Even though the great bard’s plays are praised for their “timelessness”, but can Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream performed using 21st Century motion capture suits?
By: Ringo Bones
After seeing the performance back in March 21, 2021, what immediately captured my attention was that how most of the computer generated avatars that represent the various characters in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream reminds me of Norman Wilkinson’s “dazzle paint job” used on World War I era naval ships. Even though the great bard’s plays has been praised for their “timelessness” since they were first performed back near the end of the 16th Century, does the latest “pandemic evading” performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream a 21st Century “digital visual extravaganza too far”?
Titled Dream, it is an online show by the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed using the latest motion capture suits as the performance occurs in a virtual space that can be accessed via internet connection anywhere in the world. For those who had experienced performing one of Shakespeare’s plays live onstage, one cannot overlook the importance of maintaining eye contact between the performers, not just in maintaining timing, but also to project the pathos and emotion of the play. Even though this newfangled method of performing a live Shakespeare play is due to the ongoing global pandemic as a way to preserve the health of the actors, those with a “traditional” view of Shakespeare commented on how this newfangled digitized Shakespeare resembles a massive multiplayer online gaming event.
Even though the timelessness and the spirit of a live Shakespeare play is more or less preserved this time around, those with a more conservative sensibility that dates back to before World War II may have a harder time getting this “newfangled Shakespeare”. Hopefully, everyone will get vaccinated and as the world get’s back to normal, we will once again enjoy a more “traditional” form of a live Shakespeare play circa 1599.
