A Midsummer Night's Dream...

[fajrdrako]

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.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That sounds like an *amazing* production!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It was totally amazing and I'm wondering whether I can find a way to see it again.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I wish I could. I was so disappointed with the Bollywood=style 12th Night, and that could have been so good if the director hadn't kept doing Shakespeare For The Stupid.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

could have been so good if the director hadn't kept doing Shakespeare For The Stupid.

How annoying! This was more like "Shakespeare for everybody".

[toraks.livejournal.com]

Wow that sounds (and looks from the clip) really awesome!

That's really strange to throw in all those languages, especially the ones they picked. I'm surprised to hear that it worked well. Then again, Shakespeare's English when seen in person (not that I have that often) is sometimes much more acted than understood word for word at the time.

But back to which languages were used -- Tamil (one of the languages my family speaks) and Malayalam are very closely relate South Indian languages -- Tamil people will even mimic Malayali by speaking with a slightly different accent and adding a few words, and my parents say that they can mostly understand Malayali even without ever having learnt it. But they are separate languages. Sinhalese, I think is also fairly closely related and could be called a South Indian language, though, as far as I know, it's from Sri Lanka. But, again, closely related to Tamil.

And it's just surprising that these non-North Indian languages are included. Typically, outside of India, you mostly get Northern representation -- Hindi, mainly. The other languages (Hindi, Marathi, Bengali) are all Sanskrit related and more Northern.

Anyway, just really cool to have such a southern representation language-wise, and apparently culture-wise as well -- as mentioned about the dance styles on the web site. Also, the brief clip on the web site -- the only thing that is audible from the actors is, I think, Tamil, since I understand most of it. But I suppose it could be one of the other two if they're that related. Neat.

I'm glad you enjoyed it so much and am vicariously proud of them, somehow. ;-D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Wow that sounds (and looks from the clip) really awesome!

It was utterly awesome. maaseru went to see it two days ago and said to me, "You didn't say enough about it!" I'm glad she discovered it for herself.

I don't know why they picked the languages they did - perhaps it reflected the linguistic backgrounds of the actors? I had naively hoped I could pick out which languages were Indo-European and which weren't, but of course, I hadn't a clue, couldn't even tell when they switched languages. And no reason I should: I only know a few words and phrases of Sanskrit!

I'm glad you enjoyed it so much and am vicariously proud of them, somehow. ;-D

I'm proud of them myself, and I don't have any Indian relatives! But the play is just such a wonderful artistic accomplishment. The Indian flavour is icing on the cake.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Wow. The most exotic stage production of Shakespeare I've ever seen was a Much Ado set in a 1940s USO canteen. It was very good, but I wish I could see the Dream you just saw.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It was spectacular. One doesn't often see Shakespeare this good.

[msilverstar]

That sounds spectacularly good, I wish I could see it!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's a travelling production, I think, so it might come to your part of the world at some point.

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Yesterday, I saw a new ballet version of MND that was wonderful. The story lends itself perfectly.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! Yes, the show is nicely adaptable to all sorts of forms.

[filkferengi]

Thanks for sharing!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Good plays are such fun - I wish I could show it to everyone.