A Less-White Midsummer Night

Reimagining A Midsummer Night's Dream

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing, c.1786. William Blake 1757-1827. Tate / Tate Images.

When Professor Roberts announced that our website project on A Midsummer Night’s Dream involved playing director and developing an adaptation of the play, I was ecstatic. I’ve been involved in theatre my entire life, and I have both watched and performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the past - it is a classic Shakespearean rom-com and one of the first of Shakespeare’s works I was exposed to. What makes this project even more exciting for me, however, was the directorial aspect. After years of being a performer, I took on the role of director during my senior year of high school to direct a musical called Working, and I soon realized that I’d much rather be in the director’s chair than on stage. Needless to say, this assignment is right up my alley!

Me and my castmates in my high school's production of Midsummer! Photo by Paul Reams.

A Little Bit of Background

If you’re not familiar with A Midsummer Night's Dream, it was one of Shakespeare’s earlier plays, and one of his many whimsical, hilarious, and charming comedies. It tells the story of three main character groups: the Athenian lovers, the ‘rude mechanicals’, and the fairies. Throughout the story, these three groups interact with one another, venturing between the city of Athens and the magical forest - the fairies casting spells and causing chaos amongst the human world, the lovers chasing each other in a vicious love triangle, all while the mechanicals attempt to put on a play worthy of viewing by the king.

Shakespeare is notoriously confusing, so here's a little character cheat-sheet! Text by Judith Newmark & graphics by Buzzmachine Studios.

Historically, A Midsummer Night's Dream (and its fellow Shakespearean works) was portrayed by White actors for, more often than not, White audiences. Over time, there have been numerous adaptations of the play adapted to be more diverse; some explore race and class relations, others embrace different cultures and traditions, and many swap the gender of specific characters to explore a version of the play that honors the LGBTQ+ community. Were I to direct A Midsummer Night's Dream, I would aim to recreate Shakespeare’s love story in a way that centers Indigenous tribes, values, and traditions.

Adaptation & Inspiration

In Professor Lupton’s lecture “Amazons and Athenians: Power Games,” she discusses the ties between A Midsummer Night's Dream and the tribe of warrior women known as the Amazons - the queen of Athens in the play, Hippolyta, is an Amazon herself (Lupton W6L1). Lupton also mentioned that the Amazons from the East “were projected onto the Indigenous peoples of South America,” thus the river by which they lived was named the Amazon (Lupton W6L1). Intrigued by this connection, I wanted to expand on it in my website project. My adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream would take place in Manaus, Brazil, a city close to the Amazon Rainforest.

The Nobles & The Lovers

This screenshot, taken from UCI's New Swan Theatre's production of Midsummer, mirrors what I would want my Lovers and Nobles to look like. Theseus and Egeus, as nobles, would be dressed in classic suits. The Lovers would be well-dressed as well, if slightly less formal - more like teenagers or college students.

Matt Whelan, San Diego Reader, June 2021

The Mechanicals

The mechanicals in my version of the play would be working-class fishermen, ship builders, and soap makers of Manaus, dressed in comfortable causal clothes that they could work in, much like the fishermen of Manaus shown in Matt Whelan's photo above.

The Fairies

The Indigenous Amazonian women above, activists who fight for environmental justice and gender equity, would be the models for the fairy characters in my adaptation of the play. They would sport beautiful face paint, headdresses, and clothing designed by Indigenous women and worn by Indigenous actors.

Indigenous Peoples, Nature, and Fairies

Maisa Guajajara, march of indigenous women, Brasilia, 2019. Image courtesy Marquinho Mota/FAOR. https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/amazon-women-warriors-show-gender-equality-forest-conservation-go-hand-in-hand/

Sonia Guajajara, Brasilia, 2020. Image courtesy No Borders. https://nobordersnews.org/2020/06/16/sonia-guajajara-indigenous-women-in-brazil-leading-in-the-fight-for-justice/

The passage I’ve chosen to focus my adaptation on revolves around Titania. The speech takes place in act 2, scene 1, lines 81-117, in which Titania (the queen of the fairies) addresses her husband Oberon (the king of the fairies), warning that their relationship tensions are wreaking havoc on the natural world. It is evident in the play that the fairies rule nature; Titania details the natural disasters, climate changes, and harsh weather that her and Oberon are inflicting by way of their unstable relationship. The relationship that the fairies have with nature, and their passion for preserving and protecting the natural world mirror the values of the Amazon’s Indigenous tribes. The fairies in my adaptation of the play would be inspired by the Guajajara people of Brazil, and Titania and her fairy train will be loosely based on the “guerreiras da floresta” or “forest warriors” - women of the Guajajara tribe who are fighting for environmental justice and gender equity within the movement (Loures and Sax). Dressed in traditional Indigenous skirts, headdresses, and makeup, the fairy ensemble would essentially be nature, representing the forest, animals, and weather throughout the play. Creating the natural environment of the Amazon rainforest using human actors would serve to contrast the way I would portray the city of Manaus - the rainforest would be alive, breathing, and never still, while Manaus would be much more like a realistic city.

To the Text!

Although I could write a novel on all the ways I would adapt A Midsummer Night's Dream, for the purpose of this assignment I will be focusing on Titania’s speech that I mentioned earlier. The monologue is as follows:

These are forgeries of jealousy.

And never, since the middle summer’s spring,

Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,

By pavèd fountain, or by rushy brook,

Or in the beachèd margent of the sea,

To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,

But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.

Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,

As in revenge, have sucked up from the sea

Contagious fogs, which falling in the land

Have every pelting river made so proud

That they have overborne their continents.

The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,

The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn

Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.

The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,

And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.

The nine-men’s-morris is filled up with mud,

And the quaint mazes in the wanton green

For lack of tread are undistinguishable.

The human mortals want their winter here.

No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

Pale in her anger, washes all the air,

That rheumatic diseases do abound.

And thorough this distemperature we see

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,

The childing autumn, angry winter change

Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world,

By their increase, now knows not which is which.

And this same progeny of evils comes

From our debate, from our dissension.

We are their parents and original (2.1.81-117)

Tina Benko as Titania in director Julie Taymor's 2015 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. https://www.worldstage.com/project/2013-midsummer-nights-dream/.

I’ve chosen this monologue because it is rich with nature imagery and personification, both of which open up doors of opportunity from a directorial standpoint. I would hope to show my play in a thrust theater, which has the audience on three sides of the stage (the fourth serving as the background) to allow the audience to view the show from varying perspectives, and create a more immersive viewing experience. Titania’s speech will unfold for the audience as she recites it, combining visual representations by the fairy ensemble of the natural phenomena she describes, with 4D sensations such as wind and auditory elements, like music. The fairy’s in my adaptation of the play are nature, so they will play that role during Titania’s monologue, using props and interpretive dance-like choreography to make her words come to life. I would utilize lighting to imply different weather conditions as they are mentioned - warm, yellow and orange lights for sun, blue and white lights for cold, and blue and purple and green lights for flooding/water.

Image courtesy of Anton Grassl on behalf of Wilson Architects

Bringing A Midsummer Night's Dream To Life

Now that I’ve set the scene, I wanted to describe a few key moments that the director in me is getting a little too excited about. First, when Titania mentions “ringlets of whistling wind” and “winds, piping to [them] in vain / as in revenge”, she would cue small fans or vents hidden above the audience, which would release a brief breeze of cool air throughout the room (2.1.86, 88). The breeze would be subtle (I wouldn’t want anything blowing away!), but noticeable enough to send shivers through the audience, setting a chilling tone for the duration of the monologue. This would not only intrigue the audience from the beginning, but also allow them to feel as if they are experiencing the consequences of Oberon and Titania’s woes.

Throughout the scene (and the entirety of the show), I would use vocals and music to underscore the dialogue. I would use songs sung by large groups like choirs, and play it at a volume that isn’t distracting, but simply enhances the overall tone and mood of the production. Then, when Titania mentions that because the cycle of the seasons is off-kilter, it is not winter for the humans and thus “no night is now with hymn or carol blest,” the music will stop and an eerie and unsettling silence will fill the space (2.1.103). My goal in doing this is for the audience to first notice the music upon its disappearance, to truly reinforce the idea that something has gone wrong. The audience will experience this realization along with Oberon.

Here's an example of what South American Indigenous music might sound like, and I'd want to incorporate it throughout my rendition of the play.

In directing this scene, although Titania is the one speaking and narrating, I would want the focus to be primarily on Oberon. As the fairy ensemble dances throughout the stage, using billowing blue fabric to recreate floods, creating imagery of townspeople dying of disease, and the fairies being unable to dance in circles, Oberon will remain grounded at their center. Throughout the speech, Oberon will remain trapped in a flood of fairy creatures dancing all around him as Titania speaks. In this way, Oberon is feeling the consequences of his own greed and jealousy that the rest of the natural world is facing. I would want the audience to gradually see his movement from upset with Titania, to frustrated trying to find an escape, and finally, a moment of realization of what his and Titania’s personal agitation has done to the land and people he is meant to protect and preserve. To make such relationship tensions tangible to the audience (beyond my actors’ spectacular performances), I would block the scene in such a way that places Oberon and Titania on opposite sides of the stage throughout the whole scene, moving in ways that keep them as far apart as possible at all times. They would never touch physically, and rarely would they make eye contact - I would aim for the audience to feel not only their frustration with each other about the argument at hand, but also the lack of intimacy and closeness in their relationship.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream." , directed by Julie Taymor. , produced by Lynn Hendee, and Ben Latham-Jones. , BOND/360, 2014. Alexander Street, https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/a-midsummer-night-s-dream-3.

Can you picture it yet? My version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream would be immersive, diverse, and celebratory of Indigenous peoples and their connection to nature. It only makes sense that a play that stars nature and the non-human world should be centered around Indigenous culture and beliefs, especially in an industry typically dominated by White performers, directors, and audiences. I would hope that my retelling of this Shakespearean classic would further exploration into experimental theatre, as well as the diversification and decolonization of theatre. Art and storytelling transcend cultural boundaries, and I feel that it is very important to ensure that all cultures, peoples, and traditions are allowed space on stage.

Reflecting on the Process

Besides theatre, I’m passionate about social awareness and responsibility, and I wanted that to be reflected in my adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Theatre (especially Shakespearean theatre) has historically been a predominantly White space - White actors performing for a mostly White audience. As of late, artists and actors have been challenging this tradition by using creative casting decisions and interpretations of the play that touch on a multitude of modern social issues such as gender, sexuality, climate change, and racism. I really appreciate the idea of beautifully written stories performed by all types of people. With some experience directing and lots of experience acting under my belt, I felt immensely prepared and excited to embark on this project, although it certainly proved more challenging than I anticipated. I prioritized the goal of staying true to the story while also being respectful of Indigenous culture, which required extensive research. Throughout this process, I feel like I’ve learned so much more about culture, Shakespeare, and theatre that I will carry with me throughout my academic and theatrical endeavors!

Works Cited

Loures, Rosamaria, and Sarah Sax. “Amazon 'Women Warriors' Show Gender Equality, Forest Conservation Go Hand in Hand.” Mongabay Environmental News,
24 Dec. 2020, https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/amazon-women-warriors-show-gender-equality-forest-conservation-go-hand-in-hand/.

Matt, Whelan. “Manaus, Brazil: Quick and Cheap across the Meeting of Waters.” San Diego Reader, San Diego Reader, 21 June 2021,
https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2020/jun/21/travel-manaus-brazil-meeting-waters/.

No Borders. “Sônia Guajajara: Indigenous Women in Brazil Leading in the Fight for Justice (Part 1).” No Borders, 8 July 2020,
https://nobordersnews.org/2020/06/16/sonia-guajajara-indigenous-women-in-brazil-leading-in-the-fight-for-justice/.

Shakespeare, William, and Wolfgang Ed Clemen. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Edited by Wolfgang Clemen. New American Library (C1963), 1998.

“Types & Forms of Theatres - Theatre Projects.” Theatre Projects, http://theatreprojects.com/files/pdf/Resources_IdeasInfo_typesandformsoftheatre.pdf.

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