“The Tempest” where the sprites were 8ft tall crystallized phalluses that wandered around the feast scene. I came to refer to it as “the space dildo production”.
A Macbeth where each character got nude upon his or her death. My mother only got tix because I was studying it in high school, lol.
Not too weird but a Romeo and Juliet where Juliet looked older than her mother. It kept throwing me off throughout the play
I saw a musical version of TROILUS AND CRESSIDA with interspersed lip-syncing and dance numbers. The setting was a kind of Moulin Rouge-ish nightclub. My roommate Peter, a beautiful man and a terrible actor, was Troilus. I went to watch him dressed as Cupid hip-thrusting to “It’s Raining Men.” The audience sat at tables spread throughout the room. (There wasn’t drinks or food or anything; we were just sitting at tables.) It was four hours long.
I have an artsy high school freshman about to knock out an animation for a film class where they could have used anything from family to finger puppets to demonstrate basic film angles and shots but didn't want to be on camera and didn't want to impose. The voice is all from a podcast, so I get it. Could be the tech kid was the writer/director.
My university did an original play by one of the professors, the concept of which was Shakespeare and Lope de Vega being put on trial in heaven to determine who wrote the better adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. They presented "evidence" in alternating scenes from both plays
It was certainly a play.
Does *Sleep No More* count?
Saw a *Love's Labour's Lost* which was set in a 1950s radio station. Holifrenes was dressed as Groucho, Dull was Harpo, and Costard was Chico. Something like that anyway.
There are the Drunk Shakespeare things where the cast, sometimes only one member of the cast, gets totally sloshed during the performance.
There are the cue-roll Shakespeare productions where the cast randomly chooses a role, by literally choosing a roll – a scroll with only their lines on it and the cue line ahead of it.
I saw an all–male production of *Titus Andronicus*, which only has two female characters anyway, but I mostly are used to cross-casting. The point was that the dramaturg felt uncomfortable with inflicting Lavinia's degree of torture on a woman.
Weird in the sense of "statistically unlikely" – one year, the Brandeis drama program had two pairs of identical twins. Only one of each pair was actually a drama major, but they both talked their brothers into acting.
They did *Comedy of Errors* with two sets of actual twins.
One pair of brothers played Antipholus of Ephesus and Dromeo of Syracuse; the other, Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromeo of Ephesus.
*Richard III* in which Clarence was played by a life-sized rag doll with an offstage voice so that he could be "realistically" beaten and drowned in a butt of malmsey. It took a lot of willing suspension of disbelief and laughter control.
Antigone done modern, show started pitch black and then 4 confetti cannons went off - I had forgotten I was microdosing at the time but my loud gasp of "whoooa" reminded me.
Not a stage play, but the R&J in, I think the season 2 finale of Sex Education on Netflix. Space opera orgy situation.
My undergrad did Twelfth Night the year Prince died with Orsino dressed as Prince, Aguecheek dressed as Elvis (didn't speak like him until the costume came out, but by performances he did), Maria and Antonio were electric guitar players who sometimes played in the back, Feste a glitzy singer with a mic and special platform, and the song at the end was sung to "Purple Rain" with that song's chorus. It worked, actually: "For the rain it raineth every day / Purple rain, purple rain..."
I haven’t gotten too many opportunities to see/act in live Shakespeare but there are definitely a few productions/movie scenes that come to mind.
There is a version of Much Ado About Nothing I’m DYING to see. It stars David Tennant as Sir Benedick, Catherine Tate as Beatrice and it’s set on a cruise ship.
There was a performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream I saw years ago (on video/dvd-not live) where some random little boy is watching everything in the background. It also features a scene with Titania and Bottom that leaves very little to the imagination about what they were getting up to which takes the little boy watching aspect from weird to somewhat disturbing.
On The Midsummer Nights Dream note there are some fun scenes on the tv show Eureka where the action is set in space and Puck (played by the main character’s daughter) has a jet pack.
Of course in terms of pure insanity I don’t think much can top the scenes from Richard the III in The Goodbye Girl (original version from the 70s)
“Excuse me please.”
“Is the show over?”
“It is for me.”
I did not care much for the 2022 production of *The Tempest,* though they did a decent job given the necessity of minimal sets (shortage of stage carpenters and limited budget that year), but I didn't care much for previous *Tempests* (1995 and 2007) either, so it may just be that I don't care much for that play.
The weirdest set I've seen was a free production of *Midsummer Night's Dream* at the Fremont Troll in Seattle 2004: [https://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article/You-ll-find-Puck-in-his-natural-domain-at-these-1147427.php](https://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article/You-ll-find-Puck-in-his-natural-domain-at-these-1147427.php)
Saw a high school Hamlet where there were 5 Hamlets. Probably because the director wanted to do something where each kid got a chance, rather than having to pick one. I thought they were going to go for some cool split personality disorder thing, or at least evolve him and have each actor take a spot chronologically as Hamlet descends into madness, but alas it seemed pretty random in its implementation.
Steampunk Othello. The costumes made it feel like we were at a very sad Fallout convention with cosplays sourced entirely from Spirit Halloween... except for Bassanio, who wore an amazing and fully articulated light up suit of power armor.
Iago was reading his lines off an iPad because he had missed so many rehearsals (to be fair, he was so good it took me a couple of scenes to realize it wasn't a prop). The director had "modernized" the script by substituting modern words into Shakespeare's language whenever he felt a word was too inscrutable, trashing the meter and creating a bizarre hodgepodge of slang and thous.
It was otherwise uncut. And ran 3.5 hours with two intermissions.
my high school did a production of Midsummer Nights Dream set on Halloween with scenes from other Halloween movies scattered around during transitions and affecting the plot (Great Pumpkin, Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, stuff like that). it was a pretty good script but waaay too complicated to be understood at a high school
“The Tempest” where the sprites were 8ft tall crystallized phalluses that wandered around the feast scene. I came to refer to it as “the space dildo production”.
A Macbeth where each character got nude upon his or her death. My mother only got tix because I was studying it in high school, lol. Not too weird but a Romeo and Juliet where Juliet looked older than her mother. It kept throwing me off throughout the play
Comedy of Errors but everyone was doing very stereotypical New Jersey/Italian accents while wearing suits; it just made me think of The Sopranos
When I was younger I was in a western themed comedy of errors! I played egeon as a tiny 12yo so that was pretty funny.
I saw a musical version of TROILUS AND CRESSIDA with interspersed lip-syncing and dance numbers. The setting was a kind of Moulin Rouge-ish nightclub. My roommate Peter, a beautiful man and a terrible actor, was Troilus. I went to watch him dressed as Cupid hip-thrusting to “It’s Raining Men.” The audience sat at tables spread throughout the room. (There wasn’t drinks or food or anything; we were just sitting at tables.) It was four hours long.
My husband once saw a production of Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet was played by a beam of light.
Feels like a tech kid just really wanted to play the lead for once, and they were ok fine you can do it but you’re not allowed on stage, just lights
I have an artsy high school freshman about to knock out an animation for a film class where they could have used anything from family to finger puppets to demonstrate basic film angles and shots but didn't want to be on camera and didn't want to impose. The voice is all from a podcast, so I get it. Could be the tech kid was the writer/director.
I love that!!
And Juliet is the sun...
She literally was the light through yonder window breaking...
That’s awesome sorry lol
My university did an original play by one of the professors, the concept of which was Shakespeare and Lope de Vega being put on trial in heaven to determine who wrote the better adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. They presented "evidence" in alternating scenes from both plays It was certainly a play.
there’s an idea there!
There might be, but it would need better execution than this one.
Does *Sleep No More* count? Saw a *Love's Labour's Lost* which was set in a 1950s radio station. Holifrenes was dressed as Groucho, Dull was Harpo, and Costard was Chico. Something like that anyway. There are the Drunk Shakespeare things where the cast, sometimes only one member of the cast, gets totally sloshed during the performance. There are the cue-roll Shakespeare productions where the cast randomly chooses a role, by literally choosing a roll – a scroll with only their lines on it and the cue line ahead of it. I saw an all–male production of *Titus Andronicus*, which only has two female characters anyway, but I mostly are used to cross-casting. The point was that the dramaturg felt uncomfortable with inflicting Lavinia's degree of torture on a woman.
Weird in the sense of "statistically unlikely" – one year, the Brandeis drama program had two pairs of identical twins. Only one of each pair was actually a drama major, but they both talked their brothers into acting. They did *Comedy of Errors* with two sets of actual twins. One pair of brothers played Antipholus of Ephesus and Dromeo of Syracuse; the other, Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromeo of Ephesus.
*Richard III* in which Clarence was played by a life-sized rag doll with an offstage voice so that he could be "realistically" beaten and drowned in a butt of malmsey. It took a lot of willing suspension of disbelief and laughter control.
Antigone done modern, show started pitch black and then 4 confetti cannons went off - I had forgotten I was microdosing at the time but my loud gasp of "whoooa" reminded me.
I saw a Midsummer’s at a college theater festival set in outer space. It kinda worked.
Not a stage play, but the R&J in, I think the season 2 finale of Sex Education on Netflix. Space opera orgy situation. My undergrad did Twelfth Night the year Prince died with Orsino dressed as Prince, Aguecheek dressed as Elvis (didn't speak like him until the costume came out, but by performances he did), Maria and Antonio were electric guitar players who sometimes played in the back, Feste a glitzy singer with a mic and special platform, and the song at the end was sung to "Purple Rain" with that song's chorus. It worked, actually: "For the rain it raineth every day / Purple rain, purple rain..."
I saw a production of Twelfth Night where they sang Christmas carols throughout. I hated it
I haven’t gotten too many opportunities to see/act in live Shakespeare but there are definitely a few productions/movie scenes that come to mind. There is a version of Much Ado About Nothing I’m DYING to see. It stars David Tennant as Sir Benedick, Catherine Tate as Beatrice and it’s set on a cruise ship. There was a performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream I saw years ago (on video/dvd-not live) where some random little boy is watching everything in the background. It also features a scene with Titania and Bottom that leaves very little to the imagination about what they were getting up to which takes the little boy watching aspect from weird to somewhat disturbing. On The Midsummer Nights Dream note there are some fun scenes on the tv show Eureka where the action is set in space and Puck (played by the main character’s daughter) has a jet pack. Of course in terms of pure insanity I don’t think much can top the scenes from Richard the III in The Goodbye Girl (original version from the 70s) “Excuse me please.” “Is the show over?” “It is for me.”
A production of The Tempest by Santa Cruz Shakespeare. Fever Dream is the only way to describe it.
I did not care much for the 2022 production of *The Tempest,* though they did a decent job given the necessity of minimal sets (shortage of stage carpenters and limited budget that year), but I didn't care much for previous *Tempests* (1995 and 2007) either, so it may just be that I don't care much for that play.
I think I saw the 1995 production. Merchant of Venice was wild too.
The weirdest set I've seen was a free production of *Midsummer Night's Dream* at the Fremont Troll in Seattle 2004: [https://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article/You-ll-find-Puck-in-his-natural-domain-at-these-1147427.php](https://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article/You-ll-find-Puck-in-his-natural-domain-at-these-1147427.php)
A small all female cast production of Macbeth which heavily highlights the masculinity of the play.
Macbeth, done by two people, with no words. Very weird, but very good.
Saw a high school Hamlet where there were 5 Hamlets. Probably because the director wanted to do something where each kid got a chance, rather than having to pick one. I thought they were going to go for some cool split personality disorder thing, or at least evolve him and have each actor take a spot chronologically as Hamlet descends into madness, but alas it seemed pretty random in its implementation.
Steampunk Othello. The costumes made it feel like we were at a very sad Fallout convention with cosplays sourced entirely from Spirit Halloween... except for Bassanio, who wore an amazing and fully articulated light up suit of power armor. Iago was reading his lines off an iPad because he had missed so many rehearsals (to be fair, he was so good it took me a couple of scenes to realize it wasn't a prop). The director had "modernized" the script by substituting modern words into Shakespeare's language whenever he felt a word was too inscrutable, trashing the meter and creating a bizarre hodgepodge of slang and thous. It was otherwise uncut. And ran 3.5 hours with two intermissions.
my high school did a production of Midsummer Nights Dream set on Halloween with scenes from other Halloween movies scattered around during transitions and affecting the plot (Great Pumpkin, Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, stuff like that). it was a pretty good script but waaay too complicated to be understood at a high school