A Midsummer Night's Dream: Arkangel Shakespeare
By: William Shakespeare / Narrated By: Amanda Root, David Harewood, Roy Hudd
Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins
It’s all a dream, right? I mean, is that why I fell asleep, like, SIX times…?!?
Shakespeare is best performed, so I was very much looking forward to a stellar production of one of his more whimsical efforts. After all, we did only Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet in high school English. And as one knows, things do not end up really well in either of those. So huzzah for Whimsy and Light.
But right off the bat, a pappa, Egeus, is blowing his top because his daughter Hermia does NOT want to marry the man he’s chosen for her—Demetrius. Rather, she’s in love with Lysander. This Egeus will NOT have and so he invokes an aaaancient Athenian law whereby he can freaking off his daughter should she continue to refuse.
Uhm, nice…
So there’s that. Then one has Oberon, king of the fairies, getting all peeved with his estranged wife, Titania as she refuses to hand over a favorite changeling of hers. In punishment, because apparently A Midsummer Night’s Dream is aaaaallll about Men Behaving Badly, he calls on a shrewd sprite who goes by Puck, to spread magic juice hither and thither, making Titania fall in love with a poor unsuspecting actor, just minding his own beeswax. The sticking point? The actor, Bottom, dozing off, wakes up with the head of a donkey. Cuz you see, Oberon is a toad (No offense to toads!). Adding to this, Lysander and Hermia are in this enchanted forest, along with Demetrius and a young woman named Helena who’s desperate for Demetrius, much to his annoyance.
More magic juice, and Puck has both Lysander and Demetrius head over heels in love with Helena, who weeps copious amounts of tears because, really, the two have been toads to her (Kinda sorta, and no offense to toads!), so she’s totally thinking that they’re making sport of her. When Hermia joins this trio, and when she hears from Lysander’s own lips that he haaaates her (‘Nother dude behaving most poorly…) and is in love with Helena, things go even further awry.
Add more of the actors trying desperately to craft a play in celebration of Theseus and Hyppolyta (The Amazon queen he conquered… again! I mean c’mon, give women a chance here!), and one has the makings of several contretemps and miscues galore. Aaaaaallll meant to delight an audience who are wondering if they themselves are in a dream.
Uhm, soooo, I WAS! Seriously, I fell asleep so many times because this particular production is all music and sound effects and worse: The actors for our main young quartet of misguided lovers sound pretty much exACTly alike. When Lysander and Demetrius were verbally sparring with each other over the right to Helena, nearly coming to blows? It was, like, whooo? doing what? when? and whooo? once again. Then Hermia comes upon this trio and SHE starts getting miffed and starts her own brouhaha with poor Helena who just can’t buy a break. And Hermia and Helena sound just like each other. Whooo? Whaaa?
The worst part? The whole Nature Sounds of the Forest has, I dunno if it’s supposed to be birdsong, but there’s a steady and rhythmic sort of whistle that goes: whoo wheee whoooo throughout AAAALLLL forest scenes, so like, pretty much a LOT of the play. Can you say: Zzzzzzz?!?
So truly, ‘twasn’t my fault for dozing off!
What WAS good? The diversity of voice actors for the other characters in the other subplots. An Amazonian woman who doesn’t sound like a white Athenian. A different Puck. I mean, oh thank gosh, for those particular stories, I was very much engaged in the wheelings and dealings, the clever(ish) shenanigans.
Even tho’ I DID continue to find the behavior of the menfolk distressing. Ancient Laws? Oy! Offing your daughter? Oy! Conquering a Queen? Oy!
Some poor dude waking up and thinking: Wow, for a minute there, I had the head of an ass…?
>Sigh<
Still, it was so very nice to do a Shakespeare that did NOT have the actual act of Egeus going through with his threats, thus turning fancifulness into flat out tragedy, ya know?
Got m’ >Sigh< outta the way, so on to >PHEW<!!!
Now? Off to do a Search: See if John Lee has done any Shakespeare, oh he of the Golden Tones…!
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