Presenting Shakespeare to Modern Audiences

How Even the RSC Can Get it Wrong

When it comes to works as timeless and influential as those of William Shakespeare, it is inevitable that adaptations, modernizations and other sorts of reinventions will abound. One of the questions these "rebirths" creates, concerns where to draw the line between revitalization of what has been and the invention of something distinctly new. I would suggest that when a work of art is presented in such a way as to completely undermine or wholly revise the original messages, themes, and ideas communicated by that work of art, the new presentation loses the right to identify itself as the old.

While visiting the United Kingdom, I had the chance to attend two separate performances of Shakespeare. The first was A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe Theatre in London. There are no words to fully describe the experience of seeing Shakespeare performed in such a setting, for there is perhaps no other stage on the world where it comes more alive. The show was magnificent. The humor and intrigue that Shakespeare blends so well were gloriously and honestly present. The energy of the actors was palpable and while the set and costumes were certainly different than those used in Shakespeare's time, they worked well and charmingly. One could almost imagine that a night 1598 had come again.

The second show was a performance of The Taming of the Shrew at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the current home of the Royal Shakespeare Company. While the production was not to be faulted for quality of performance, costume, or set--save perhaps for instances of personal preference--it took all that makes Shrew the drama that it is and systematically, flagrantly and with great enthusiasm, destroyed it. The effect was a disturbingly inhuman and decidedly cruel representation of one of Shakespeare's most human, humorous and, yes, romantic plays. All the meaning and magic was turned upside down and inside out, undermining the most essential themes of Shakespeare's story. Can such a thing truly be called Shakespeare anymore? While a rose by any other name may smell as sweet, a dead fish smells no sweeter for being named a rose.