Well, the show has officially opened, and I’m back in Gambier. The previews and opening were fascinating. After the first preview, it became clear that–though we were doing some things well–we weren’t telling the beginning of the story very well. I had pushed too hard with the initial tensions between Theseus and Hippolyta, and had not created a significant enough intrusion with the arrival of Egeus, Hermia, and Hermia’s suitors. In rehearsal the next day, the actors were astonishingly responsive and adaptable to the changes we made–always a good sign that the change needed to be made. As we continued through the previews and opening, I was pleased by how much of the show fell into place. It became clear that the audiences got real pleasure from seeing the rapidity of the actors’ returns in new roles, and the fullness of their changes from one role to the next.
The switch of genders from Theseus to Titania and from Hippolyta to Oberon, which had received perhaps too much pre-show publicity, played out in a reasonably subtle way. By our second press show, the cast as a whole had found a shared space, a shared energy, that made all of our choices feel connected for perhaps the first time. I had that lucky feeling a director can sometimes have, that a script and a cast have come together to keep me from making a fool of myself. Today’s review in the Boston Globe is the rare review that actually seems to discuss the production I had hoped to create.
Shakespeare in Midsummer, as in many of the comedies, is interested in change only to a point. In the end, he wants a new order which is only partially changed from the old. At our peril, we often want to push the newness of things at the end. One wonder of the play is its ability to open up to our desires while insisting on its own form and conclusion. The pleasures of change, of variety of experiences and perspectives, belong as much to the audience as to any character in the play. This is why there are actors, whom both directors and audiences ask to go places we cannot go ourselves, and (as the director Anne Bogart says) report back to us what they see and experience. My thanks to everyone involved in the production, and I wish them all a wonderful run. My greatest regret now is that I most likely will not have the chance to return to Boston in the next month, and see what else they learn.