(no subject)
Took the kid to the Shakespeare Festival last night to see Much Ado About Nothing.It was a rather...odd production. They chose to relocate the setting to a late 19th century Wild West town. Leonato was a saloon/hotel owner, Beatrice was the hotel manager, Benedick and Claudio were cowboys, Don Pedro was a sort of Buffalo Bill type, with long hair and fringed buckskins, and Prince John was the stereotypical bad guy in the black hat, twirling his mustache. Disconcerting to say the least. The actors were trying, not always successfully or consistantly to speak their lines with a sort of Western twang and bits of dialogue were changed to fit the new setting--talk of swords or daggers changed to pistols and bullets, for example. And just when I'd get past the set decorating and get into the performance, the would do something that would jar me out of it again--Square dancing during the revelry at the beginning of the play and after the wedding, or one of the actors yelling "yeehaw." Why DO people feel compelled to muck about with things that can't be improved upon?