Stratford Shakespeare Festival Opens New Season

Disney World may be the happiest place on earth, but my happy place is Stratford, Ontario, home of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The season opened this weekend with plenty of fanfare and a preview performance of As You Like It. Other Shakespeare plays this season include The Tempest (starring Christopher Plummer), Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Winter's Tale, as well as Kiss Me, Kate, a musical adaptation of Taming of the Shrew.

For those of you in the Midwest, a trip to Stratford is easily accomplished in a long weekend. It's an eight-hour drive from Indy (depending on how long you spend at the border), so you can leave on Friday morning, have a leisurely dinner at one of the town's fantastic restaurants, and then catch the 8 p.m. show. You can see two more shows -- at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. -- on Saturday, and then head home Sunday (if you must).

I'm going to Stratford twice this summer, once by myself in July and once in August with several friends. Every time I bring someone new to Stratford, that person falls head over heels in love with the gourmet restaurants, funky shops, beautiful landscapes, and of course outstanding theater. Here, in the middle of rural Ontario, is a town that lives and breathes Shakespeare.

Plus, it's named Stratford, and it's on the river Avon, and it's just north of London. But in Canada. It's really sort of funny.

For more info on this summer's season, visit the festival's website or check out this article from the Canwest News Service.

Upcoming Show: As You Like It

My usual frenzy of summer Shakespeare trips is about to begin. First up: a free performance of As You Like It at the Garfield Park Arts Center. Care to join me? The show is at 7 p.m., June 18, and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., June 19. Tickets are free, but reservations are required: (317) 327-7135.

Side note: This is the first of four times I'll be seeing As You Like It this summer. I'll also be seeing the Tempest three times. Last year, it was Comedy of Errors that I saw three times. Do the Shakespeare gods have some kind of pow-wow and agree on the same shows?

This Week's Reading Assignment

Drum roll, please: Your reading assignment for next week is ... Comedy of Errors, one of the Bard's earliest plays, which came in second in last week's reader poll. Your deadline: noon on Sunday, June 13. Happy reading!

Discussion: A Midsummer Night's Dream

The play: A Midsummer Night's Dream

The plot tweet: Theseus marries his war-won bride; fairy royals fight over a child; four lovers get very mixed up. Puck causes trouble, but all ends well.

My favorite line: "If we shadows have offended, / think but this, and all is mended: / That you have but slumb'red here, / while these visions did appear."

---

Whenever I read or see Midsummer, I feel a bit overwhelmed: There is so much going on. Theseus and Hippolyta are planning their wedding (and thus creating the framing device of the play), the four Athenian lovers are running amok in the woods, the fairy king and queen are fighting, Puck is causing trouble, the "rude mechanicals" are rehearsing their play for the wedding ... Is there any other Shakespeare play with so many threads of plot? The effect, for me, is of chaos just barely contained.

When I studied the play in college, my professor (the late Albert Wertheim) started the lecture by telling us to pay attention to eyes and visual imagery in the play. Hermia wails, "Oh, hell! To choose love by another's eyes," and Helena complains of Hermia's "blessed and attractive eyes." And, of course, the love potion used on Titania and the Athenian lovers is applied to the eyes. The message, it seems, is that -- at least in matters of love -- the senses are not to be trusted. As Theseus says, "Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends."

In fact, what can the characters of Midsummer trust? Certainly not their emotions or the strength of their relationships. Even their own identities are changeable, as Puck's transformation of Bottom clearly demonstrates. The chaos creates ample opportunities for side-splitting humor, but it is tinged with darkness and an edge of unease. The chaos is controlled, but just barely -- we are so close to the abyss of tragedy. The play within the play, the story of Pyramus and Thisby, reminds us that the descent into tragedy requires only the simplest error.

I have seen Midsummer performed five times in recent years. The funniest, by far, was last summer's performance at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, where the four lovers ended up chasing each other around the stage in their underwear (and the play was set, rather oddly, in Athens, Georgia -- complete with thick Southern accents). By contrast, the darkest performance I've seen was at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where the fairies were presented as a sort of leather-and-lace motorcycle gang.

For me, this is always the central question of the play: How do we interpret the fairies, and Puck in particular? Is he simply mischievous or actively malevolent? The character can be played either way successfully, and I never can decide on my own interpretation. If the play is about barely contained chaos, however, it seems clear that Puck is the embodiment of that chaos. By forcing Puck to correct his errors, Oberon is the normalizing force that prevents the slapstick comedy from veering into tragedy.

The play contains two other characters I find especially interesting. One is Hippolyta, whose characterization is vague and who speaks only a few lines. How does she feel about her future husband and forced marriage? We get the sense that she disapproves of Theseus' harsh judgment of Hermia in the play's first scene, but we know little more. I'd love to see a novelization of her side of the story.

The other character I enjoy is, of course, Bottom. In Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom suggests that Bottom is the comedic precursor for Falstaff, and I would agree with him if only I didn't detest Falstaff. Bottom is unquestionably ridiculous, but he is impervious to the chaos around him and utters some of the wisest lines in the play. If he were human, he'd be the crazy uncle that everyone rolls their eyes at but always invites to dinner.

What do you think of Bottom? And what are your overall impressions of the play? What's your favorite line? You know what I think -- now it's your turn. Post your comments, and let's get the discussion started!

Expanding Your Collection: Which Shakespeare to Buy?

Yesterday, a reader asked me to recommend a publisher or text for Shakespeare's plays. My short answer was, "I like the Arden series," but the real answer is: It depends.

Question one: Do you want a massive "Complete Works of Shakespeare" text, or do you prefer individual plays? The complete works typically include the sonnets and other poems, so you get a bit more for your money. But, logistically speaking, they're difficult to read and too heavy to pop into your purse. The paper tends to be thin, which doesn't work well for people who like to highlight, underline and make notes.

If you do want a complete Shakespeare tome, opt for the gold-standard Riverside Shakespeare ($100 from Amazon) or the cheaper Arden paperback ($26).

Looking for individual plays? Again, it's a matter of preference. In college, I used both the Signet Classic versions ($5) and the Arden versions (third series, $7-15), and I strongly prefer the Arden plays. For me, it's less about the supplementary material and more about the book's construction; the Arden plays have glossier paper that holds up better to my copious note-making. This is, incidentally, why I can't recommend the Norton Critical Editions; the bindings are terrible.

The Folger Shakespeare Library has also issued a series of the plays. I don't have any, but they're probably worth checking out (and they're a bit cheaper, too).

Don't have a single penny to spare? Try one of the free online Shakespeare collections, such as this one offered by MIT. I'd rather gouge my eyes out than try to read an entire play online, but it's not a bad option if you need, say, Venus and Adonis.

20 Things You Never Knew About Shakespeare

What is Shakespeare's most over-rated play? How did he spend his money? Those and other questions are answered in this article from the Times of London. My favorite question: "Why are Shakespeare's jokes so bad?"

Meanwhile, how is your reading of Midsummer going? Last summer, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival did a version in which everyone spoke in heavy Southern accents. It was hilarious, but now those accents are banging around in my brain as I read the play. Very strange!

Day 1 of the Shakespeare in a Year Challenge

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! The Shakespeare in a Year Challenge begins today with the play you selected, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Remember, you have until Sunday to read the play. At noon that day, I'll post some thoughts and questions to get the discussion started. I can't wait to read your comments and monitor the debates!

Thus begins our great Shakespearean adventure. As Rudyard Kipling wrote, "Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges -- something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"