Shakespeare Today

Analyse contemporary Shakespeare productions with reference to live performances you may have seen or clips or footage available online. You should comment on what you notice about them and how they differ from what you know about the original performance conditions of Shakespeare’s work?

One of the best contemporary shakespeare plays I have seen was ‘Imogen’ at the globe, this was a modernised version of the shakespearean play ‘Cymbeline’. In this production they kept all the shakespearean dialogue the exact same apart from the names and play title, mainly the name of the main character was changed to Imogen hence the play being renamed Imogen and not Cymbeline. I thought this gave the play a real edge up as it created a whole new element to this character and the modern setting without completely shattering the writing and the language itself. By changing the name they started to break down the wall that’s often created between the characters and the audience due to the language barrier as the audience may find it hard to relate to and understand characters that speak in 1600s english, therefore by putting in a name that is a lot more familiar to our culture now it enables the audience to possibly unlock that character a lot easier. The setting of as well as some of the language in Imogen was also modernised, with it being placed into the concept of it taking places between two powerful gangs. What I loved about how they portrayed this concept was the way they created it visually. They made it so that one of the gangs was all white people dressed in black adidas wear and the other gang was all black people dressed in white adidas wear. I thought this idea was really clever and raised some very significant points about the relativity of the play's themes, which include the original idea of two people from each gang/country within the context of the original cymbeline not being able to mix due to the conflict between the two powers. When this was put into the context of gang culture and race, it not only became relative but it became important in terms of the message it was sending out into the world. ‘Imogen’ took Cymbeline and created this whole statement about issues with the division between races and the amount of racism we have within our world along with the kind of conflict that comes with all that. I found it very powerful to watch and definitely something that spoke out to me despite it being a shakespearian play.

Imogen was also largely movement based, something that was very contemporary in its style and hence breaking away from the tradition shakespearian stereotypes a lot of people associate his plays with. They used movement in various different ways, the first way was through dance. They managed to incorporate a really large use of contemporary music such as tracks from stormzy and skepta, these tracks went along with huge hip hop dance routines that reflect the current mood of music and dance within the last few years. I thought this was really effective as it matched the whole theme of the play and therefore didn’t feel out of place or as if it was just thrown in there to make the play more appealing. Every routine they did was done to such a high level that it felt natural, I think it could have been so easy for dance routines within the playn to just look like a bunch of shakespearean actors trying to spice up the play by doing something that's “cool”. However this wasn’t the case, they had done a really good job at building the full extent of the world it was set in and therefore as an audience member I didn't feel like questioning or doubting the material that was in place because I trusted that this would exist as a world in all its entirety. They also used interesting movement within fight scenes and transitions that really caught my attention as an audience member, there was one fight sequence in particular that I thought was really effective as a device within the play as a contemporary piece. During a fight sequence between two people, instead of having any sort of hidden special effects to create an idea of blood they had the rest of the cast member walking through the sequence with bloodied hands and as they walked past the two characters they would brush their hands on to their white clothing creating an idea of blood. This was a very abstract and unique way of presenting it, detaching it from the traditional way a fight sequence may have been done within shakespearian theatre.