Week 5 Shakespeare Today

One contemporary Shakespeare show I have seen was first shown in 2011 at The Young Vic and it starred the well-known actor Michael Sheen. The show was very successful and I particularly enjoyed Sheen’s performance. The recurrent theme of Hamlet is madness and this was powerfully emphasized from the beginning as the audience members are led down a maze of narrow hospital- like corridors which was reminiscent of an asylum and this staging created a strong sense of fore boding as the audience were made to feel as though as they were walking into an asylum and almost becoming inmate themselves. This was a sort of pre-show but I believe that most producers of the plays in Shakespeare’s time would rather stick to the original play then provoke the audience into questioning the themes of the play before it begins in this way. The set was very eerie and dark which added to the atmosphere and stimulated the imagination creating a sense of had the effect of drawing us in and creating the illusion of claustrophobia and that there was no escape. I feel like the only way the director of a play in Shakespeare’s time would be able to create this eerie and dark effect would be too only show the play at night because there was no electricity to create shadows with the lighting. The costumes were stylised and contemporary dress which gave the theme of insanity a modern relevance because of the staging which compelled us as audience members to relate to the characters more effectively. This would be quite similar to the original performance of the play because the actors would have worn the contemporary clothes at the time of the performance .Through Sheen’s performance he was able  to conveyed the  disturbed mind of the character both through his physical characterisation (shaking, twitching) and diverse vocal delivery. Contemporary music was played during the play in order to encourage the audience to suggest when the play is set and create a sense of nostalgia. Although there most probably would have been music that was contemporary to the time back when the play was originally performed it would most likely have been more significant to the audience to listen to the lyrics because back then the lyrics would have been written by Shakespeare himself and so would have been significant to the story-telling of the play.

Another Shakespeare play I have seen which can be classed as a contemporary version was the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Globe Theatre this year. I thought the show was extremely good. It was very modern and full of surprises making it very exciting to watch. The comedy was extremely significant to the play and in some sections of the play this was to both make the audience laugh and also to establish the relationship between the characters and this was done very effectively. In the original Shakespeare performances comedy was a tool that also was used to make the audience laugh however by using comedy to establish the characters relationships, the director makes the characters and their passions and desires more significant to the audience meaning the audience are more able to connect with the characters because they see them as real people with dreams and relationships. Another contemporary device was that they used a different culture’s music via a live band to create a fantastical and ethereal atmosphere to engage the audience and pull them in to the fantastical world of the play. This was a good technique to use however back when the play was originally showed in theatre despite the fact that they would have had a live band they probably wouldn’t have anyone in the band who could play instruments that originated from India. They most probably would have played music in the play but it was probably folk music that originated from the place it was being shown. One thing that the producers of the play chose to do was to change the gender of some of the characters meaning a gay relationship occurred during the play. This made it much more interesting to watch. I had never seen a Shakespeare play be so representative of homosexuality and it was refreshing to see this. Obviously this wouldn’t have occurred back when A Midsummer Night’s Dream first was shown because homosexuality would have been frowned upon in society and so they wouldn’t have liked to have seen it in a play. In addition the director made the choice to change the ethnicity of a few of the characters so that Hermia and Helena were Asian and Demetrius was black. Again this definitely worked to modernise the play as it meant that the play could have been set in modern day England. It also made the story more relatable because as audience members we all know people that are black, white or Asian. This obviously wouldn’t have occurred when the play was first shown because at the time black and Asian people would have been scarce at the time and also would have probably been again frowned upon in society. Other performing arts such as puppetry made their appearance during the show. This was something very new to see and also very intriguing to watch and this was another device to engage the audience which I believe it successfully did. The play was also extremely interactive meaning that at some point an audience member was made to eat a character’s banana and another audience member was made to help a character out of her shoes. This was very engaging and made great comedic moments of the play. It meant there was almost a friendly relationship between the characters and the audiences. During the time that A Midsummer Night’s Dream first was shown the majority of the interaction between the Shakespearean actors and the audience would have been via asides to the audiences.