âA Midsummer Nightâs Dreamâ Onstage. A Nightmare Off It.
Shakespeareâs Globe survived Elizabethan plagues. Todayâs version got through the coronavirus pandemic, but tough times lie ahead.
Instead of audience members standing and watching as âgroundlings,â Shakespeareâs Globe has installed portable seats in the pit.Credit.Adama Jalloh for The New York Times
May 27, 2021, 9:40 a.m. ET
LONDON â At the Globe theater in London one recent Thursday was a sight Shakespeare could have related to: 11 actors larking about onstage rehearsing âA Midsummer Nightâs Dreamâ while beneath them stood the director Sean Holmes, looking furious.
âListen please, everyone,â Holmes said. âCan we do the scene again, even if itâs a bit of a car crash?â
Thu 27 May 2021 18.15 EDT
A donkey-shaped piñata dangles above the stage. Itâs a decent metaphor for this playâs colourful, sweet-centred festivities amid destruction. A Midsummer Nightâs Dream chimes with lockdown nightmares of confinement and separated lovers, the discombobulation of a world turned upside down and climate chaos. But the Globe throws a party instead, reviving Sean Holmesâs ebullient 2019 Dream, vibrantly designed by Jean Chan, as the venue reopens for the first time since the pandemic hit.
Nicholas Hytner, Dominic Hill and Joe Hill-Gibbins have all recently drawn out the playâs more troubling aspects; here we have bright bursts of dance, brass musicians (from Hackney Colliery Band) who are partial to blasts of Jimi Hendrix, and goody-bag props including bubble guns, water pistols and starry headbands. Itâs a fun night, lovably silly with some smart surprises, but doesnât spin that difficult, delicate web required to let this e
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