A Midsummer Night's Dream
Jul. 3rd, 2003 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI went to the Publick Theatre's [1] production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last night. As Queue noted, it was a somewhat breezy evening, which played havoc with the men's skirts.
[1] The Publick Theatre is an outdoor theatre off Soldier's Field Road, along the banks of the Charles. Note to self: bug spray (or Skin So Soft, or some anti-bug concoction) would not be a bad idea for the next show.
This year's stage has a couple of different levels, with the highest running across the back, with stepped areas heading to the lowest at right front, where there's a bridge to the hillside. The lowest portion of the stage had a trap door in it, and the other major section, the second lowest portion, had three trap doors, all of which were used. There was a (triangular? trapezoidal?) tarp high above the back of the stage, which gave the impression of being there more to avoid the glare of the setting sun than for the actual set.
I'm curious to see how this will be used for the other production this summer, Twelfth Night, since their season has alternating weeks of the two productions.
The stage was pretty bare, though there was a bit of set. Athens was indicated by a tall white banner with an eye on it, hanging in front of the pillar at the back of the stage. The forest was indicated by much more than that. The right-of center pillar designed to look rather like some kind of Mayan totem pole, and both diagonal back sides of the stage had large green pieces of fabric that came down like drapes. And the most intriguing bit of forest was the huge cluster of feathery things, which were pulled to hang at intervals across the stage. Essentially they were extremely long feather boas in a couple of different colors, and some of them had interesting feathery bobbly bits as well. One was a series of feather wreaths. A very cool effect.
The costumes were fascinating.
There were the Athenians, each in a slightly different toga riff. As already noted, the men with shorter skirts (more long tunics than togas) had issues with the wind gusting a bit. It seemed the weather had not thrown this at them before, since a couple of the actors were tending to spend much time compensating for the wind, in ways that looked far from authentic (Side note: the men did not seem to be wearing boxers, and white was the preferred color (though under white costumes, this makes sense).). Theseus' toga had a lovely key pattern in gold, and the others each had different edge patterns in black; they looked cool.
The fairies... well, they were a big surprise. Oberon's handmaidens were what I've seen done with fairies before, cute women in Tinkerbell-shaped outfits. Titania had a longer dress, but was from approximately the same mold. Titania's fairies, on the other hand were huge, hulking beasts, wearing not only rubbery masks, but bodysuits as well, with huge clawed hands, over-sized feet that lead to waddling. They were grotesques, which is not how I've ever seen them played. Fascinating (particularly Peaseblossom, who had a rubbery helmet topped with a spike on top of his rubbery head, which waved whenever he nodded. Plus his huge expanse of belly (he was practically spherical!)).
Oh, and Puck looked like neither group. He was a bald man with a mohawk, wearing furry leg-gear that turned him into a faun (or Bacchus?), plus a kind of Native American chest ornament, rows and rows of diagonal (bones? tubes?). An interesting ensemble.
Oberon wore mottled blue fitted pants, that had a large padded posterior leading to a long blue fabric horse tail. His legs ended in horse hooves, and I could hear the horseshoes clip-clopping. It looked like a challenge to move naturally in, considering how the actor's feet not only didn't touch the ground, but weren't supported below the heel, either.
The Athenian workmen had short tunics of obviously rougher quality than the nobles. The characters they played, though, had some interesting costumes. Pyramus got to wear what looked like an overturned urn-like planter with a length of white boa attached. The Lion had much more of this white boa stuff. The Moon had his lantern, and bunch of thorns (I never understand that part), not to mention a white smiley-face disk, and a stuffed dog. And the Wall wore a rectangle draped over him, a hole cut out for his head, the surface padded and painted so he was much wider than the width of his shoulders. And where was the chink? Well, there was a drawstring that raised a piece of the fabric on one side, just about where the player's legs join...
Bottom's ass head was an airy wire construction, so the general form was there, but his head was visible the whole time.
The acting was pretty good. Bottom, in particular, had everyone in stitches. As usual with an open theater, the strength of people's voices varied, which was a bit distracting; I was glad we were so close to the stage. This was particularly noticeable when characters were using the slopes on either side of the stage. Titania/Hippolyta didn't seem to be in such a good mood throughout the play, either. I did like how, when one character insults another using an epithet meaning Ethiopian (sieve-like memory just now), one of the trap doors opens and the one black actor swats the insulter for his verbiage.
I've seen this play done a fair number of times now, and I'm always amazed at how differently it can be played. As usual, I enjoyed the play (it has my favorite insults in it: "you bead, you acorn, you minimus of hindering knot-grass"), but got annoyed at how Titania is played for a fool by Oberon over the Indian boy she's raising (I never understand exactly why he wants the boy, other than that he just wants him). Not to mention how no one is bothered by the ficklenesses of love (Demetrius, especially). And, though Theseus says he can't overrule Hermia's father at the beginning of the play, he blithely does just that at the end.
[7/7/03 1000 addendum: How could I have forgotten the sound effects? There was a lovely sound track, with pleasant music and birdsong, that emphasized the outdoorsy-ness of the show.]
The show was preceded with an intro by Diego Arciniegas, the head of the company, pointing out how arts funding has been slashed this year, despite how the Democratic National Committee chose Boston for its convention partly because it has so many small arts groups. There was also a presentation by the head of the local Charles River conservation group, which is also looking for volunteers.
PS for pass-holders: they punched the pass next to the title of the play. So one performance for each, after all.
[1] The Publick Theatre is an outdoor theatre off Soldier's Field Road, along the banks of the Charles. Note to self: bug spray (or Skin So Soft, or some anti-bug concoction) would not be a bad idea for the next show.
This year's stage has a couple of different levels, with the highest running across the back, with stepped areas heading to the lowest at right front, where there's a bridge to the hillside. The lowest portion of the stage had a trap door in it, and the other major section, the second lowest portion, had three trap doors, all of which were used. There was a (triangular? trapezoidal?) tarp high above the back of the stage, which gave the impression of being there more to avoid the glare of the setting sun than for the actual set.
I'm curious to see how this will be used for the other production this summer, Twelfth Night, since their season has alternating weeks of the two productions.
The stage was pretty bare, though there was a bit of set. Athens was indicated by a tall white banner with an eye on it, hanging in front of the pillar at the back of the stage. The forest was indicated by much more than that. The right-of center pillar designed to look rather like some kind of Mayan totem pole, and both diagonal back sides of the stage had large green pieces of fabric that came down like drapes. And the most intriguing bit of forest was the huge cluster of feathery things, which were pulled to hang at intervals across the stage. Essentially they were extremely long feather boas in a couple of different colors, and some of them had interesting feathery bobbly bits as well. One was a series of feather wreaths. A very cool effect.
The costumes were fascinating.
There were the Athenians, each in a slightly different toga riff. As already noted, the men with shorter skirts (more long tunics than togas) had issues with the wind gusting a bit. It seemed the weather had not thrown this at them before, since a couple of the actors were tending to spend much time compensating for the wind, in ways that looked far from authentic (Side note: the men did not seem to be wearing boxers, and white was the preferred color (though under white costumes, this makes sense).). Theseus' toga had a lovely key pattern in gold, and the others each had different edge patterns in black; they looked cool.
The fairies... well, they were a big surprise. Oberon's handmaidens were what I've seen done with fairies before, cute women in Tinkerbell-shaped outfits. Titania had a longer dress, but was from approximately the same mold. Titania's fairies, on the other hand were huge, hulking beasts, wearing not only rubbery masks, but bodysuits as well, with huge clawed hands, over-sized feet that lead to waddling. They were grotesques, which is not how I've ever seen them played. Fascinating (particularly Peaseblossom, who had a rubbery helmet topped with a spike on top of his rubbery head, which waved whenever he nodded. Plus his huge expanse of belly (he was practically spherical!)).
Oh, and Puck looked like neither group. He was a bald man with a mohawk, wearing furry leg-gear that turned him into a faun (or Bacchus?), plus a kind of Native American chest ornament, rows and rows of diagonal (bones? tubes?). An interesting ensemble.
Oberon wore mottled blue fitted pants, that had a large padded posterior leading to a long blue fabric horse tail. His legs ended in horse hooves, and I could hear the horseshoes clip-clopping. It looked like a challenge to move naturally in, considering how the actor's feet not only didn't touch the ground, but weren't supported below the heel, either.
The Athenian workmen had short tunics of obviously rougher quality than the nobles. The characters they played, though, had some interesting costumes. Pyramus got to wear what looked like an overturned urn-like planter with a length of white boa attached. The Lion had much more of this white boa stuff. The Moon had his lantern, and bunch of thorns (I never understand that part), not to mention a white smiley-face disk, and a stuffed dog. And the Wall wore a rectangle draped over him, a hole cut out for his head, the surface padded and painted so he was much wider than the width of his shoulders. And where was the chink? Well, there was a drawstring that raised a piece of the fabric on one side, just about where the player's legs join...
Bottom's ass head was an airy wire construction, so the general form was there, but his head was visible the whole time.
The acting was pretty good. Bottom, in particular, had everyone in stitches. As usual with an open theater, the strength of people's voices varied, which was a bit distracting; I was glad we were so close to the stage. This was particularly noticeable when characters were using the slopes on either side of the stage. Titania/Hippolyta didn't seem to be in such a good mood throughout the play, either. I did like how, when one character insults another using an epithet meaning Ethiopian (sieve-like memory just now), one of the trap doors opens and the one black actor swats the insulter for his verbiage.
I've seen this play done a fair number of times now, and I'm always amazed at how differently it can be played. As usual, I enjoyed the play (it has my favorite insults in it: "you bead, you acorn, you minimus of hindering knot-grass"), but got annoyed at how Titania is played for a fool by Oberon over the Indian boy she's raising (I never understand exactly why he wants the boy, other than that he just wants him). Not to mention how no one is bothered by the ficklenesses of love (Demetrius, especially). And, though Theseus says he can't overrule Hermia's father at the beginning of the play, he blithely does just that at the end.
[7/7/03 1000 addendum: How could I have forgotten the sound effects? There was a lovely sound track, with pleasant music and birdsong, that emphasized the outdoorsy-ness of the show.]
The show was preceded with an intro by Diego Arciniegas, the head of the company, pointing out how arts funding has been slashed this year, despite how the Democratic National Committee chose Boston for its convention partly because it has so many small arts groups. There was also a presentation by the head of the local Charles River conservation group, which is also looking for volunteers.
PS for pass-holders: they punched the pass next to the title of the play. So one performance for each, after all.