Never approach a show unless you know how it has been done before.
This is a theatrical golden rule. You need to know what has gone before so that no-one will accuse you of copying another version and so you can build on ideas from previous productions. A play as old as MND has been on quite a journey, you need to understand this before you can stage it.
First five postings...
Find out about Peter Brook's production of MND. Post a paragraph that shares your findings.
The rest....
Find out about Adrian Noble's version of MND. Post a paragraph that shares your findings.
Many people have seen magic in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the magic of moonshine and fairyland, and-since no Shakespearean play has been so foully encrusted over with nineteenth-century romanticism-the magic of Mendelssohn and bosky scenery looking good enough to eat. Peter Brook has also seen magic in the Dream, but it is the magic of man. His production of the play, first seen last summer at Stratford-on-Avon and now gloriously come to the Billy Rose Theater, is also full of the magic of the theater.
ReplyDeleteIt is a celebration of life and fancy, of man and his imagination, his fate, and the brevity of his brief candle in the light of the world. Shakespeare gave us "the lunatic, the lover and the poet," and Brook smilingly added the acrobat.
This is without any equivocation whatsoever the greatest production of Shakespeare I have ever seen in my life-and for my joys and my sins I have seen literally hundreds. Its greatness lies partly in its insight into man, and best of all its remarkable insight into Shakespeare. But it also lies in its originality. It is the most genuinely and deeply original production of Shakespeare in decades.
Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is awash with genius. It is a staggering, astonishing achievement which throws dazzling new light on the play yet never fractures the text for the sake of gimmickry.
ReplyDeleteSet (by Sally Jacobs) in a white box, and decorated with the appurtenances of a circus - such a trapezes and horizontal ladders; and clothed in brightly coloured satins and rich, brocaded velvets, Shakespeare's bucolic fairy tale enchants us afresh.
In a courageous, inspired break with tradition, Brook introduces several stunning innovations. Puck's magic flower is a whirling silver disc balanced on a juggler's stick; the midnight wood is represented by dangling steel coils. And, to enhance the dream-like unreality of it all, Oberon (Alan Howard) doubles as Theseus, Titania (Sara Kestelman) as Hippolyta, and Puck (John Kane) as Philostrate.
Adrian Noble's
ReplyDeleteThe sets are decidedly minimalist, once again reminding us that this was originally a stage production. As far as I can tell, the only actual sets were Theseus' palace, the shed in which the players convened at the start and the theater in which the final scene takes place. All of the forest scenes are played on an empty stage with various props. This leads to some rather surreal set-pieces, with doors and light-bulbs mysteriously appearing out of nowhere, and a giant upside-down umbrella in which Titania makes her rest. These only serve to heighten the dreamy quality of the movie, and have the added benefit of letting us concentrate on the performances of the actors. Though the presentation is less than cinematic, it works on film.
this was about Adrian's film production which was done in 1996
Peter brooks
ReplyDeleteDirector, Wendy Toye (1964)
Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream 1970
Peter Brooks approached the production of Shakespeare's "a midsummer nights dream" with deliberate radicalism. and persuaded the audience to forget the century of theatrical traditional version of the play.
by using steel coils to enhance the dream like and the magical feeling
I love the way that Puck's magic flower was a whirling silver disc balanced on a juggler's stick;and how midnight wood was represented by dangling steel coils. And, to enhance the dream-like unreality of it all!
The costumes and movements of circus acrobats inspired the actors’ bright silks and flights on trapeze. It was a visual assault on the audiences’ senses, and on preconceived ideas of the play.
rook’s lovers demonstrated the dualities of love and hatred, which were brought out by the dreamworld and then covered up when emerging from the forest’s enchantment.
Peter Brook's MND production of 1970. Brook staged the play in a blank white box, in which masculine fairies engaged in circus tricks such as trapeze artistry. Brook also introduced the subsequently popular idea of doubling Theseus/Oberon and Hippolyta/Titania, as if to suggest that the world of the fairies is a mirror version of the world of the mortals. Since Brook's production, directors have felt free to use their imaginations freely to decide for themselves what the play's story means, and to represent that visually on stage. In particular, there has been an increased amount of sexuality on stage, as many directors see the 'palace' as a symbol of restraint and repression, while the 'wood' can be a symbol of wild, unrestrained sexuality, which is both liberating and terrifying. A number of noted British actors played various roles in Brook's acclaimed production, including Patrick Stewart, Ben Kingsley, as well as noted stage actors John Kane and Jennie Stoller.
ReplyDeleteAdrian Noble-
ReplyDelete1996 (that was when DVD of it was released) I can't find anything about the stage production, so I think they're the same thing anyway?
A boy dreams the whole play?
The lovers' forest-set in a hazy, soft-focus dreamscape of colors. Rows of candles in the royal palace. Floating lightbulbs defining the woods at night, and other images (a bank of doors, suspended sacs, upturned umbrellas) dominae stage version.
*dominate :)
ReplyDeletePeter Brook's 1970 stage production for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. It was enormously innovative, it changed everything, it influenced everybody, and it's impossible to find. Indeed, knowledge of the actual performance seems almost gnostic—a little like the way people who went to Woodstock speak about that experience. The development of the stage in England. It's quite well done—but I will always gravitate toward the segments on Shakespeare.
ReplyDeleteAdrian Noble's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1994/5) was popular enough to be revived two years later, and Noble also turned it into a film adaptation in 1996. He resigned from the RSC in 2002, stating that "it is now time for me to seek new artistic challenges"
ReplyDeleteA Midsummer Night's Dream by Adrian Noble was in the theatre in 1995.
I could not find very much on Adrian Noble refering to misommer nights dream.