The Southern Arkansas University Theatre Department is set to perform William Shakespear’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Harton Theatre from February 15-18, 2018. The show is intended for mature audiences.
SAU’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will run nightly at 7 p.m. on Feb. 15, 16, 17, and at 2 p.m. on Feb. 18. Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 for SAU faculty, staff, and students. Online reservations can be made at www.showtix4u.com. Group sales are available by calling 870-235-4263.
At first glance, perhaps Shakespearean comedies and the early rave scene don’t seem to have much in common. In his comedies, Shakespeare often utilized the notion of a “green world,” which was a form of the natural world to which his human characters ventured in order to escape from their civilized lives. In this natural world unhindered by the laws of man, true feelings could be unmasked and problems solved in ways that carried over back into the real world.
From their inception in the fields of England in the early 1990s, raves served a similar purpose. They existed as an escape-where the younger generation left the rules of their parents behind and chased after four ideals: peace, love, unity, and respect. Eventually even the adults got in on the act, normalizing the rave and using it as a means to simply leave behind the burdens and responsibilities of the work-week and “have a good night.”
Yet at their cores, both the rave and the green world are a space between — where the social hierarchies between us all get to be left at the door. Between experience and desire, between constraint and freedom, between who you have to be and who you want to be — this is the place that one’s true self can be really be present.
To learn more about SAU’s Performing Arts and Theatre department, visit https://web.saumag.edu/theatre/.
