A Midsummer Nights Dream - Essay Example

A Midsummer Night’s Dream The production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed on February 16, 2011 at the Denver Center in Denver Colorado provided a delight portrayal of the classic work. The work was not the most imaginative recreation of the play, but it provided a clear representation with engaging actors who allowed their characters to come through. The costumes provided a feel for the time period in which the play was set and the setting was creatively constructed, allowing for all of the elements of the play to have space in which to play out their roles within the story. The way in which the play was lit added a dimension to the overall production. As always, the text of William Shakespeare created a work in which the actors could suspend the disbelief of the audience and create a production that was magical, while full of beautiful commentary on the human condition. The play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, is a tale of comic twists, the story of young love in which the fae come to play their part by interfering in the lives of humans, twisting their desires to suit their own needs. The director, Kent Thomas, took a cold February day in Denver and transformed it to a warm summer evening. The play was developed around a classic setting with costuming that suggested Napoleonic France. The director situated the actors through their body language well within that time period, the production unified through ideals that created an atmosphere. The actores expressed this unified setting as they engaged more formally with one another, different than if it had been set in a lesser socio-economic surroundings. The characters seemed to be young aristocrats, their socio-economic status clear through their positioning on the stage. The work of the actors was well accomplished, the role of Hermia, played by Caitlin Wise standing out through her execution and presence. Something about her was engaging with the audience that placed focus on her when appropriate. At a moment when she was expressing a comedic frustration, her expressions were very readable, her projection of her voice filling the hall and focusing the audience on her plight. Likewise, Helena Pistorius as Helena created a very believable character, her voice having a resonance that created a reality within her performance. As she developed her position within the play, she created empathy from the audience in a way that was unique to the role. Lawrence Hecht as bottom created a performance that made the audience laugh as it should, his portrayal with the donkey’s head unique in the way in which he expressed his role as the great queen Tatiana fell in love with him. However, it is the performance by Michael Wartella as Puck that still has me remembering the wonder of the play. He was clever, yet innocent, mischievous, but not evil as he comes across as a delightful fae whose only desire is to create trouble within both the human and fairy worlds. The way in which he expressed the character was not through evil, but through a feeling of joy in the accomplishment of his twisted sense of humor. His little devilries were executed with a believability that surpassed the breach of his true self, allowing his characterization to fully blossom and the audience to believe that he was not human, but a transcended being with the ability to muddle in the affairs of the heart. The costuming of the work was some of the most imaginative I have had the privilege to witness. The pieces broke through the time-period from which the play originated, adopting a Napoleonic point of view. The pieces were editorially reflective of the costumes of France during that time period, the dresses reflecting the empire waistlines that Josephine had favored. Therefore, the time period was set in the late 18th, early 19th century, the human characters reflecting this aesthetic. The costuming created a formal mood, the aristocratic air helping to set the socio-economic status of the characters. The fairy, on the other hand, had an ancient feel, their costuming being taken from the classics, Romanesque and flowing as the males seemed to wear tunics fashioned after the tunics of the ancients. The most amusing use of costume to help set a character was on Bottom, the head of the donkey created with a personality with one ear cocked down and the other out to the side. The look on the face of the head was chagrinned, an almost amusement that allows for a tool from which the actor could express his position within the play. The setting of the play was done to a level that provided a space in which the actors had plenty of tools with which to express themselves. The setting even included a water element, lending to the natural feeling of the work and allowing for an interactive use of the water for the actors. The water element was splashed and sent cascading over the actors, when appropriate, the playfulness of the prop lending a delight to the production. While it was a bit squared off due to the structure of the set, it still created an interesting addition to the number of ways in which the actors could express themselves. My biggest complaint, however, is that the set was a bit stiff and did not have the rounded natural feel that I might have expected for a play that took place out in the summer night. Despite the attempt to create an outdoor setting, the stage didn’t quite come to the place where it crossed that threshold and gave the audience the feeling of nature. The use of squared off edges and structures that were too stiff disrupted the feel that was being so successfully applied by the actors. The lighting was a bit bland, often adding the dimension to the work as it should, but not quite reaching a creative space that adds depth to the work within the play. The lighting was used as a tool for creating the universe, but didn’t reach the space in which suspension was fully plausible. As is always the case with Shakespeare, the text was full of wonderful play with words, the expressions of humor accomplished through a multitude of double meanings, of implied sexuality, and with a running commentary on the silliness of human love, all the while holding it in reverence. The play is rich in the way in which it communicates the two worlds, that of the humans and that of the fairy, their lives being expressed in a way that takes focus and concentration for a modern audience to follow, but is clearly intended to provide a high sense of humor through the turns of the phrasing, the resonating structure defining the overall tone of the play. The production of A Midsummer Night’s Eve at the Denver Center in February was a refreshing delight for the cold winters day. The heat of the summer created through the nature of the staging creating a bit of warmth on a day that was anything but warm. However, the work of the director and the actors to convey their subject matter was beyond my hopes, the play fun to watch, even when the text bogged me down as I worked to keep focus on the action. The director provided plenty of movement to help move the action of the play, visual cues to the text in which the audience was able to then engage. I enjoyed the performance tremendously and felt that the overall performance was far beyond the few weaknesses that I observed. Read More