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kaberettI saw this with friends at the Regent Street Cinema as a National Theatre Live screening.
There was a lot I loved: it was immersive, it was absorbing, it was thrilling; the staging was creative and dynamic; I clapped at several points; I laughed out loud at many more, as did the rest of the audience.
But even as I enjoyed it in the moment, the overall experience left me feeling a little sour and a little disappointed. I don't think I can recommend it without some major caveats, and I won't be seeking out a recording, despite having been seriously considering it by the interval.
Content notes for rape/sexual assault/dubious consent, The Patriarchy Hurts Men Too, Posh White Person Talks About Race And Class, heteronormativity, sizeism.
During said interval, Hytner was prompted to talk in some detail about his inspirations and influences. The core of this staging, the crux, is the swapping of (the majority of) Oberon and Titania's lines: Titania (Gwendoline Christie) is now attended by Puck (David Moorst), and it's Oberon (Oliver Chris) who falls helplessly in love with Bottom (Hammed Animashaun). The faeries various engage in stunning aerial acrobatics, using slings, inspired by Peter Brook's apparently legendary 1970 production (which I am entirely ignorant of); there's echoes of Margaret Atwood in our introduction to Hippolyta, a warrior queen held captive in a glass box (and blocked from view, often, deliberately, by the blocking) awaiting her wedding.
It's always struck me, said Hytner, that A Midsummer Night's Dream is a joyous and joyful play, but the central pillar of it - drugging a woman so that she'll have sex with someone she otherwise wouldn't - isn't really in keeping with that sense of joy, so, what if we swap it around?
I was really not convinced by the argument that suddenly it became silly, ridiculous, in some wise harmless entertainment, by translating it to a man drugged into homosexuality. I was extremely dubious about the black man being transformed into a donkey, and apparently going along with the powerful white dude's infatuation (to a point - "babe, babe, not tonight, I've got a headache", played for laughs) out of a desire to access luxury and a perceived inability to meaningfully refuse.
It could, I think, have been salvaged - at least to my tastes - by Oberon deciding, at the end, that in fact he did love Bottom; by Bottom deciding that, in fact, he did want to see more of Oberon. We kept getting almost-teased with it: with Theseus/Oberon's (wonderful! evocative! even, dare I say it, adoring!) facial expressions throughout the performance by the Rude Mechanicals, with Bottom's body language as he awoke in the forest, as he tried to make sense of the clothing he was now wearing, as he grappled with his elusive and fading dream.
We didn't, though, and that's what soured me: it felt like queer-baiting. Only it was worse than that, because Puck spent a little while entertaining himself with making Helena and Hermia, and Lysander and Demetrius both, pause in their respective arguments to kiss; the four of them awoke in a tangled heap in the forest, discovered by Theseus' hunting party; Helena and Hermia kissed again, after the Rude Mechanicals' performance, not at all chastely, while Lysander and Demetrius looked on; Hytner implied, during the interval interview, that Theseus' overthrowing of the law of Athens (after Oberon's experience of being made to love, of having Learned His Lesson) nonetheless resulted in people choosing to be with who they want to be, choosing their own paths, perhaps -- it's not actually explicit -- choosing polyamory and companionship and complexity.
What we actually got on stage, though, following Helena and Hermia's kiss, was Lysander and Demetrius doing an extremely flustered and emphatic no-homo handshake, to audience laughter. And we got Oberon and Titania sniggering about what a funny joke it was. And we got Snug the joiner played by a fat woman, with very clear butch coding, for laughs, with her physicality and embodiment presented -- as best I could tell -- as a joke.
Which was frustrating, to say the least.
A little under half the cast are black. The acting is phenomenal. The acrobatics are spectacular: I know just enough, thanks to you lot, to be at least somewhat appropriately appreciative of the drops, of the synchronised sequences, of the spinning. It is absolutely breathtaking that Moorst, as Puck, apparently started learning aerials only three months before the show opened.
It was funny and sweet and sexy and immensely enjoyable, and also, simultaneously, it was so much less than I wanted it to be. I've dwelled rather on my disappointment, I think, but I think suffice it to say that the praise for this production is true, and accurate, and deserved, and it isn't, actually, as progressive or as revolutionary or as good as its creators want and believe it to be.
There was a lot I loved: it was immersive, it was absorbing, it was thrilling; the staging was creative and dynamic; I clapped at several points; I laughed out loud at many more, as did the rest of the audience.
But even as I enjoyed it in the moment, the overall experience left me feeling a little sour and a little disappointed. I don't think I can recommend it without some major caveats, and I won't be seeking out a recording, despite having been seriously considering it by the interval.
Content notes for rape/sexual assault/dubious consent, The Patriarchy Hurts Men Too, Posh White Person Talks About Race And Class, heteronormativity, sizeism.
During said interval, Hytner was prompted to talk in some detail about his inspirations and influences. The core of this staging, the crux, is the swapping of (the majority of) Oberon and Titania's lines: Titania (Gwendoline Christie) is now attended by Puck (David Moorst), and it's Oberon (Oliver Chris) who falls helplessly in love with Bottom (Hammed Animashaun). The faeries various engage in stunning aerial acrobatics, using slings, inspired by Peter Brook's apparently legendary 1970 production (which I am entirely ignorant of); there's echoes of Margaret Atwood in our introduction to Hippolyta, a warrior queen held captive in a glass box (and blocked from view, often, deliberately, by the blocking) awaiting her wedding.
It's always struck me, said Hytner, that A Midsummer Night's Dream is a joyous and joyful play, but the central pillar of it - drugging a woman so that she'll have sex with someone she otherwise wouldn't - isn't really in keeping with that sense of joy, so, what if we swap it around?
I was really not convinced by the argument that suddenly it became silly, ridiculous, in some wise harmless entertainment, by translating it to a man drugged into homosexuality. I was extremely dubious about the black man being transformed into a donkey, and apparently going along with the powerful white dude's infatuation (to a point - "babe, babe, not tonight, I've got a headache", played for laughs) out of a desire to access luxury and a perceived inability to meaningfully refuse.
It could, I think, have been salvaged - at least to my tastes - by Oberon deciding, at the end, that in fact he did love Bottom; by Bottom deciding that, in fact, he did want to see more of Oberon. We kept getting almost-teased with it: with Theseus/Oberon's (wonderful! evocative! even, dare I say it, adoring!) facial expressions throughout the performance by the Rude Mechanicals, with Bottom's body language as he awoke in the forest, as he tried to make sense of the clothing he was now wearing, as he grappled with his elusive and fading dream.
We didn't, though, and that's what soured me: it felt like queer-baiting. Only it was worse than that, because Puck spent a little while entertaining himself with making Helena and Hermia, and Lysander and Demetrius both, pause in their respective arguments to kiss; the four of them awoke in a tangled heap in the forest, discovered by Theseus' hunting party; Helena and Hermia kissed again, after the Rude Mechanicals' performance, not at all chastely, while Lysander and Demetrius looked on; Hytner implied, during the interval interview, that Theseus' overthrowing of the law of Athens (after Oberon's experience of being made to love, of having Learned His Lesson) nonetheless resulted in people choosing to be with who they want to be, choosing their own paths, perhaps -- it's not actually explicit -- choosing polyamory and companionship and complexity.
What we actually got on stage, though, following Helena and Hermia's kiss, was Lysander and Demetrius doing an extremely flustered and emphatic no-homo handshake, to audience laughter. And we got Oberon and Titania sniggering about what a funny joke it was. And we got Snug the joiner played by a fat woman, with very clear butch coding, for laughs, with her physicality and embodiment presented -- as best I could tell -- as a joke.
Which was frustrating, to say the least.
A little under half the cast are black. The acting is phenomenal. The acrobatics are spectacular: I know just enough, thanks to you lot, to be at least somewhat appropriately appreciative of the drops, of the synchronised sequences, of the spinning. It is absolutely breathtaking that Moorst, as Puck, apparently started learning aerials only three months before the show opened.
It was funny and sweet and sexy and immensely enjoyable, and also, simultaneously, it was so much less than I wanted it to be. I've dwelled rather on my disappointment, I think, but I think suffice it to say that the praise for this production is true, and accurate, and deserved, and it isn't, actually, as progressive or as revolutionary or as good as its creators want and believe it to be.