12th Night, Midsummer Night's, or Golden Ass at the Globe?????
 

What are your opinions on the 3 shows. Which is the most fun? Is the Golden Ass appropriate for kids, as I have heard it is a bit sexual in nature? I would also love to see a night show when we go in September but they are sold out. Any suggestions with that problem? THANKS!!

How could you even consider going to the Globe and choosing a play that's not by the Bard himself? Midsummer Night's Dream is just hilarious, that's the one I'd choose with kids. But have then read at least a synopsis in advane, because of all the mistaken-identity folderol.<BR><BR>The only consolation I can offer regarding the night shows being sold out is that there weren't any in Shakespeare's day so a daytime show is more authentic!

I am afraid that as Freud would say sex is everywhere, though I admit that it is thicker in the Golden Ass than in the other two plays. If the children have the good fortune to have never seen Midsummer Nights Dream, and have never had some ill-advised person tell them the story, then they should see the Dream, simply as the funniest of the three. You would check with them between scenes that they know what is going on. But they will know just what Bottom is doing -- I wish you a good one. You might take the text to London too, so that they can read themselves some of the glorious poetry that evening, or you can read it to them aloud.<BR><BR>(I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, <BR>Where oxslips and the nodding violet grows, <BR>Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, <BR>With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine) <BR><BR>The Twelfth Night has had excellent reviews.<BR><BR>I saw Romeo and Juliet in Regents Park two nights ago. A fine modern dress performance, made darker by the fact that our hero Romeo carries a gun, and uses it. Of course not sexless: after the secret marriage they go to bed, and Juliet looks about 16. The last performance is 5 September, while As You Like it in the park runs to 7 September. See http://www.open-air-theatre.org.uk/<BR><BR>You know that the daytime show is the more authentic: the original Globe played in the afternoon. <BR><BR>Please write if I can help further. Welcome to London. These are lucky children.<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR><BR>

Ben thank you for the MSND quotation, I'd be happy to find some Shakespeare in every post on this site.<BR><BR> I read MSND for the first time when I was 13 or 14, with pure joy. I don't know if I could have followed it onstage without having read it, though. <BR><BR> And I agree in choosing it over Twlefth Night for kids, not that there's anything wrong with Twelfth Night, but to me there's "more" to MSND--the play within the play, the fairies, the arguments between Titania and Oberon.<BR><BR> (I read Romeo and Juliet the same year, in the same class; have to tell you, we didn't "know" they went to bed together. But this was in the 50s, nobody "knew" anybody did this.)

"how can you even consider going to the Globe and choosing a play that's not by the Bard himself?"<BR><BR>Maybe because many of the plays done in the original Globe weren't by the Bard either???

OK, that's true, then: how can you go to an excruciatingly authentic Elizabethan Theater, and choose a modern play over an authentic Elizabethan one?<BR><BR>Is that better?

We went to 12th night at the Globe on our last night in London, 2 weeks ago. It was hilarious. If I had seen it as a junior high school student, I would have appreciated Shakespeare a lot more!

Saw 12th night @ Stratford on Avon it was great. Took a 13 & 14 year old. They got most of the jokes. MSND is also great but you can see that almost anytime. There was a movie a couple years ago

OK, Suzy, because the Globe was built as a theatre for the common people and they did modern plays with modern sexual and political innuendo. Now some 400 years later the new Globe offers the same thing -- modern plays for modern audiences with sexual and political innuendo. It seems that it carries forth the tradition to see a contemporary play. When the original Globe was built they didn't do plays that were 400 years old, so what's so important about seeing 400 year old plays there now?

The london newspaper The Independent today has a review of the Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe. The review is highly favourable, but it is clear that the production is "clever", and a bit fiddly, so I think I shall miss it. I sometimes think that actors and directors get bored with major Shakespeare plays, and strive to work out something new and clever to do with them.<BR><BR>Ben Haines

You'd think they would have learnt their lesson after last year's oversleek modern production of "Macbeth," which wasn't a favorite among critis nor the general public.

eric - we just got back yesterday. saw msnd and loved it. plenty of kids in the audience, although little ones got bored by the bard. let me recommend that you go on the london walks tour for shakespeare's globe theater before you see a show there. try to get emily as your guide. she's a former royal shakepeare co. actress. wow did it give us a deeper appreciation for the experience. i tried for weeks to get good seats. finally ended up queing in the return line for a matinee (or mat as they call it) and got lucky. house seats in the first row!!

I wonder how the London Walks tour differs from the regular staff tour? Our guide seemed very well-informed.