WHY I CAN ENJOY A PLAY MORE THAN SOME GOOD DIRECTORS CAN.

WHY I CAN ENJOY A PLAY MORE THAN SOME GOOD DIRECTORS CAN. A couple of the good directors I know have acknowledged that they have some trouble enjoying other productions because they have strong views about how the play should be done, and find themselves gritting their teeth when something is different. I do have an image of a Shakespeare play when I go to see it, but almost every production offers interesting surprises. One reviewer of the Hartford Stage Company’s Antony and Cleopatra didn’t like it and began with the first lines of the play. The first lines in the play are given to a single soldier who criticizes Antony’s obsession with Cleopatra, beginning: “Nay, but this dotage of our general’s…” and concluding: “…And is become the bellows and the fan/ To cool a gipsy’s lust.” The Hartford production had a tableau of ten soldiers at attention with each speaking one of the lines. The critic strongly disliked this change. The Hartford stage is a huge space, and I had no problem with having ten soldiers rather than one represent the views of the army. Perhaps if I had a strongly imagined vision of the staging beforehand I would have felt differently.