The play was interesting and whimsical, albeit for the first hour or so. The actresses managed to capture my attention and kept me entertained as the prisoners brought in the toys and other equipment, giving the atmosphere an air of whimsy. Furthermore, some of the witty, comical comments exchanged by the not so slender Falstaff character elicited a response from the audience and I was able to understand the comedic value in those assertions. However, it was extremely difficult to understand the dialogue between the characters. To fully understand the characters, I had to muster all of my concentration, which was only exacerbated by the fact that there was no intermission, for the three hours of the play. This experience was, nevertheless, priceless because it was a learning experience. Although I like reading Shakespeare because I can take my time to comprehend the dialogue, I realized that watching Shakespearean plays is an active process, meaning that the members of the audience must listen to every single word meticulously to capture the meaning of what was said. Once the dialogue is spoken it is gone. Vanished. It is impossible to replay or go back to what was said. This made it very hard for me to understand what was going on in the play. On the plus side, however, my favorite character was Falstaff because he (she) lightened the mood of the play with humor. All in all, the experience was “okay” with some parts being phenomenal, namely Falstaff’s humor, and other parts being barely understandable.
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