Sheree Russouw finds that the youth still delight in the works of Shakespeare
If Shakespeare did indeed indulge in dagga, as experts recently suggested, then perhaps that could explain why a beautiful fairy queen falls in love with a hairy donkey in Shakespeare’s hilarious play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The play is currently entrancing schoolchildren, teachers and Shakespeare enthusiasts alike at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Theatre.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is just one of the Bard’s plays that forms school setworks among South Africa’s high schools. Pupils probably question the relevance of studying plays that were written by a dead guy more than 300 years ago. After all, Shakespeare’s works are not really renowned for their easy reading.
However, this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed by Wits’s dramatic arts students, aims to change young learners perceptions of Shakespeare’s works as being merely stale and incomprehensible. Rather, this production seeks to entice young learners to become ‘excited’ about the Bard’s literary legacy.
Seemingly, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the ideal play through which to achieve this because not only is it interesting, but it’s also funny and light entertainment. Evidence of just how amusing the play is was seen at the opening night on April 18. Theatre seats were jam-packed with curious high school pupils, eager to see this modernised, local production of the play.
Soon enough, loud whistles and cheers reveberated throughout the theatre, particularly at the anctics of the zealous and overly-enthusiastic Nick Bottom, superbly played by Lebo Mokomele, a third year dramatic arts student at Wits. It is Bottom who is transformed from a human being into a hair-ridden ass by the bewitching of Puck, the arch of the forest fairies who sprinkles bewitching pansy juice on Bottom’s tongue.
Similarily, the faces of the young audience lit up in illuminating grins at the lovestruck but shunned Helena, whose funky pigtails and hip purple clothing immediately made her an ordinary girl with an unordinary ‘crush’. The slithering tongues of the scantily-clad elves and fairies drew smiles and even a countanance of horror from some spectators.
”Of course the way that Shakespearian language is written is not immediately understandable, especially to high school-going students. But, we’ve discovered that it’s still a great comedy and the themes are definitely modern and applicable today,” says Greg Homann, a third-year dramatic arts student who plays the part of the suave love-smitten Lysander. He adds that he believes that teenagers can definitely relate to A Midsummer Night’s Dream ‘as they know what it’s like to fall in love one day and straight out of love the next day’.
The play forms part of the second year of the FNB/Wits School of Arts Shakespeare Festival which anticipates that high school pupils will begin to foster a love and passion for Shakespeare’s multitude of sonnets and plays.
Homann is also the manager of the school workshops sponsored by FNB VITA whichtravel to schools based as far afield as Soweto and Potchefstroom. At the workshops, hour-long studies on works like Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are conducted in order to increase the understanding of the text and emotion associated with the Bard’s plays. For example, the intricate and boggling plot of King Lear is adapted to the Cape Flats.
Director Malcom Purkey has deliberately sought out an ‘African’ theme with this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is reflected in the costume and stage design which is influenced by the garb of West Africa and the music which also has a distinct African rhythm.
Purkey, head of the department of of drama at Wits, is celebrated for transforming plays, even if they are of European origin, into a unique African context and thus ensuring that the production is relative and accessible to a local audience. His production of Romeo & Juliet during 2000 drew large crowds of high school pupils.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, May 2001.
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