Bardfilm: March 2025

Thursday, March 27, 2025

The 2025 Midsummer Night's Dream at the Guthrie Theatre

Midsummer Night’s Dream. Dir. Joseph Haj. Perf. John Catron, Regina Marie Williams, Jimmy Kieffer, William Sturdivant, Ari Derambakhsh, Justin Withers, Jonathan Luke Stevens, Royer Bockus, William Sturdivant, Remy Auberjonois, Max Wojtanowicz, Kimberly Richardson, Dustin Bronson, and Aimee K. Bryant. Guthrie Theatre Company. Minneapolis. 1 February—23 March 2025.

I had hoped to complete this review before the show completed its run, but, thinking it over, it wasn't a production that I would have felt compelled to urge you to see.

That's not to say it was a bad play—just that it had few points of interest or inspiration.

I've seen two other productions of Midsummer Night's Dream at the Guthrie: One in 2008 (for which, q.v.) and one in 2015 (for which, q.v.). Both those productions raised interesting questions and made interesting decisions. They had quite a bit of humor and play—play with the lines and play with the characters.

This production was lacking in those elements. The main interesting choice I remember came in Act I. When Theseus says, "Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?" Hippolyta crossed to Hermia and clasped hands with her before following Theseus off. Later, in Act IV, Theseus again says, "Come, Hippolyta," and then exits with him—much more happily. It's one of the points to watch for in any production; this one was subtle, but it was a clear and interesting decision.

The other memorable part was the play-within-the-play. I'm afraid I need to quote Polonius here: "This is too long." I like a Shakespeare production that keeps the audience from looking at its collective watch, and I'm usually very fond of the Pyramus and Thisbe part. But it seemed like this production made that the focal point of the entire show. What's written as a supplemental plot, one that can usefully underline elements of the main plot, became the main plot toward which the rest of the action seems to build. And its length made it border on the tedious—despite some very funny moment—including Wall breaking into a remarkably soulful and profound song about being a wall.

The sets were beautiful—especially in the woods outside Athens:

All things considered, the production just didn't do much with Midsummer Night's Dream. It wouldn't be fair to say that it's like the production that is underway at the beginning of Slings & Arrows, but it's certainly more in that direction than past productions at the Guthrie.

Links: Information about the show at the Guthrie website.

Friday, March 21, 2025

The 2025 Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company

Hamlet. Dir. Rupert Goold. Perf. Luke Thallon, Jared Harris, Nancy Carroll, Anton Lesser, Elliot Levey, and Nia Towle. Royal Shakespeare Company. Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. Until 29 March 2025; touring in a limited way thereafter.

Finding myself by chance* in the U.K., I decided I would make my way to Stratford-upon-Avon and, after seeing the biographical Shakespeare sites, take in the latest Royal Shakespeare Company Production.

The plot is set on board a ship—not that it's fully realized. We're not told that we're on board the Good Ship Elsinore on route from anywhere to anywhere else. Instead, the setting becomes a metaphor for the Ship of State of Denmark floundering and eventually sinking.

Making this more powerful, the entire elongated rectangle of the stage is on hydraulics, enabling it to tilt up to a pretty astonishing forty-five degrees (at a rough estimate).

Moreover, the stage was generally pretty bare, with two larger hatches surrounded by guardrails at the front and back of the deck of the ship. These led to steep stairway exits and entrances. An image take from by seat before the performance began will illustrate this:

In addition to the two large hatches, there were a number of small square hatches through which actors could enter and exit. These were largely used between scenes by those clearing the stage and setting up something new—or just by those scurrying about in a panic as the ship gets closer to sinking.

The back of the performance space was a screen that often had projected images of a stormy sea (as in the opening image of this post) or portholes (for interior scenes) or vast machinery (for really interior scenes).

All of that made for an absolutely stunning visual experience.

[Spoilers follow.]

But the danger with such a set is that it can become gimmicky. Too much relies upon the staging, and that can make the performances—or the interpretation of the play—take a back seat.

That's almost the case here—but only almost. The actors are tremendous in their roles, but their choices are very nearly superseded by the set.

I'm going to wrap this up quickly by listing some of the most memorable choices the production made so I can post this before the show closes.

Luke Thallon's Hamlet

This Hamlet is genuinely insane most of the time. There are many reasons I'd like to re-watch it, and one of them is to see if he ever says anything about putting on an antic disposition. I don't think he did, but my memory may be unreliable (especially when jet lag and a series of trains from Liverpool are part of the equation). Whether that's there or not, there are many times when he genuinely loses control (I'll mention one a bit later). At other times, he becomes conversational with the audience, genuinely asking us to respond to his question "Am I a coward?" It was very effective.

Nia Towle's Ophelia

This Ophelia is stronger than most. During the play-within-the-play scene, she gives back to Hamlet better than she gets. And when this Polonius treats her like a little girl—still playing the dad games he did when she was six—she is offended.

Burials at Sea

The play opens with Hamlet's father's funeral; his corpse is buried at sea over the back of the stage with military rituals. Then Claudius exits through the downstage set of stairs. At that point, Hamlet is very near the audience with his back to us. The look Claudius give him as he exits was chilling.

Ophelia, too, is buried at sea. I suppose that's one way of dealing with the question of whether she should be buried in "ground unsanctified."

Double-Casting: The Ghost and the First Player

This might have been nothing more than a practical choice, but this Hamlet does more with it. When the First Player shows up, Hamlet loses his mind completely. He thinks he sees his father. Hamlet recovers relatively quickly, but the resonance of that remains.

Gravedigger Scene

When everyone's buried at sea, you don't really need a gravedigger, and you also have some trouble rationalizing the appearance of a skull from many years ago. Here, the First Player is clearing out some theatrical properties—tossing them overboard. And that motivates the scene.

The Willow Speech

Hamlet is rife with images of water and nautical expressions ("About, my brain" springs to mind), and (another spoiler here) Ophelia drowns. But there are no willows or brooks aboard. Again, I wish I could go back to see it again for the details (I can't remember the exact chronology), but Gertrude is, very interestingly, given a modified version of Clarence's speech about dreaming of drowning from Richard III. It's certainly relevant, and it gives insight into Ophelia's possible state of mind as she drowns.

How the Dead Exit

In the final scene, the stage was titled to its full extent; this allowed the corpses to roll off the front of the and (presumably) walk away from there. I don't have much more to say about that, but it's a convenient way to clear an already-sparse stage from the corpses that would otherwise litter it.

The Ghost Who Isn't

In the text of Hamlet, the ghost re-appears in Act III, scene iv (after Polonius' death and a lot of confrontation in the closet). In this production, he doesn't. Hamlet response to the lines the ghost would have spoken, but he delivers those lines into a mirror. It's an interesting choice that adds to our understanding of just how insane this Hamlet is.

There's a lot more to be said about this production, but I do want to let people know about it before it closes. And, should you find yourself in the U.K., go see it—and report back on the places where my own memory is unreliable.

You can also watch a trailer for the production here!

*It was actually thanks to a generous grant from the Faculty Development Committee at the University of Northwestern—St. Paul for a project in which another faculty member and I were able to take three students double-majoring in English and Theatre to Liverpool to work on performing Shakespeare—both individually and with the students of Liverpool Hope University.

Links: The Show at the RSC.

Sunday, March 9, 2025

Love's Labour's Lost at the Shakespeare North Playhouse

Love's Labour's Lost. Adapted by Elizabeth Godber and Nick Lane. Dir. Paul Robinson. Perf. Alice Imelda, David Kirkbridge, Thomas Cotran, Alyce Liburd, Linford Johnson, Annie Kirkman, Jo Patmore, and Timothy Adam Lucas. Produced by Shakespeare North Playhouse and Stephen Joseph Theatre. 7–22 March 2025.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Faculty Development Committee at the University of Northwestern—St. Paul, another faculty member and I were able to take three students double-majoring in English and Theatre to Liverpool to work on performing Shakespeare—both individually and with the students of Liverpool Hope University.

As part of the week's activities, we were able to go to the relatively-new Shakespeare North Playhouse to hear their vision for the theatre and to see their production of Love's Labour's Lost.

The physical theatre is quite remarkable. It's a replica of the Cockpit-in-Court Theatre designed by John Webb, protégé of Inigo Jones. You can find much more fascinating information about the new theatre, its design and construction, and its uses in The Shakespeare North Playhouse: Replica Theatres and their Uses (edited by Tim Keenan, Routledge, 2024).

The vision for the theatre is impressive, and the programs we were told about cover a wide range of activities, both entertaining and educational, that are designed to serve the people of Prescott (the theatre's home) rather than the other way around.

I could say much more about all of that, but I don't want to lose the opportunity to promote the current show at Shakespeare North.

The Love's Labour's Lost we saw has the subtitle (More or Less). It's Shakespearean in its plot and in its fun play with language (much of the dialogue is in rhymed couplets), but it's a loose retelling of Love's Labour's Lost rather than a staging of Shakespeare's words. It also incorporates quite a number of popular songs from the 1980s and 1990s to tell its story.

And it's really quite marvelous and exciting. The eight actors take us on a whirlwind journey with every one of Shakespeare's plot twists (and a few of their own), and we were enthralled from beginning to end.

If you're in the UK, book your tickets now. It's a show well worth seeing—even if you have to travel a distance to do so!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the theatre itself (note the prominent disco ball, please).

Go see the show. You won't regret it!

Bonus: The production has put together a Spotify playlist of the songs they sing (in whole or in part) during the show. When you get to Cher's "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in his Kiss)" imagine our three male leads performing it—each dressed as Cher. If you're undecided or skeptical, that may give you just the push you need to book your tickets!

Links: Shakespeare North Playhouse. Tickets for the performance.

Click below to purchase Tim Keenan's book from Amazon

(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Book Note: Practice

Brown, Rosalind. Practice. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024.

And sometimes, as you're reading your way through the latest Modern Shakespearean Novels, you hit on a real clunker.

This time, it was Rosalind Brown's Practice. This novel is about a graduate student not writing her essay on Shakespeare's sonnets.

That's all.

Well, there are many vivid descriptions of trips to the bathroom, long and confusing fantasy sequences, and miscellanea.

There was some interest in the thoughts of a procrastinating student, but it really doesn't add up to anything worth reading.

And there's not much Shakespeare here, either.

I thought I'd mention it so you can have a more informed decision about reading it than I had.

Click below to purchase the book from amazon.com—
but don't say I didn't warn you—
and to support Bardfilm as you do so.

Friday, March 7, 2025

Book Note: Edward Ruscha: Words without Thoughts Never to Heaven Go

Ruscha, Edward, and Lannan Museum. Edward Ruscha: Words without Thoughts Never to Heaven Go. Lannan Museum, 1988.

I've recently been exploring the vast corpus of work produced by Ed Ruscha. Most of his work involves some sort of connection between words and art. Only Murders in the Building fans may know Ruscha from a print on the wall of Steve Martin's character's apartment: Nice, Hot Vegetables (see below).

Nice, hot vegetables are very nice, but, as you all might suspect, I'm in it for the Shakespeare.

One of Ruscha's projects was to design images for the then-newly-constructed main branch of the Miami-Dade Public Library, particularly the images around its vast rotunda.

Inspiration struck, and Ruscha decided to us a line Claudius speaks in Hamlet:

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. (III.iv.____)

With that starting point, Ruscha seems to have flung himself into a creative frenzy. There are dozens and dozens of preliminary sketches and finished pieces, all of them astounding.

For example, here's what the rotunda looks like: