Week 5 Question -SHAKESPEARE TODAY

QUESTION:

Analyse contemporary Shakespeare productions with reference to live performances you may have seen or clips or footage available online. You should comment on what you notice about them and how they differ from what you know about the original performance conditions of Shakespeare’s work?
Consider how these productions are employing all the techniques, technology and resources of modern theatre.

Recently I have seen two contemporary Shakespeare productions which were Twelfth Night directed by Simon Godwin and Taming of the Shrew directed by Jacqueline Defferary.

One of the first things I noticed was that there were female actors in both of these plays which is something that would be shocking to a Shakespearean audience. This is because women weren't allowed to act in theatres therefore men would play the female parts. If contemporary audiences were to see a theatre where all the parts were played by men and it didn't fit the context then I feel there would definitely be a negative response from the audience and confusion among them to why all the parts where played by men.

I also noticed,especially in Twelfth Night that the music played throughout was music that we hear today. It was interesting as well how they used the music in Twelfth Night like for instance one character in Twelfth Night sang Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' speech and also how in one of the scenes instead of singing the lyric 'We need some more boys in here' instead they sang 'We need some more girls in here' which created humor for the audience. Furthermore, in Taming of the Shrew, all the characters sang 'Price Tag' by Jessie J close to the end of the play. This is clearly different to how they used music in Shakespearean theatres as they didn't obviously didn't include obvious songs but instead mostly played instruments whilst the action of the play was going on.

The use of lighting and technology was definitely evident in Twelfth Night at the National as lighting was used to emphasise a scene change,a dramatic moment etc. this was different in Shakespearean theatre because lighting wasn't used because the actors would rely on natural light for their performances.

In Twelfth Night the set was extraordinary and so detailed which I believe helped create the atmosphere the actors wanted to create for us as an audience. One example of this was when there was a Jacuzzi in one of the scenes which the actors used as part of their performance. I feel at times however the set was too much and even though it added to the action taking place it also slightly took away from it as at times I would focus more on the set than the actors.

Having a detailed set in Shakespeare's time,was seen as nonsense to Shakespearean audiences. Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights wrote in a way that encouraged the audience to imagine the sets.