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Article: A midsummer night's dream. (State University of New York, Purchase)
- Article from:
- The Nation
- Article date:
- August 30, 1986
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1986 The Nation Company L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Midsummer Night's Dream
Sellars's unhappy lovers can be compared with those in Liviu Ciulei's Summerfare production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, originally performed at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. This version would have hardly done as an entertainment on a wedding day (scholars have suggested that the original was written as part of the festivities for the marriage of the Earl of Southampton's mother), as it emphasizes the temporary nature of love, "which alters when it alteration finds,' and plays up what Jan Kott calls Shakespeare's "dark sphere of bestiality.' Ciulei is familiar with Kott's essay on Tiania and the ass's head in Shakespeare Our ...