Shakespeare’s Puppets
by Justin Dormitzer
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been done
so many times that you’d think all variations on it would be done already. This
is not so. The variation that we went to see was very unique. The most
noticeable difference between it and any other production of the play that I
have seen is the giant puppets that were used in the play.
The characters of Titania
and Oberon were just masks held by two actors. Oberon also had a giant mechanical
arm. One instance where having puppets did not work was with Puck. Puck was
made out of a basket as well as other things and was manned by three people
even though it was tiny. This made me focus on the three people controlling
puck instead of the puppet. Since it was purely a puppet it also had no
expression. Because of this the director decided to cut out some of pucks
lines, including his big speech at the end of the play.
Besides this important
character, all of the actors did a very good job representing their characters.
Nick bottom stood out among all of them with his hilarious antics and dramatic
speeches. Overall, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a fantastic twist on a classic
play.
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