to pick up and drop tones and delivery styles from one scene to the next. I sensed a lot of "What is my motivation? What is my intention? Why am I wandering around with thisplate of sardines?", and I'm not sure there was even a director for this production. However, when it doubt, yell, even if it makes no sense as to why the actor is yelling at that point. Also, the yelling made Hermia really shrill.
Okay, so that was about the first fifteen minutes.
It did get better after that, kind of, but it was about then that I realized that there would be no rude mechanicals and *no Bottom*. I mean, Bottom is a liminal character who totally binds together the worlds of the mortals and the fairies, and his words are so vital to what I think of as "Midsummer" that it really felt like the heart of the play, the real emotional and poetic core, had been sacrificed.
There was also a *lot* of dead air, and more actors singing inexplicable tunes by the Beatles (okay, only one of the songs was a Beatles tune). But Theseus, Oberon, Puck, and Helena were all good, if sometimes confusing in their delivery, and Puck was female, which was interesting. I really began to like the interpretive dance to tunes by Marilyn Manson and other gothy types.
Basically, if you like your Shakespeare really experimental and can bear having no Bottom in the show, you may be intrigued enough to check this production out.
Lastly, this has nothing to do with the show itself except that it happened on the way to the show: another blind woman's guide dog tried to herd me in South station. Also, the other blind woman did sardonic really well as she said, "Yes, Jody, it's a second blind person..." (I may be misremembering the dog's name).
