Classic and Modern Interpretation of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Error"
Classic becomes classic when it survives from one generation to the other constantly winning favor among the people. Moreover, current artistes tend to base their works on classical works such as poems, plays, drawings, and novels among others. A typical example is Jeffrey Renn's production of William Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Error" (1594). The drama is one of Shakespeare's shortest and funniest comedies. Jeffrey Renn's version was performed at the University of Victoria on March 22, 2018, presenting a modern style play, while updating the original one with pop music and a new ending. The drama has certainly transformed into a 21st – century product under Renn's direction. Meanwhile, it still maintains a strong link to the original plot of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Error."
Negative Effects of New Elements in the Play
Though the new elements integrated into the play to build up a brand-new image of drama, it sways from the original meaning; hence, creating negative effects. The musical performance certainly enhances the attraction of the play towards audience's attention visually and aurally, and the new ending cleans the mess and confusions of the last stage in the script. Nonetheless, the new style hardly delivers the author's concept. For example, the musical effect tends to be too strong to the extent that it becomes a distraction, since the audience may focus more on the music or other factors instead of the actual story. Similarly, a framed ending would somehow restrain audience's imagination, and it will give less aftertaste of the play. As such, this paper implies that though the new performance is fresher and appealing, it can be forgotten as quickly as pop music. On the other hand, the script gives more classical tastes and freedom of one's fantasy.
Shortcomings of Musical Performances
The musical performances are great to create an intense atmosphere, but it fails to meet the primary purpose of focusing on the plot. The music results in time constraints that culminate to the omission of several elements of the plot. Because the play has to be finished within a set period, several parts of the plot are omitted to squeeze in the music performance and a decent amount of information of the script. As such, it can cause confusions for the audience due to the flash switch on the plot. Moreover, the plot somehow becomes tedious as due to the intense music performance. After watching the presentation, it is nearly impossible for the plot to attain the same excitement levels consistently. Moreover, the audience will cool down as the plot turns dull and they will be yearning for the musical performance instead. The music has too much attraction that eventually distracts the audience from the play and makes it hard for the audience to focus on the plot.
The Creative Ending and its Effect
The creative ending cleans up the mess at the last stage but frames the imaginary space to the audience giving it a negative effect.
Lack of Suspension and Complete Ending
One aspect of quality art, i.e., poems or plays among others is suspense, which leaves the ending open to interpretation. The script provides no end; thus, it is broad and has no restriction on audience's imagination. People are free to create their preferred ending for the text, and this allows the viewers to "taste" the script once again. In other words, the audience will have the desire to seek for a complete ending, and it will increase their interest towards the story. In contrast, the play gives a solid ending; finishing in a rush and lacks a plot because there is nothing more to develop. Comparing to the other part of the play that follows the script, the new ending has the least creativity; hence, it becomes a freezer that cools down everyone's mood and expectation. A complete ending may satisfy its audience, but at the same time, the play becomes less appealing, since a satisfied person will not ask for more.
The Balance Between Classic and Modern Elements
Overall, Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Error" is a classic. It is interesting to see a modern style play depicting Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Error." The new elements are fresh and readily acceptable. However, the music performance seems to overtake the play, and the new ending is nothing more than a summary of all the conflicts in the script considered as a waste of time. New elements added to the play can increase the interest of the audience, but a substantial factor can alter the focus of the performance. It would be interesting to replace the music performance with background tunes and more decorations; then the audience can concentrate on the plot and enjoy the never-ending conflicts. In the current form, the play is like pop music; while it is readily acceptable, it is also easy to forget. On the contrary, classic lives on from one generation to the other gaining favor each time, and Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Error" is a typical example.
