What do you get when you cross A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Jersey Shore?
The drama students at Edwin Parr Composite (EPC) school will show you this Thursday, as they perform their modern rendition of one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays called Midsummer/Jersey.
“It’s kind of like, what if the four main characters from Jersey Shore were in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?” said EPC drama teacher Bruce MacDonald. “It just makes it a bit more modern.”
The story will be based on New Jersey’s boardwalk and will revolve around the love affairs of four teenagers, fairies, a governor and the staff of the local beauty salon.
MacDonald also added that the play will bring in modern music, cell phones and pop-culture references, but still stays “pretty faithful” to the play’s original storyline.
“I did A Midsummer Night’s Dream I’d say about 20 years ago – so I know it really well,” he said. “I was just surprised how true to the original story it stayed.”
He added that the play’s dialogue is not written in Shakespearian prose, but it will have the same “iambic pentameter” rhythm in certain scenes of the play. MacDonald said that it will sometimes have the audience thinking, “Wow, this feels like Shakespeare.”
“It stills feel Shakespearian, although none of the language is Shakespearian,” he said. “In one scene, some of the fairies are talking about this guy Puck and they say, ‘Sometime like the lobster he escapes the sea, clambers on the dock and wanders free.’ Like I said, it’s not 100 per cent always like that, but it’s easier to understand because it’s modern.”
EPC’s advanced acting touring class – featuring students in Grades 10-12 – have been planning and piecing together the play since the end of August in the very beginning of the school year, practicing every school day from 9-10 a.m.
“It’s a pretty big cast, but it’s been a really good group to work with,” MacDonald said. “It’s been pretty fun.”
The curtains will officially open to the public on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Nancy Appleby Theatre, and will have two more shows on Nov. 4 and 5. Tickets can be purchased at the door or at Value Drug Mart for $15.
