As you walked
into the auditorium, the stage looked like it wasn’t ready, with instruments
scattered around and cable leads left lying about. I certainly was not ready
for a gripping Shakespearian play, but I soon found out this play of a Midsummer Nights Dream was meant to be
humorous. As a character appeared onstage giving hilarious audience
interaction, this was kept up throughout and really made me feel involved.
The Filter Company did an almost perfect job of making
Shakespeare accessible for modern folk like us. I felt nervous going to watch
something I would not understand, but the actors were very good at diving back
and forth between the language of the play and present speech. The simple act
of stopping and explaining a monologue kept me up to date with the plot, and
stopped that feeling of utter confusion and embarrassment.
A smart idea
that helped to break up the puzzling ways of Shakespeare’s language and plot
was that the actors would use music to symbolize certain people or places. For
example fairies were portrayed by bells, this helped me get a grasp of who was
who, and was a bit extra for your money.
I loved the combination of 19th and 21st
century, something I didn’t think could happen but worked in a comic way. They
did this by symbolizing the forest with a tent, and on another occasion the men
actors’ drunk beer, which is an odd concept but again amusing to watch it.
This play is perfect for children as they can actually
understand Shakespeare, by the actions on the stage and the fitting voices. However
you don’t need to be alarmed for your children, as the fight scenes are changed
to a food fight and a virtual computer game fight. Likewise the crude scenes
were masked with Barry White impressions and cheesy grins.
However as an adult, I let my childish side out and
giggled too, and yet I still found a sense of the depth. I think this was
mainly due to the actor’s performances, as I could really relate to their
characters emotions, more than the magical fairy part.
This comedy came as a bit of light relief from the
outside world and the financial problems going on at the moment. I just relaxed
for an hour, forgetting all about the credit crunch and actually feeling proud
of myself for understanding Shakespeare.
I recommend it to anyone, at any age if they want to
understand Shakespeare or who just want a laugh.
What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
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