Word: stage
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...further consequence of the tilted set is the reduction of stage space. To be on stage is to be in the middle of the action. Midsummer Night's Dream, inconveniently is punctuated by the discovery of a sleeping character by his lover, rival or master. It is not necessary that characters be concealed in subterranean niches until the proper moment, but surely it is not desirable that they be left like public statues in mid-stage. The scene in which Hermia and Helena tear at each other becomes silly because of the fidgetings of onlookers who could be set apart...
...decision to use projections is wise, for nothing is more impossible than creating a believable magic forest from paper and paint. John Halvorson's slides and the green and blue light scheme ordained by Alan Symonds worked well enough when the stage was quiet and the poetry delivered with reasonable facility...
...then slipping back. Mark Ritts as Demetrius, for example, avoids the traditional Shakespearean sing-song by offering some of his lines in street English, hardly the proper form. Generally the lovers do too much serious embracing. This is not Albee. Nothing is going to come of it on stage...
...Deitch is superb as Oberon, and Amanda Vaill is excellent as his Titania. Their scenes are the best in the play, if one overlooks the various spirits clogging the stage...
...problem with Ida Picker's Burnering, for my taste, is that its zeal outruns its craftsmanship. The concept is all there, maybe even a tentative first draft. But it has not yet been translated from thought into either English or stage talk, and the personal world it creates remains altogether too exclusive...