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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Author:  Nienor [ March 26th, 2007, 2:49 pm ]
Post subject:  A Midsummer Night's Dream

Despite the fact that I work for this forum I really wasn't sure where to put this thread, but I'll leave it here and see what happens. :closedeyes:

Yesterday afternoon I went to see a friend perform in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I never realized how great this play is- it's absolutely hysterical!
I'd seen excerpts performed before, but never this dynamically. There's just something about High School actors that gives a play energy. I really enjoy acting, but don't have time for it.

So, anyway. Post if you've seen this play performed or know it well. Now I really understand that Shakespeare simply didn't write for the page- his stuff was meant to be performed. My favorite characters were Hermia and Lysander, Oberon, and Bottom. The young man who played Oberon had beautiful dark curly hair to his shoulders, perfect for a fairy, and a very alluring deep voice. He scared me to death, it was great. :P

Author:  ethelfleda [ March 26th, 2007, 6:28 pm ]
Post subject: 

my group had to adapt and perform midsummer night's dream for our drama exam last year. we weren't so keen on the play at first, but we had a right laugh doing it.

our adaptation could only be 30-40 mins, so we just did the scenes involving the mechanicals trying to rehearse and perform 'pyramus and thisbe', titania and oberon's argument, and bottom in the fairy world. the mechanicals were patients in a lunatic asylum who were trying to put on a play for their doctors, and bottom's time in the fairy world was a drug-induced hallucination where the fairies were all played by the other patients and doctors (kind of like in the wizard of oz where the lion and the witch etc are played by people dorothy knew from kansas).

we really went all out on the comedy - there were jokes involving beards and an orlando bloom calendar, i ended up with an eyeliner moustache (the third play i've done where i've been given facial hair!), flute was as camp as a row of tents, and 'pyramus and thisbe' was as farcical as we could make it (which was very). it was all a bit monty python really.

it may all sound very bizarre, but i promise you it did work - the audience loved it.

and you're completely right, nienor - shakespeare really does have to be performed. he's wonderful to read, but a million times better to watch. the comedies in particular need to be seen to be appreciated.

Author:  manwathiel [ March 26th, 2007, 7:43 pm ]
Post subject: 

my high school theatre department put on midsummer 2 years ago. it was awsome. one thing i really liked was that our fairies were different from how most people seem to portray them. from what i have seen, people seem to view the fairies as kind of...weird i guess u could say. our fairies were i guess you could say your typical fairy. pretty and colorful. the whole woods they were in were also like that. i was cool though.

i love the humor too. i thought our school did a very good job with the play. (then again....we do shakespeare every other year so they've had practice but still)

Author:  Aredhel Ar-Feiniel [ March 26th, 2007, 8:27 pm ]
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Oh I LOVE this play... it's so ridiculously funny :D I've seen it performed before, and I've also read the play... it IS very amusing, if you actually understand it (which I'm sure we all do... :P ) Haha, I totally love it though. A bit of Shakespearean humour is always good for us brainwashed 21st century-ers... ah...

Author:  ~RinielAranel~ [ March 26th, 2007, 9:29 pm ]
Post subject: 

I
LOVE
THIS
PLAY

I think it's actually my favorite Shakespeare (for now.) It has got to be up there on the list of most hillarious things ever. :D I love watching spoofs of it. Or the real thing! It's just as funny.

Actually, I read it for the first time in seventh grade, and we were divided up into groups of 4 or 5 to perform one scene from the play. I got to play Puck in the scene where everyone gets messed up nd the two girls start fighting. :D But the best was when a group of four guys performed the Pyramous & Thisbe play-within-a-play at the end. Imagine a close guy friend of mine in a wig, speaking in a high-pitched monotone, reciting the "oft have my cherry lips kissed they stones..." line.
Absloutely hillarious.

The best part is that 'Bottom' turns into a *cough* donkey...lol. Shakespeare is hillarious even when he doesn't mean to be. :lol:

Author:  ethelfleda [ March 27th, 2007, 5:42 am ]
Post subject: 

~RinielAranel~ wrote:
But the best was when a group of four guys performed the Pyramous & Thisbe play-within-a-play at the end. Imagine a close guy friend of mine in a wig, speaking in a high-pitched monotone, reciting the "oft have my cherry lips kissed they stones..." line.
Absloutely hillarious.

i don't have to imagine it - i've seen it, and it was hilarious. the worst thing was, i was playing the wall at the time (wearing a t-shirt saying 'wall' and looking like a teapot), so i couldn't laugh.

~RinielAranel~ wrote:
The best part is that 'Bottom' turns into a *cough* donkey...lol. Shakespeare is hillarious even when he doesn't mean to be. :lol:

i think the pun was intended there - that's just the sort of joke shakespeare would love. i think he had a great sense of humour - i love that he could be so clever and sophisticated about it, but still used simple puns too.

Author:  Nienor [ March 27th, 2007, 6:08 am ]
Post subject: 

Manwathiel- I like the idea of pretty fairies. I'm in a fairy play right now too, it's called Iolanthe, and we get to be very pretty fairies. :D The version of Midsummer I went to had very weird fairies. Puck had Jack Sparrow eyes on his eyelids, which was pretty odd, but it grew on you. :P

Author:  ~RinielAranel~ [ March 27th, 2007, 1:21 pm ]
Post subject: 

eowyn of ithilien wrote:
~RinielAranel~ wrote:
But the best was when a group of four guys performed the Pyramous & Thisbe play-within-a-play at the end. Imagine a close guy friend of mine in a wig, speaking in a high-pitched monotone, reciting the "oft have my cherry lips kissed they stones..." line.
Absloutely hillarious.

i don't have to imagine it - i've seen it, and it was hilarious. the worst thing was, i was playing the wall at the time (wearing a t-shirt saying 'wall' and looking like a teapot), so i couldn't laugh.


:lol: That must have been great! The guy that played the wall was always really quiet so it made it even funnier. We had done another play and he had managed to get the role of an inanimate object. :D

eowyn of ithilien wrote:
~RinielAranel~ wrote:
The best part is that 'Bottom' turns into a *cough* donkey...lol. Shakespeare is hillarious even when he doesn't mean to be. :lol:

i think the pun was intended there - that's just the sort of joke shakespeare would love. i think he had a great sense of humour - i love that he could be so clever and sophisticated about it, but still used simple puns too.

Well, our teacher told us that the 'donkey word' didn't have its other meaning at that time. But maybe it did, who knows. It's still hillarious. :teehee:

Author:  Nienor [ March 28th, 2007, 7:18 am ]
Post subject: 

I get the impression that the 'donkey' word meant idiot, but not in a crude way like today.

Having not read the script in ages, I don't remember if this was in italics or not, but the wall in our production kept forgetting (as part of the play) to put up her chink for Pyramus to peek through, and mouthing "sorry!" It was just too funny.

Author:  manwathiel [ March 29th, 2007, 10:44 pm ]
Post subject: 

the * donkey word* was acually refering to the donkey. the guys head turns into a donkey head ( if i remember right) and *** is another word for donkey. thats what they ment when it was said

Author:  Aredhel Ar-Feiniel [ March 29th, 2007, 10:52 pm ]
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^Lol yup... Bottom. Gotta love Shakespeare :P

Author:  ethelfleda [ March 30th, 2007, 5:23 am ]
Post subject: 

manwathiel wrote:
the * donkey word* was acually refering to the donkey. the guys head turns into a donkey head ( if i remember right) and *** is another word for donkey. thats what they ment when it was said


that is true, but in typical shakespearean fashion that's not all it meant. *** (can we really not use that word on here?) also means 'idiot' and 'bottom' and did then (i looked it up, and both meanings were used in shakespeare's day), so it's also a pun on bottom's name and a comment on his stupidity.

Author:  Nienor [ March 30th, 2007, 6:50 am ]
Post subject: 

Yar, that's what I meant. >.< This is getting confusing. :P

Author:  manwathiel [ March 30th, 2007, 5:02 pm ]
Post subject: 

o ok well i didn't know that.....well i guess we were all right

Author:  Kitoky [ August 22nd, 2007, 6:51 pm ]
Post subject: 

Guys. I have seen two versions of this play done by professional Shakespearean actors and it. is. absolutely. ace. It is so funny that I almost pulled something trying to calm down.

In regards to the story, I probably love Helena's character the most, because she so endearingly loves Demetrius but he does not return her affection (I'm a sucker for one-sided love).

Author:  ~RinielAranel~ [ August 22nd, 2007, 10:40 pm ]
Post subject: 

^Ag, I know. I'm a sucker for any unrequieted love, especially if its the girl who gets shunned. (Ex: Eowyn, Eponine, Helena, etc.) I'm not exactly sure if it's because I can relate or not. :P

As to the, erm, Bottom issue...so then Shakespeare only knew one meaning of the word but used it for humorous purposes? Or knew both meanings? And didn't mean for it to be funny? Because it refers to a donkey? And not the other thing?

:blink:

Ow, my head. Well it's funny either way. :D

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