Customer Reviews

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Arkangel Shakespeare)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this audio recording of MSND to use as I taught the play to my 10th graders. The actors do well, and this is the complete version of the play. However, some of the character sound effects can get annoying, as well as some of the music.

For whatever reason, the faeries' voices have a slight echo effect, which isn't too annoying, but when a faery--such as Puck or Oberon--is placing a spell on someone, there is an extreme echo placed on the voice. The echo was so extreme for the end of Act III, when Puck is confusing Lysander and Demetrius, that it gave me a slight headache. Also, while the use of a little music can be nice, many of my students didn't like it and I found that the music was on a little too long in some places and it stalls the progression of the play. The "braying" of Bottom sounds more like a pig grunt, which gets really old after awhile.

Overall, I would recommend this version to those who don't mind slight annoyances like these--and maybe I'm being nitpicky--but if you think that those will wear on you, try to find another version.

I like 'Dream' and have seen numerous productions, all film, so I didn't have any problems following the story. I didn't particularly like what was done with Oberon and Titania, giving them African/West Indian accents. Certainly Clive Brill, the director, needs to choose actors with distinctive voices so we can identify characters without any visual cues, but I found that these accents gave the text a start-and-stop cadence that I wasn't expecting and found a bit jarring to listen to.
On the other hand, I loved what he did with the Pyramus-and-Thisbe play at the end. Usually this feels like an afterthought, even though the actions in that play mimic that could have happened in the forest to the lovers. Here, I saw the point - the comments of the audience felt like we were right at home, making comments about our favorite TV show as we watch it. A kind of MSTK3000 Theatre - Shakespeare style. I know that is how it is written, but it is seldom performed that way, or at least not well. So, kudos to Brill for that.
If I were introducing someone to Dream I'd probably start with the film with Michelle Pfeiffer, largely because kids today would be amused to see that Batman was playing Lysander. Hey, you do what you have to.

It is a very helpful tool in getting children to hear how the language is read and Egeus is well read by the characters. There is an instance where the fairies read where the audio fades in and out. I assume that is for soundeffects purposes, but I believe it could have been better done. It is a great help-along in class, esp when you want to push ahead the play. I would recommend this and any other audiobook for a Literature class

This is a great collection. I bought it to use in my classroom, and it really helped the students understand the play better.