preview

A Midsummer Night's Dream Illusion Vs Reality Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

William Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was directed by Kirsten Brant and performed at San Jose States University Theatre. The play takes place in the late 1950s from the eyes of world famous Belgian artist Rene Magritte who is known for his pop-art images illustrating common objects in uncommon settings. This assuredly helps projects the idea of illusion vs reality within the storyline of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The main action of the play consists of several love triangles consisting of four lovers that run into the woods, a lovers quarrel between the fairy king and fairy queen while a group of students rehearsing a play seem to get caught in the middle of it all. The main characters of the play were Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and …show more content…

There was extreme contrast between reality and illusion which is a key component of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The stage consisted of this huge movable set that appeared building like with a lot of stairs. This set was able to split down the center and open up more space for the performers also helping form the atmosphere of forest terrane. As the first scene opens, a sky with moving clouds was projected on to the cyclorama and brief cases appeared to be hanging from the ceiling. The stage was heavily front lit, I do not believe any sidelight was used if so it was probably very minimal. With the main set pushed together in the shape of a building, it projected the image of a modern day business place. In the second act, the building like structure was pushed apart showing tall glowing sticks upstage. The front light was at a lower intensity and gave the performers more of a glow and also allowing certain props to light up. All of these elements transformed the stage into a magical forest. At one point during a forest scene members from the cast even came out into the audience and handed people glow stick that added to the magical

Get Access