A couple days ago we journeyed across the Thames to see the Globe’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and going into the show I had my doubts, but those were quickly proven wrong. I’m not the biggest Shakespeare guy, I find consuming his plays as literature to be a difficult experience, but I have never had the chance to see it produced, so I was willing to give this a chance. I mean, if you’re gonna see Shakespeare, where better than the Globe to do it? Anyways, I ended up being blown away by the show, I really think it was one of the best pieces of theatre that I have ever seen. Like I expected, it took a minute for my ear to adjust to Shakespeare, but once it did I was reassured that the reason I have not enjoyed Shakespeare before now is because reading it just sucks, it’s meant to be performed and heard. On that note, the acoustics of the Globe theatre were really interesting because even when an actor was faced fully away from me I could still hear them at pretty much the same volume as when I was being directly performed too.
Now onto the show itself, for the most part I absolutely loved it. The costumes were pretty when I first saw them but then I realized how weird they got, like why were they wearing Docs? But the acting was phenomenal, I particularly loved the choice to make Puck scary, it’s not something I would have thought of if I were producing this and it was so good for this production. Along that line the moments when Puck simultaneously delivered Lysander & Demetrius’s lines as if they were under her control was really cool to see. Also, even though it was limited there were some cool scenic elements, for instance the net that was pulled out of the trapdoor in the stage that Titania used to sleep in was a really successful choice. I could definitely go on about the show, but the point is that it was very good, that surprised me, and now I think I am a Shakespeare fan.
One of the other things we did recently was visit the Tate Modern museum, something I knew that I would like going in. There were so many interesting pieces and exhibits in there (there was a paid exhibit for Mondrian that I’m thinking of going back to see), but of all of them there were two that stood out a lot. One was a small exhibition of pieces by artist CY Twombly. The pieces were all inspired by and named for the Roman god of wine Bacchus, and they consisted of these large canvases with sweeping and seemingly random red brush strokes, all meant to convey the sense of intoxication and freedom that painting can share with Bacchus. Personally I loved the scale of the pieces and really saw a beauty in the movement of the strokes and the ways in which they mixed with the off-white base coat of paint on the canvas
The other piece that stood out was called “BLUE PURPLE TILT 2007” by artist Jenny Holzer. This piece featured a series of LED columns – which obviously caught my lighting design keen eye – which were displaying countless phrases from a range of meanings and origins. The phrases would scroll from the bottom to the top of the columns, all while the entire thing was flashing really quick, making it a visually captivating scene for me. I almost felt like I couldn’t look away, and it really kept me engaged with the piece in a unique way.
So, in conclusion, I just like art.
Theatre in London U of A 