While I am a person who enjoys being right, I won't gloat...most of the time. In this case, and in my opinion, I found that seeing Shakespeare live was easier to understand, more endearing, funnier, and genuinely more enjoyable. While reading Shakespeare's comedies, I consistently thought the humor was difficult to pick up, unless it was physical comedy, simply because so much relies on the actors delivery. Ergo, one of the most exciting aspects of seeing it performed is the comedy induced! Both physical and verbal comedy were portrayed, while seamlessly intertwined with ominous drama the way Shakespeare did so well.
Stepping into The Globe itself provides an electric sense within the audience, whether be sitting in the pews or among the Groundlings (standing audience members in the very front). With a mix of locals, tourists, and authentic Shakespeare lovers, it was difficult to tell how receptacle the audience would be.
With only a few tolls of a bell to signify the show beginning shortly, three actors quickly advanced onto the ornate stage. Immediately noticeable were the costumes. Quite confusing to see initially, was the mixture of period and modern clothing. One wore a modern business suit, another wore Renaissance-age pantaloons. Only after watching a decent amount of the performance was I able to recognize the purposeful distinction. The characters from the city of Sicily were adorned in period clothing, while the characters from Bohemia dressed modernly. This was an interesting choice but one I disagreed with. I would have preferred one or the other rather than a combination. In fact, I think I would have entirely preferred the modern dress for the while cast because of the situational comedy that came with some of the costumes. For example, when Autolycus switches clothing with Florizel, making Florizel look quite ridiculous with cutoff jean shorts that would only have been able to be included with those characters wearing modern clothing. Or even something as small as the disguises worn by Polixenes and Camillo to spy on Florizel and Perdita, resulted in positive audience response.
A particular scene I was hopefully anticipating was one of Shakespeare's most famously written exit cues involving a bear. After placing baby Perdita in her little basket by the river, Antigonus gets attacked and eaten by a bear. I really wanted this to be creative. But alas, it was confusing and I can't even imagine what those who weren't familiar with the story thought. As Antigonus ran off stage, a large poster of a bear flopped down over center stage. Disappointing. It was only a picture! To further confuse things, other set pieces fell from the fly space (two cross shaped things with some sort of spikes at the top)? Formed as a question because I truly don't know what they were or what any of it meant. I left it to the assumption of accidental set malfunction. The picture of the bear also seemed to have tape or some sort of yellow lines strewn across it. As you can tell, this was an overall very confusing scene to watch. The first act concluded.
After this frustrating scene, the second act produced much less confusion. In fact, I found this portion of the play to be the most charming. While act one portrayed the darker side of the plot, with Mamillius's death, Hemione's death, and the casting away of baby Perdita, act two was much more lighthearted. While I may have had some logistical disagreements with the production, I was very pleased with the cast. I thought they preformed wonderfully and were cast very well as their characters. Will Keen, playing Leontes, convincingly depicted his character as a man going mad. I appreciated this take on the character since I felt it provided a necessary context behind Leontes insane accusations against his wife and queen, Hermione. However, no part of me felt sympathetic for his character and did not understand Hermione's motives for embracing him to willingly at the end of the play. Despite this, Priyanga Buford, cast as Hermione, gave an emotional and powerful delivery of Hermione's plead of innocence in court.
To my surprise, there was one character portrayed so well, that I liked this character better after seeing this production. This character being Paulina, played by Sirine Saba. She was commanding on the stage, a powerful woman figure of the play, and comedic when appropriate. I also found myself genuinely appreciating the chemistry between the actors playing Florizel and Perdita. Their little and subtle romantic exchanges were believable and honestly quite cute. I've found that sometimes it can be awkward to watch two people be romantic theatrically, and I'm sure many can relate to this feeling.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this play. It was a delightful one to see as my first Shakespeare performance, leaving me with a resounding feeling of knowing I had witnessed a whole cast of actors who had fun with their work. As the final scene came to a close, music began and the character Paulina began to clap to the music first. After, others joined from off stage until they were all on stage dancing and clapping and really just having a good time. I thought this was a fun lighthearted way to end the production, especially since the play does have a cheerful conclusive ending. Obviously, this dance number was not something included within the original Shakespeare play, but throughout the rest of the production, the original script was followed very traditionally with the exception of a slight remark to the audience here and there to continue the humorous atmosphere of the story.
Being fortunate enough to witness a production performance within a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me for a plethora of reasons, making it that more difficult to know I will have to wait until Friday to see what's in store for another show.
