14 Arts & Entertainment

The Cadre

° 16 March 1999

By MELISSA DOUCETTE

"Life is a hell of alot more complicated than you think! Life -- real life -- is a big mess. Thank goodness.” Act Ill, sc.ix.

This week, the UPEI Theatre Society is presenting Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). Per- formances take place Thurs- day, Friday, and Saturday at 8:00 pm in the Alumni Gym.

The Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) is the first solo- authored play by Toronto

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based actor/writer MacDonald. It has won the prestigious Governor Gener- al’s Award, the Chalmers Award, and the Canadian Authors’ Association Award.

This Shakespearean farce is centred on Constance Ledbelly, a tenure-hungry

Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) Good afternoon UPEI

assistant professor at Queen’s University. Constance suf- fers from unrequited love for her professor/mentor, and falls through her wastebasket into the topsy-turvy world of Shakespearean characters. Constance has spent years in failed attempts to translate an ancient manu- script that she is determined will reveal the true source of Shakespeare’s plays. When she falls through her wastebasket, Constance dreams of setting the story straight. If only Othello had been shown the evil in lago,

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if only Tybalt had been told that Romeo was his cousin- in-law, then these tragedies could have been the com- edies the original author had intended before Shakespeare transformed them.

For the Theatre Soci- ety’s main production, Rich-

ard Haines, Co-Director of the Society, wanted to find “a comedy to wrap [his] mind around that I enjoy.”

The Theatre Society has spent the last two and one half months in rehersals for Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). Stu- dents have also been work- ing all semester on stage ele- ments for the play, costumes, and other important ele- ments.

“People are working exhaustively,” commented Haines.

In the last few years, adaptations of Shakespeare have flourished. Kenneth Branagh has led the charge with his versions of Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, and his spectacular edition of Hamlet, the only uncut version ever filmed. Other directors have filmed Romeo and Juliet, and The Tempest, which was recently made for television on NBC.

In addition, Shake- speare’s plays have been re- written into many other works. Disney’s The Lion King, supposedly their first “original” film, is Hamlet. In The Lion King, Simba’s fa- ther is unjustly killed by Scar in order for Scar to be King, and Simba eventually kills his father’s murderer. In Hamlet, Hamlet’s father is killed by his brother Claudius in order for him to become King, and Hamlet eventually kills his father’s murderer.

Other parallels be- tween the two exist as well. Titantic is a shoddy version of Romeo and Juliet, and Prospero’s Books retells The Tempest. Even Star Trek re-

lics on Shakespeare. most

visibly in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, whose title is a line from Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy.

And of course, Shake- speare in Love, the story of how Shakespeare came to write Romeo and Juliet, has garnered the most nomina- tions for this year’s Academy Awards, including best pic- ture.

“Shakespeare can be adapted to fit different peri- ods .. . and make them rel- evant,” Haines says about this renewed interest in the Bard. “He never stuck peo- ple in doublets and hose.”

In the Theatre Soci- ety’s staging of Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Haines has incorpo- rated three different periods

into the play. The Romeo and Juliet world is set in the Elizabethan period, “some- thing Shakespeare would never have done,” adds Haines.

The intention is to connect the surreal world as it appears in the play with Shakespeare’s. The Othello element has been placed in the 19" century, which has the effect of emphasizing the difference between both Romeo and Juliet and the contemporary world. Constance’s environment is a modern day setting.

“Just like you make each play new and different, I made each act new and dif- ferent,” said Haines. “The big goal is to connect with the au- dience and make it new,” he continued.

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Tickets for Goodnigh

t Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) are

available at the door, and cost $7 for students and seniors,

and $10 for adults.