May I say that our class trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar was great? Well, I'm going to say it anyways. It was great. I had a fun time getting to know the people in my car who I probably never would have interacted with any other way. And the play was really well done. Seeing Shakespeare live is such a big difference from reading the text or watching a movie. Although I will admit that every time the lights went down to the "winter" setting of black and purple I had a hard time keeping my eyes open...

One of the things that really interested me while watching the play was how they used costumes to promote a theme or develop a character. There's really no way to organize my thoughts on it without getting long and drawn out, so here they are in all their unorganized glory:

Hermione wearing white in the beginning and when she comes back to life, and Perdita wearing white. It emphasized their innocence, Hermione as faithful and Perdita as Leontes true daughter.

Purple and black clothes set the stage for winter. Winter colors. Shiny, black shoes and tuxes and formal clothing for winter.

The men changed to brown suits in the spring and the tones of the girls dresses were a lot more earthy and reminded me of spring and life. It was more natural.

The clown in striped pants. The clown in striped suit after he is made a "gentleman." Character continuity. Rank didn't change him. Helped make the actor recognizable after a wardrobe change.

Autolycus' coat. Can I just say it was awesome? Really, I want that coat. On the outside it was tan and plain, like the facade he is trying to portray. On the inside it was woven and messy and all kinds of crazy colors. Like his true personality could help bursting out every time he turned around. His clothes were so complex and interesting. The wig and the hat, his boots went all the way up to his knee. It was just a really unique combination and somehow it all worked, like the different sides and faces of his character.

Florizel's cape was kinda lame. Frilly and off one shoulder. Held on by a string that kept slipping off. Maybe it shows how insubstantial and pretty-boy esque his character was. He does take the cape off though, so maybe running away with Perdita is his growing up.

Paulina. Why did she make me think of a cranky British nanny? Well.. that's how they dressed her. I just couldn't get over how old and out of place she looked. But maybe that's a consequence of being the voice of reason, you feel out of place and get a bad name for it. And isn't she, in some ways, Leontes' nanny? She smacks him on the hand every time he does a "bad thing" and tries to be cheerful.

So there's my jumble of observations from a Winter's Tale. There's not really any opportunity to interpret a director's costuming decisions when we're just studying the text in class. So this was fun.
Until next time, Hakuna Mutata.

Oh, and P.S. don't forget the bear's costume. I'm so glad it didn't look like this:

Perdita-"lost one"

You have to admit, their stories are eerily similar. In the beginning, at least. Perdita, of Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, and Oedipus, of Greek mythology, are both cast off by cruel, paranoid fathers after the reading of an oracle. Perdita's father, Leontes, believes she is an illegitimate child of an adulterous queen. Born in prison, the babe is left in the desert to die, found, and raised by a humble shepherd. Oedipus' father, Laius, has been read an oracle that any son born to him will marry its mother and kill its father. Upon birth, Oedipus is given to a servant with the command to leave him somewhere to die. Instead, the servant gives the baby to a shepherd. Oedipus is passed between shepherds, until he is eventually adopted by the King of Corinth. Similarly, Perdita becomes involved with a royal family. She falls in love and runs away with Florizel, prince of Bohemia. Both Perdita and Oedipus eventually return to their places of birth.

Oedipus-"swollen foot"

Where their stories end, however, could not be more different. Perdita's return to Sicilia leads to the discovery that she is the Kings daughter, and rejoicing ensues. She rises to her true identity gracefully, and marries Prince Florizel. They presumably live happily ever after. Oedipus' tale does not end quite so happily. He fulfills the prophecy, unknowingly killing his father and marrying his mother. Upon discovering the truth Oedipus blinds himself and lives out the rest of his life in exile.

So what happened? These two characters, who started out so similarly, seem to have been slaves to fate. Their destinies were foretold before or shortly after their births. Perdita's predicted return to Sicilia would not have been necessary if Leontes had never gone into his jealous rage and thrown his daughter out to die. Even Oedipus' self-fulfilling prophecy would have been useless if Laius had not acted on it. Both Perdita and Oedipus' futures were decided by the actions of their fathers. Are we, too, cursed by the actions of those who have come before us?

In a Winter's Tale, we read of the King of Bohemia, a sea-side, peaceful and relaxed country. Here there are sheep-shearing parties,babies abandoned in deserts, and bears that eat people. The king sails home when fleeing Sicilia. Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you, Bohemia, a land-locked country whose border's are defined by no less than four mountain ranges. Bohemia is now the western two-thirds of the Czech Republic, and there is no way anyone could have ever sailed to it. Also, no deserts. And while I can swallow the idea that there were bears here, a coast and a desert beside each other in a land-locked country just doesn't float my boat.

Another example of Shakespeare not being true to location is in Hamlet. I actually visited Denmark this last summer, and spent some time with a Danish family. So reading through Hamlet recently was a little bit of a different experience. The one thing I noticed the most on my trip, and my Danish friend made sure to point out to me, was the importance of family. Denmark is an extremely peaceful country, and their view on family relationships is pretty cool. Children are respected and looked to for opinions, elders are honored and obeyed. And I'm not just talking ideal, it's actually illegal for parents in Denmark to hit their children. But we can debate the effectiveness of spankings some other day. What startles me most about Hamlet is how such a violent and manipulative royal family is set in such a peaceful and friendly country. The Danes have a word, "hygge", which doesn't exist in any other language, and can't really be defined. Don't try to pronounce it either, you can't. But think of everything that reminds you of home, and warmth, and contentedness. I was on a Danish ranch over the summer, my hair was wet from a recent drizzle, we had just finished a "Danish barbeque", people were singing about the start of summer in a language I didn't need to understand, the sun was setting at 11pm, and I was happier than I had been in a long time. It just felt so right, this community I didn't know was so complete. I told my friend I could just stand staring at the fire and be happy for the rest of my life. She told me, "That's hyyge."

Now think about Hamlet. Chaos, lies, trickery. A man goes insane because his family is corrupted. No, Hamlet is definitely not Danish. He's just an English character Shakespeare implanted into a land that sounded distant and mysterious. I'm not saying nothing could ever be rotten in the state of Denmark (there's way too many fish for that..), but Hamlet is in no way a representation of Danish culture.

So why did Shakespeare do it? Why does he not seem to care that his settings don't match up with reality? Was it just that, that he simply didn't care? Do we, as a collective Shakespeare readership, enforce disregard for truth by letting him get away with it?

Just for fun, Hamlet's castle in LEGO.