Friday night I saw MacBeth with the Grassroots Shakespeare Company and they did a PHENOMINAL job. The show was minimal and goofy: they had no budget, no director, 2 weeks of rehearsal, and were borrowing the venue. Each character costumed/prop-ed themselves, and they staged the play as a cast. It was the true Shakespearean expirience:I was a groundling.
The cast jumped in and out of the audience
the audience shouted at the performers.
one of my favorite moments of the evening was when Lady MacBeth said, "out damn spot!" and a groundling shouted "TRY CLUB SODA" bah ha ha
with all these distractions, they kept the integrity of the play, and it was incredibly powerful.
- My second shakespeare show this weekend was The Tempest put on by The Pioneer Theater Company at the University of Utah. It was fantastic. Some highlights:
- the stage was set up like a workshop, with a stage in the middle. The magic Prospero produced was compared to the magic of Shakespeare putting on a play.
- there was a very interesting relationship between Prospero and Ariel that they portrayed through a series of attempts to physically connect hands, then when prospero gave up his magic, they could for the first time touch. It was a moving moment, and added depth to their characters/relationship that was not written in the text.
- we got to talk to the cast after for a few minutes. They all seemed like very neat people. One kind of funny phenomenon was Ariel spoke and moved her hands almost the EXACT same way she did on stage in character
Quite the Wonderful Weekend in my opinion.
Avrill - I loved Macbeth, too, especially how they interacted with the audience, but remained in character doing so. Do you think that other plays would benefit from this interaction?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am super interested in the Prospero-Ariel connection. Did they make it obvious that they wanted to touch...like in a loving way? Or just shake hands or something? I wonder why the director made that choice?
Cassandra, I think it would have been so cool if the Tempest were done informally and they had Prospero using the audience in working his magic. Like maybe we could all blow the wind for the storm or something. I definitely wouldn't have had any problems staying awake if that were the case.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! It would have given a much different feel. Martina I love that idea! Did you have problems staying awake...? tee hee hee
ReplyDeleteI liked the director's choice in the prospero-ariel thing. I guess some people thought it was creepy, but I really felt more depth to the relationship--a way that wasn't written in the text...