The Oddly Dreamlike Quality of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

We started A Midsummer Night’s Dream with only a text. There was no one to interpret the words, no body movement or voice inflection to indicate meaning or intention. All meaning that a reader understands comes from the words alone. The simplicity of text provides a broad ground for imagination, in that every reader can come away from the text with a different conception of what went on. The words are merely the puzzle pieces individuals put together to bring coherence and logic to the play. Although we all read generally the same words, we can see that vastly different plays arise depending on who interprets them. By interpreting the word-clues that Shakespeare wrote into the script to†¦show more content†¦Perhaps something we expected to see on stage was omitted; perhaps! something unusual was added. We might even sample the same play dozens of times, all performed by different companies; it is common, it is even expected, that none of the twelve interpretations will be much the same. Unlike with reading, with viewing we are not allowed to sample the play in whatever manner we want. As the audience, our experiences are directed. We must resign ourselves to be the two-hour subject of anothers whims and methods. This kind of challenge is usually very enlightening, bringing new thoughts and perspectives where we would otherwise have only our own. These new thoughts and perspectives often materialize in the form of visual and auditory details, mostly because the script stays generally the same. Viewing an actual performance adds depth and detail to what was before only words. We are given scenery, costumes, voices, faces, body movements, and other forms of physical (rather than verbal) expression that contribute to a particular feel. These types of details are in reality just instances of the direct!ors influence, interpretations and preferences that cause us to challenge our initial ideas, and accept us a possibly richer taste of the play. Because I was involved in two scenes of A Midsummer Nights Dream,