Hi friends!
I didn’t have a good book pairing for yesterday’s post, so please forgive the absence of Boozy Books this week. (Trust me on this, you don’t need to read Artemis.)
Anyway, it’s Shakespeare Saturday! Hooray! Today’s post concerns the magic in Shakespeare’s plays. But not in the way you would think…
Yes, we know Shakespeare wrote supernatural elements into his plays (witches, fairies, Prospero), but what happens when you start adding real illusions to productions of these well-known pieces?
Well, in 2015 the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre invited Teller (of Penn and Teller) to pepper their production of The Tempest with tricks of the eye and sleight of hand. Unfortunately, we can’t actually see the production, but this interview with Teller is a great read that tackles Shakespeare from a very different place.
The idea of being true to Shakespeare by utilizing visuals that person directly to the language is brilliant and a wonderful way of translating the language for modern audiences. I also just really love magic so I’m impressed that a theatre would go so far to flesh out the supernatural in their production.
Wish I could have seen it. *sigh*
Oh well, guess we’ll have to see what Stratford comes up with when we see The Tempest next season!
–A
Nerd Cactus 
One thought on “Shakespeare Saturday: Magic and Shakespeare”