The Independent Shakespeare Company (ISC) always puts on an entertaining performance. It's wonderful to go to Griffith Park and watch some Shakespeare while enjoying a picnic with your friends.
I particularly enjoy it when ISC does the comedies. We saw ISC's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love's Labour's Lost, and Much Ado About Nothing last summer, and they're wonderfully over-the-top and represent exactly what Shakespeare would've wanted back in the day. I have to remind myself of this point because I have a preference for realistic theatre. Don't get me wrong - I love Wicked and plays like that, but as I mentioned in my first post, the plays that really move me are the ones that distrub me and make me think about the human condition and the psychology behind the twisted, illogical, or flat-out idiotic things we do. So when I watch a Shakesperian comedy, I have to remind myself about the original context, the Elizabethan audience, and how ISC aims to preserve that same kind of experience.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite Shakesperian comedy (Richard III is my favorite tragedy). So as is the case with Macbeth and other plays that I've studied deeply and extensively, I have certain expectations that I just can't seem to shed. My favorite performance of Midsummer is, by far, the 1999 Michael Hoffmann movie, so it inevitably serves as my barometer for all Midsummer performances. I love how he dealt with the Demetrius issue (i.e. how can you have a happy ending when he's under a spell?), how he made Bottom a character with depth, and how he had Sam Rockwell give a real performance as Thisby. So every time I see Bottom being a buffoon, and Thisby an exagerrated Juliet, and the issue of Demetrius overlooked, I have to remind myself that that is what the original intent was and learn to enjoy it and see the humor in the overacted performance.
Besides, Midsummer is just so good that I love it every time.
I particularly enjoy it when ISC does the comedies. We saw ISC's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love's Labour's Lost, and Much Ado About Nothing last summer, and they're wonderfully over-the-top and represent exactly what Shakespeare would've wanted back in the day. I have to remind myself of this point because I have a preference for realistic theatre. Don't get me wrong - I love Wicked and plays like that, but as I mentioned in my first post, the plays that really move me are the ones that distrub me and make me think about the human condition and the psychology behind the twisted, illogical, or flat-out idiotic things we do. So when I watch a Shakesperian comedy, I have to remind myself about the original context, the Elizabethan audience, and how ISC aims to preserve that same kind of experience.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite Shakesperian comedy (Richard III is my favorite tragedy). So as is the case with Macbeth and other plays that I've studied deeply and extensively, I have certain expectations that I just can't seem to shed. My favorite performance of Midsummer is, by far, the 1999 Michael Hoffmann movie, so it inevitably serves as my barometer for all Midsummer performances. I love how he dealt with the Demetrius issue (i.e. how can you have a happy ending when he's under a spell?), how he made Bottom a character with depth, and how he had Sam Rockwell give a real performance as Thisby. So every time I see Bottom being a buffoon, and Thisby an exagerrated Juliet, and the issue of Demetrius overlooked, I have to remind myself that that is what the original intent was and learn to enjoy it and see the humor in the overacted performance.
Besides, Midsummer is just so good that I love it every time.
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