Captain Jean-Luc Picard inspires Shakespeare memories for Ann Arbor Audiences
Alicen Spaulding, Ross Partner
Issue date: 12/4/06 Section: Features
I began by weaving my way through performances, lectures, and panels and was instantly struck by the overwhelming turn out at the events surrounding the residency. Tickets were in such high demand for the plays I almost started picketing out in front of Power Center and at one panel discussion I was even turned away due to an overflowing room!
Fortuitously, I secured play tickets and I was off. "The Tempest" opened with a bang, transferring us to the heart of a storm and abandoning us not on a tropical isle, as is commonly the stage for the play, but to a deserted island in the artic. It was a bold choice and one that made every line said by the characters about wanting to get off the island all the more meaningful (if they were in the Caribbean would they really want to leave? I don't think so). The starkness of the setting only made the emotions of the characters more vivid- Prospero in a rage over how to avenge his forced exile to the island, Miranda his daughter in a daze of love over only the third man she's ever seen and two of the strangest characters Shakespeare ever created: Ariel (a spirit?) and Caliban (a slave?), both of whom were acted in ways that expressed an amazing range of emotions for such difficult parts. Patrick Stewart was poignant in his journey from a scorned, vengeful king, to a magnanimous, forgiving pariah.
In "Antony and Cleopatra", our senses were attacked by more than 30 scene changes, the play shifting us from Egypt to Rome and back again. Simultaneous battles between armies and fiercely independent lovers put in relief the characteristically tragic failure of two Shakespeare characters to find lasting love. I felt empowered and weakened at the same by Cleopatra and left feeling confused by what their love was supposed to mean after all the blood and death.
"Julius Caesar", for whom the last night of the residency marked the production's final performance of the play after a two and a half year run, was a bold and bloody presentation. After stabbing Caesar "three and thirty times" the director leaves the killers in their white robes doused in blood and has Caesar reappear at various points throughout the rest of the play. And when Cassius exclaims, blood of Caesar still wet on his hands:
Fortuitously, I secured play tickets and I was off. "The Tempest" opened with a bang, transferring us to the heart of a storm and abandoning us not on a tropical isle, as is commonly the stage for the play, but to a deserted island in the artic. It was a bold choice and one that made every line said by the characters about wanting to get off the island all the more meaningful (if they were in the Caribbean would they really want to leave? I don't think so). The starkness of the setting only made the emotions of the characters more vivid- Prospero in a rage over how to avenge his forced exile to the island, Miranda his daughter in a daze of love over only the third man she's ever seen and two of the strangest characters Shakespeare ever created: Ariel (a spirit?) and Caliban (a slave?), both of whom were acted in ways that expressed an amazing range of emotions for such difficult parts. Patrick Stewart was poignant in his journey from a scorned, vengeful king, to a magnanimous, forgiving pariah.
In "Antony and Cleopatra", our senses were attacked by more than 30 scene changes, the play shifting us from Egypt to Rome and back again. Simultaneous battles between armies and fiercely independent lovers put in relief the characteristically tragic failure of two Shakespeare characters to find lasting love. I felt empowered and weakened at the same by Cleopatra and left feeling confused by what their love was supposed to mean after all the blood and death.
"Julius Caesar", for whom the last night of the residency marked the production's final performance of the play after a two and a half year run, was a bold and bloody presentation. After stabbing Caesar "three and thirty times" the director leaves the killers in their white robes doused in blood and has Caesar reappear at various points throughout the rest of the play. And when Cassius exclaims, blood of Caesar still wet on his hands:
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timbrooks
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posted 2/18/10 @ 5:00 AM EST
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