A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's Globe, London. October 2013.
I was beginning to think that I was never going to see this play at its best as once more the weather forecast was dire for the day Rebecca and I headed to London. Luckily the rain band seemed to sweep right round Southwark and we stayed mostly dry.
This was the first Shakespeare play I'd seen since starting my MA and it just so happened that the first unit was all about outdoor theatre and the staging of Tudor plays in their original environment. I was very glad that I had seen this play earlier in the season as at least for the first half I was a little distracted by putting the things I'd read earlier in the week into context.
As ever with the Globe I couldn't stay distracted for long as the quality of the acting just had me spellbound and I really did feel that I was in the middle of a fairy inspired dream/nightmare. My last minute seat was a restricted view (more so than some others at the theatre) and I couldn't actually see much of the mechanicals' scene. This reinforced to me something that keeps coming up in my reading - people went to hear a play in Shakespeare's time. I may not have been able to see the slap stick action but I didn't miss a second of it thanks to the writing!
The Globe 2013 Season of Plenty closed on 13th October, I'm already haunting the website for hints as to what is coming next year but also I can't wait for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to open in January so I can see how the Jacobean indoor theatre would have worked!
No comments:
Post a Comment