Week 5 Historical context

I recently went to watch a more modern interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most famous plays - A midsummer's night dream. I say modern because the way it was performed was so original and modern it could only be described this way. This play has been performed probably thousands of times across the globe and yet they were still able to surprise me in the way it was staged and directed and i found myself falling in love with the characters all over again. One way it was different to the original is that they had a lot of very extravagant props, they used harnesses and wings and stripper poles and human sized swings with tents and all sorts ad i found myself anticipating what they would next bring out. I think the use of all these props not only modernised the play as previously mentioned but i think that it also left it feeling a more realistic and made it so the audience could picture what Shakespeare was trying to get across to us even more so as there was little left to the imagination unlike in Shakespeare time when props were not a priority and were not used as much.

Another way it is different is that they used a lot of songs and sound effects that weren't in the original production of the play. Due to when the play was first performed, they wouldn't be able to have huge technical changes,and people breaking out into modern songs with modern day backing tracks, thoroughly entertaining the audience like they did in the performance of Midsummers Night Dream. Back then they probably used the cello and other classical instruments like the violin and even though there was a woman at the beginning playing what looked to be a cello there was also others like guitars and keyboards which they would not have had during the Elizabethan age. In addition the set was extremely glamorous with very efficient scene changes. A glamorous and complicated set is something that they definitely did not have during the original production of the show and due to the nature of the show and how it was performed it did work extremely well, for example there was a scene in the play that particularly stood out to me in terms of set and staging - when the queen of fairies first falls in love the man in the horses head due to the potion she drank, she was brought up into the air by a swing like structure whilst the lighting focused on her and music added to the atmosphere, it was a very extreme yet effective way of portraying the scene and is in a way that would have been impossible for Shakespeare to do.

Another reason as to why this play was very effective was how it was cast. The cast was very diverse in terms of age, gender and ethnicity which i think added to the contemporary feel of the play as it wasn't stereotypically cast, this is interesting as during Shakespeare's era everyone would have been not only caucasian but all of them would have been male, therefore it was very interesting to see how these different characters were played by theses different actors in such a non-traditional way and how amazing the end result was.