This past weekend afforded me a rare, but wonderful, opportunity of viewing Shakespeare back-to-back but in extremely contrasting performances. Saturday night: Sleep No More --an adaptation of Macbeth. Sunday night: As You Like It in Central Park.
Could not be more different.
Sleep No More is held at the McKittrick Hotel, whose entrance blends the feel of Universal Studios Tower of Terror with Disney Worlds Haunted Mansion. It's eerie and sets the tone immediately. I won't go into detail of the experience b/c its truly unique and will never be repeated because of the nature of the piece, which is both exciting and frustrating. The players are in motion moving between the 4-5 floors (I'm truly not sure how many stories this things covered), thru smoke-filled rooms staged as woods, graveyards, apothecary, bedroom, banquet hall. You can follow one actor, move throughout the space freely catching different scenes sporadically, all the while wearing masks! Very strange but wonderful. My main complaint is that due to the nature of the piece and that upon each viewing the experience changes, one would want to attend multiple times HOWEVER the price has soared to $95 per ticket! No discount opportunity exists, so multiple viewings is out of the question. Very upsetting!
As You Like It in Central Park's Delacorte Theatre is, of course, FREE!!! Tickets randomly bestowed upon a friend by a stranger on the street (I heart NY) allowed me a second chance to see this play in one week! Sitting on the opposite side of the theatre from my first experience, I caught different expressions from the actors, who have settled into their characters and are just flying! Its such a magical, beautiful way to enjoy the genius of Shakespeare! To play that stage would be pure joy (even if its one of the tragedies)!
Summer & Shakespeare go together like peas & carrots!
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