I saw the Peter Brook white box production while still in high school -- and by accident. A friend and I had come to the theater next to it to try and get last minute student tickets. They had none for that production, so we walked over to the next theater, and while we knew about Midsummer Night's Dream, we were just kids. We thought what the heck.
They had tickets. It was opening night, and the programs had a little bow-tie sticker on them to recognize that fact.
It was a miraculous evening, and one of the turning points in my life. The stage was pure white, the actors were in brightly colored tie-dyed costumes (all the rage at the time).
The fairies never touched the ground. They were on trapezes and ropes, traipsing across the top of the white wall that encompassed the stage, and were truly magical. When Puck gets the flower, it was a spinning dish on top of a stick. I get chills just remembering that wonderful, simple piece of stage magic, as he walked around with, danced, and everyone's eyes were on the "flower."
Bottom's transfiguration was done with nothing more than . . . a red nose. The actor completely reformed his body and voice, and the ass was there with nothing more needed. Pure theater.
As you note, the actors were in constant motion, flinging themselves around the stage, but with perfect diction, perfect timing, perfect everything. "Words in motion" is such a fine description of that production. Two high school kids understood just about every word, got every joke, and came out enchanted. I'll never forget it.
You make excellent observations, so I'm nitpicking here, but in "beauteous Hermia", while "Hermia" must indeed have each syllable fully enunciated to fill up the line, "beauteous" counts metrically as two: so in practice it's two syllables, with a slight ripple of a third, where it slides over the Y sound.
Well, it's an extremely common metrical contraction! While Shakespeare did very occasionally employ unambiguous anapests, there's no reason to suppose this is intended to be a metrical anapest.
I’ve written a fair number of Quora posts, some of which I list on my Quora profile, and of late have engaged in conversations here on Substack.
Here’s a photo of my approach to scansion which I shared while restacking a comment where I linked one of my Quora posts while simultaneously restacking a long comment I made under another account’s substack post! https://substack.com/@snapdragons/note/c-101889426
I saw the Peter Brook white box production while still in high school -- and by accident. A friend and I had come to the theater next to it to try and get last minute student tickets. They had none for that production, so we walked over to the next theater, and while we knew about Midsummer Night's Dream, we were just kids. We thought what the heck.
They had tickets. It was opening night, and the programs had a little bow-tie sticker on them to recognize that fact.
It was a miraculous evening, and one of the turning points in my life. The stage was pure white, the actors were in brightly colored tie-dyed costumes (all the rage at the time).
The fairies never touched the ground. They were on trapezes and ropes, traipsing across the top of the white wall that encompassed the stage, and were truly magical. When Puck gets the flower, it was a spinning dish on top of a stick. I get chills just remembering that wonderful, simple piece of stage magic, as he walked around with, danced, and everyone's eyes were on the "flower."
Bottom's transfiguration was done with nothing more than . . . a red nose. The actor completely reformed his body and voice, and the ass was there with nothing more needed. Pure theater.
As you note, the actors were in constant motion, flinging themselves around the stage, but with perfect diction, perfect timing, perfect everything. "Words in motion" is such a fine description of that production. Two high school kids understood just about every word, got every joke, and came out enchanted. I'll never forget it.
oh wow this is amazing, thanks for leaving such a great comment! I really wish I could have seen it
splendid!
You make excellent observations, so I'm nitpicking here, but in "beauteous Hermia", while "Hermia" must indeed have each syllable fully enunciated to fill up the line, "beauteous" counts metrically as two: so in practice it's two syllables, with a slight ripple of a third, where it slides over the Y sound.
I don't think so!
Well, it's an extremely common metrical contraction! While Shakespeare did very occasionally employ unambiguous anapests, there's no reason to suppose this is intended to be a metrical anapest.
A long time ago, I wrote quite a detailed post on the principles of contraction and expansion in Shakespeare's verse: https://versemeter.wordpress.com/2018/04/23/making-the-words-fit-the-meter/
I like this a lot, and your other blog posts, do you make videos?
I haven’t made videos.
I’ve written a fair number of Quora posts, some of which I list on my Quora profile, and of late have engaged in conversations here on Substack.
Here’s a photo of my approach to scansion which I shared while restacking a comment where I linked one of my Quora posts while simultaneously restacking a long comment I made under another account’s substack post! https://substack.com/@snapdragons/note/c-101889426
This might interest you. It certainly interested me to write! https://substack.com/@snapdragons/note/c-100763902?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=9w4rx
I agree with you about that.
Henry - where is the schedule? I'm going to join the next one
https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/shakespeare-schedudle-2025