...what does your presentation on dark readings of midsummer cover if you don't mind my asking, i need to know for science and also theatre reasons
we’re going from othello to midsummer in this class so I'm opening with a half-serious thing about othello-as-comedy and its similarities to midsummer (brabantio in 1.3 vs egeus in 1.1; cyprus as the woods / green world; iago as puck). then to talk about the reverse, midsummer as if not tragedy then at least dark comedy, I have a bit of stage history (which I got from gary jay william’s book our moonlight revels, a really fantastic and readable overview of midsummer’s stage history) starting with the victorian/romantic/mendelssohn-and-ballet midsummer & going to max reinhardt’s 1930s midsummers as a transition point which according to williams were fairly traditional but were the first major productions to bring in some darker touches. then there’s a quote from the chapter on midsummer in jan kott’s shakespeare our contemporary (there is a LOT going on in this chapter beyond this too)
The Dream is the most erotic of Shakespeare’s plays. In no other tragedy, or comedy, of his, except Troilus and Cressida, is the eroticism expressed so brutally.
which influenced peter brook’s very famous 1970 production at the rsc which unusually brought a lot of overt eroticism into the titania-bottom scenes. haven’t gone looking yet but I was thinking about finding some production photos of some darker takes post-brook and being like so that’s where midsummer is at now & because I’m supposed to generate discussion then opening things up 2 the class about where they personally see tension/weight in the text of midsummer
