Unusual settings for live Shakespeare productions

Cafe Society
1

I love Shakespeare. And let me preface this by saying I have seen a “traditional” Elizabethan-costumed production only once - Richard III, but even that was tweaked quite a bit. I would love to see another ‘traditional-dress’ production, but directors have this thing about setting his works elsewhere/elsetime.

I have seen:

Romeo and Juliet -

  • 1850s pre-Civil War Louisiana
  • 1860 Civil War (North vs. South)
  • 1920’s Chicago gangster families

Twelfth Night

  • Caribbean island (lots of pastel pinks and blues, and Bermuda shorts)

The Taming of the Shrew

  • 1870’s Wild West
  • traveling Italian commedia d’ella arte as a play within the play

The Comedy of Errors

  • 1970’s disco era
  • Mediterranian (lots of Greek and Turkish influences)

Henry V

  • bombed out theatre during the London blitz - various ‘characters’ (nurse, air raid warden, spies, civillians) take shelter during a raid, find scripts and props and put on the play to pass the time - no extra dialogue: this was my favorite

Titus Andronicus

  • post-nuclear “New” Rome - the Andronicus clan dressed in beige camo, the emperor in Brooks Brothers three piece suits, and the Goths were, well, Goths.

Love’s Labor’s Lost

  • 1910’s upper class elegance - bustles and seersucker

As You Like It

  • early 1970’s counter-culture (hippies vs. Nixon administration)

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

  • 1950’s malt shop

The Merchant of Venice

  • senior year of high school

Hamlet

  • Goth

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

  • British colonial Injah! (Oberon was a blue Hindu god, Tatania was in a sari, and the guys were in a British regiment) - my second favorite

And the oddest one:

Richard III

  • in black leather.

(Richard wore a black leather jacket and motorcycle boots, Anne’s black leather dress cleavage went from shoulder to navel, and she wore a studded dog-collar, and in the big battle scene, one side had mirrored sunglasses and the other used trash can lids for shields, so you could tell one side from the other. Saw this in 1980, and it sticks as the weirdest one I’ve seen.)

So after all that, what times or settings have YOU seen Shakespeare’s plays done in?

2

Let’s see now…I’ve seen a lot of Shakespeare, and relatively few in traditional dress, though most productions I’ve seen of the histories have had costumes that were intended to evoke fifteenth-century dress without replicating it. In particular, the productions of the histories I’ve seen in Stratford, Ontario have had odd mixes of costumes – last year’s Henry IV had a very traditional Falstaff, but King Henry had a nineteenth-century-ish coat and Hal wore a leather jacket. The RSC’s production of the Henry VI/Richard III cycle last year (which was just brilliant – best stage production I’ve ever seen) had a similar style, though with less obvious anachronisms.

Anyway, from what I can remember…

Romeo and Juliet set in the Caribbean in what I think was supposed to be the eighteenth or more likely the nineteenth centuries. R&J actually weren’t an interracial couple, which was what I’d expected when I first learned of the setting.

Much Ado About Nothing in 1920s Italy (the men came in at the beginning singing “Hinky Dinky Parlez-Vous”), and at a Florida beach resort in the 1990s.

The Merchant of Venice in late 20s-early 30s Italy, i.e. when fascism was on the rise (this was Trevor Nunn’s brilliant production from a couple of years ago)

The Tempest – twice in generic 20th-century dress, and once in 19th-century dress

Richard II in 20th-century England. Bolingbroke and Mowbray were going to duel with guns (lending a really scary sense of urgency to the opening scenes) which necessitated a bit of dialogue revision.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream in generic modern dress. The fairies appeared to be rather punkish (Oberon had a mohawk, though it wasn’t a real one), and the mechanicals wore overalls, union jackets, and whatnot.

Hamlet in Regency costumes (I think that’s the right period? My sister and I suspected they were reusing the costumes from the previous year’s production of Pride and Prejudice. ;)) and one with everyone in generic modern dress – the whole cast wore black, and Hamlet (both Hamlets – long story) wore Matrix-esque vinyl.

King Lear in 19th-century dress.

BTW, while we’re on the subject, I’d love to see Measure for Measure done either in a Roaring Twenties or Weimar Berlin setting…

Oh, and in the Civil War R&J, which side was North and which South? (I’m guessing that the Capulets were the Southerners, because that’s how I’d do it if I were staging the production…) It’s always interesting to see which family is associated with which side in relocated productions…

3

When I was younger, I went to theater camp during the summer. One year we did The Tempest and we did it basically in 20th century dress like has already mentioned. We even brought two tons of sand into the theater to make our own little beach. :slight_smile: (Sadly, I was noone of importance - some stupid fairy or something.)

4

Very interesting lists. The best Shakespeare performance I’ve seen: Twelfth Night: last month at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre in London. Traditional. All male cast. Wonderful performance.

5

Violet - a friend has a Henry V cast poster (either from RSC or Globe - some company in England) - all male cast. Cool poster, wouldn’t sell it to me.

IIRC, the Capulets were the Southerns in the Civil War edition.

In the Louisiana edition, the Capulets were the white plantation family and the Montagues were the Cajun family. And the apothacary was changed to a voodo queen/swamp witch. Rather an interesting twist.

The cool part was the masked ball scene: all the women’s costumes were bird-themed (Mrs. Capulet’s blue-green dress a long train of embroidered and real peacock feathers, and Juliet’s was white feathers, but her skirt had an ornate cage motif over it - pretty cool and symbolic), and all the men were Grecian gods and heros (Mr. Capulet was Zeus, if I remember right, and Tybalt was Hercules, and Paris made an appearance as Apollo milling around in the background, just to add to the scene. Huge stage, had to fill it up with people.).

6

Macbeth in a post-nuclear holocost setting (a sort of Mad Mac in Scotlanddome or something). A very good show, it made the villany and slaughter seem very in place and believable.

King Lear in a traditional African setting. The concept, costumes and setting were great. It was too bad the acting did not live up to them.

A Comedy of Errors in child-like play suits (I think they are called ‘rompers’). The costumes really worked. They created a fun non-time to the play and they accented the similarities of the different twins. It was great fun and a well-done production.

Romeo and Juliet 1940s styles (zoot suits and all) and music backgrounds with Hispanics as Capulets and Anglos as Montagues. It also worked very well.

Merchant of Venice in modern tuxes and formals. It let the girls be very feminine in their female personas (the two featured women wore formal minis for these parts) while the tuxes allowed them to butch up and still look classy. The costumes worked very well for them, but I felt the Shylock character was shorted a bit. The actor playing him did a great job, but could have been physically separated more in regard to dress.

Richard III in modern dress. I remember nothing about this other than it was in modern dress. It couldn’t have been very good to be that forgetable.

7

The Shakespeare Theater in Washington DC does a wonderful, hilarious version of The Merry Wives of Windsor set in a 1950s vacation resort.

They also do one of my favorite productions of Midsummer Night’s Dream, set in the 1890s: most of the cast assumes double roles, so that Theseus becomes Oberon, the footman turns into Puck, and the stiffly mannered lords and ladies of the Athenian court strip off their high collars and tight corsets to become the fairies in brightly colored, loose-flowing garments.

8

I’ve seen a Macbeth that was a leatherclad performance starting nothing but women. Rather interesting, minimalistic set. Really odd.

I’ve also seen a performance of A Midsummer’s Night Dream where the set was a lot of metal posts drapped with white sheets. Different areas would raise or lower depending on location, and the faeries all wore similar white garments to blend in with the scenery. Again, rather minimalistic, but really cool.

9

Our local Shakespeare productions haven’t been nearly so experimental. The only one really set out of time was The Merry Wives of Winsor which was moved to a reconstructionist South setting. The theater company did a fine job (these people always did with Shakespeare) but I didn’t think the change in setting added anything to the play.

10

I’m pretty sure it’s from the Globe. Why? Because I’ve got the same one hanging on my wall. :wink:

And no, I’m not selling it either. Sorry. :slight_smile:

(I didn’t see the production, though – I bought it in the Globe gift shop when I was there a couple of years ago. Alas, I didn’t get to see anything there, except for a very neat bit of a Hamlet rehearsal, because their season hadn’t started. :()

I get the impression, and correct me if I’m wrong, that they do a production every year that’s very traditional, with an all-male cast, and the rest of the schedule is less traditional…

11

Ones that stick out are:

Titus Andronicus as a play within a play in war-torn Bosnia.

A modern day Twelfth Night in which Malvolio ended up in yellow bike shorts.

And one of my favorite shows ever was Midsummer Nights Dream in the 50s. The mechanicals were construction workers, the fairies looked like the T-Birds & Pink Ladies, and they added 50s songs to the mix - Puck sang “Why do fools fall in love.” After the “the course of true love never did run smooth” dialogue, Hermia did “Why must I be a teenager in love?” And Helena sang “I will follow him” during her trek through the woods. & so on. It worked. Really, it did.

12

Midsummer Night’s Dream, done 1920’s style.

I had the honour of costuming the damned thing. And sewing lots and lots of fringe. (The fairies were the exaggerated 20’s- fringe, feathers, beads and sequins. The lovers, etc, were dressed much more reasonably)
Cyn

13

I saw a production of Julius Caesar as a 1930s era communists versus labor leaders (JC being a union boss) story. It worked well, IMHO.

14

I saw that one too! It really was wonderful, and Mark Rylance was the [CMB]Best. Olivia. Ever.[/CMB] I saw his photo (in costume) on the cover the the free London theatre guide ahead of time and thought that he was too old for the role and nowhere near pretty enough, but he was so good that it didn’t matter – I cannot even imagine anyone else doing a better job of it.

Before I left London I also managed to catch the opening of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe, which had an interesting setting. The set was futons and pillows, the costumes bathrobes and pajamas, all in shades of blue and green. The majority of the cast were in double roles as mortals and members of the fairy court. Fairies were distinguished by the little silver lights (I believe they were actually “fairy lights”!) on their costumes – the actors had some sort of wristband device to turn the lights on and off and so change between their two characters. Most unusually, all of the props were things that might be found in a modern bedroom or bathroom – for instance, the men’s swords were cordless phones with the antennae extended, the magical flower was made of Kleenex, and Bottom’s donkey ears were a pair of slippers tied to his head.

15

A Midsummer Night’s Slumber Party, eh?

I sorta like that… :wink:

16

I’ve seen several Shakespeare plays in film versions, including **Othello, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,**and King Lear, but I’ve only seen three live productions, and all of them were in traditional period costume. The first was Macbeth, in a summer Shakespeare in the Park presentation on an outdoor stage at Farnsworth Park in Altadena, CA. It starred, of all people, Ron (Superfly) O’neal, who gave, I must say, a creditable and completely believable performance (once you got past his “Superfly” image. The next was in the same place, a production of A Comedy of Errors. Lastly, I saw Macbeth again, this time at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and starring Charleton Heston and Vanessa Redgrave. That was really excellent.

I’m afraid my education in Shakespeare is rather limited.

17

I’ve seen Much Ado about Nothing as both a Cowboy melodrama and set in the Roaring 20’s.
both starred Mrs. Z as Hero!
She was also going to be in The Tempest done ala "Forbidden Planet’ 50’s camp sci-fi but the production alas did not go up.

18

The Montana Shakespeare in the Parks group is always playing around with unconventional settings. The ones that stick in my mind most clearly are Two Gentlemen of Verona in the Roaring '20s (Emperor Alexander’s Court was a band, and they sprinkled in Irving Berlin songs), and The Tempest in a feudal Japanese setting, which worked remarkably well, but I’m not sure I can do justice in the description.

I also once saw a production of the Scottish play in a weird, pseudo-modern setting, with minimal set: Swords were mops and brooms, stored in a garbage can on stage, the banquet was Ramen noodles and Tastycake donuts (re-used as Eye of Newt etc. in the next scene), etc. Even though they had a woman as the King, and a man as one of the Weird Sisters (a sniveling Igor type) , they didn’t change any of the pronouns or other dialog.

19

Midsummer Night’s Dream in a Dr. Seuss-like environment. Great set decorations and costumes. This was in a small theater in L.A. in the late 1980s.

In the mid 1980s at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-Upon-Avon), I saw ** Romeo and Juliet** set in a “Miami Vice” universe: lots of white jackets with pastel shirts. You could call it a “contemporary” staging, since that’s what was hot in the mid 1980s.

20

I’ve seen too many to count (e.g., The Merchant of Venice set in the middle of the Great Depression). My most interesting contribution to this thread is that I’ve performed in several “alternate setting” versions of the plays.

Macbeth. A post-apocalyptic world, with leather, handguns, spikes, and so on. Sort of a mediocre show (I had a small part); the best element was the music. Imagine “double double toil and trouble” sung as a heavy rave tune.

As You Like It. Just as in screech-owl’s OP, this was a 1967 summer-of-love hippie version, with the city folks in suits. I take credit for being the funniest part of the show (which doesn’t happen very often); I played Touchstone as an unapologetic retro beatnik type, complete with fedora and bongos.

Midsummer Night’s Dream. Modern dress, with an emphasis on a “corporation” look. In other words, Oberon and Tatania were supposed to be the CEOs of their companies, with Oberon initiating a hostile takeover. In addition to playing a small role, I composed the score, using a lot of synthesizers and catchy melodies to suggest industrial or training video music. It came off kind of weird, since we were doing it in an outdoor stage, surrounded by old-growth forest. Like most of these alternate versions, the play worked best when the “concept” was left behind, and the lovers and mechanicals were allowed to run around like idiots.