Tonight I saw a production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream at the National Arts Centre. Their preview night; it opens tomorrow. The ticket was a birthday present from
commodorified and
auriaephiala.
It was wonderful.
I've seen Shakespeare done with in Indian or Hindu, influence before - I remember an RSC production of
Much Ado About Nothing set in India in the days of the British Empire. This was nothing like that. This tapped into the universality of Shakespeare and made it look easy.
This was the most seamlessly intercultural production of anything I have ever seen. It was very visual, very visceral, and more Shakespearean than the more intellectual productions. We all particularly liked PR Jijoy, who made a sexy and masculine Oberon and Theseus; the women were marvellous, especially Archana Ramaswamy as Hippolyta and Titania; and Aporup Acharya as Bottom was a delight. It had some of the best (minimalist) staging and costuming I've seen. And wonderful dancing and acrobatics. One of my favourite moments was when Titania's princeling was hanging upside down, high above the stage, with his ankles wrapped in banners to untie the cloths that made up Titania's bed. The drumming was good, too. At the end the audience got up to dance.
I would have said that it wouldn't work, theatrically, to have the dialogue alternate Shakespeare's English with Tamil, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Sanskrit. But it worked fine. Nothing was lost in non-translation. It was all body language and expression anyway. I think all the most famous, familiar lines were there, things like "ill met by moonlight" and "what fools these mortals be". There was one scene - Hermia's reconciliation with her father - that had no dialogue at all, and was perfectly clear.
A real feel-good play.
At the intermission, I heard someone say, "I never understood this play before. Now I get it."
And a girl said to her friend, "Everybody's making out with everybody else. It's awesome!"
Then as I was leaving, I heard a man say to his wife, "That was
good."
Yup, it was.
I haven't seen a lot of movies this year, but it's sure been a good year for plays.