This generally goes for Shakespeare more than other playwrights. Apparently directors feel as though, since the play has been put on for a few centuries, they must do something "new" and "different."
Usually this seems to involve grit and poor lighting. And a Iago who talks into a barrel very quickly the whole time, so that you have no idea what he's saying. Also as much nudity as possible.
Why would you do this to the Bard? What has he ever done to you?
Modern dress doesn't bother me. Victorian dress doesn't bother me. What bothers me is inscrutably insane theatrical choices that make the play difficult to watch. Come on, people. Your pretentious artiness is making everyone else miserable.
3 comments:
um...Twelfth Night with gimp suits, an orgy scene, Sir Toby doing cocaine while dressed as the Penguin, Olivia as a Goth...I regret ever being conned into that one. It also gave me leprosy. I support changes made that fit or intelligent interpretation choices. I do not under any circumstances support gimp suits.
I once saw a homosexual interpretation of the Merchant of Venice, in Spanish, directed by German minimalists. They eliminated the intermission so people couldn't leave. It was ghastly.
You have finally hit one of my greatest pet peeves. I remember being sad that my one experience at The Globe was a version of Macbeth where the witches wore those glasses with fake eyes on springs. They also threw feathers around stage and fought by holding onto rocks. I don't have that much of an issue with something that makes a little sense, but I was in a class that met with the director afterwards, and he couldn't even explain what the feathers were doing there.
However, I was even sadder when McCarter had a version of Hamlet my junior year that ended up killing the wrong people at the end.
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