STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: THEATER - “Shakespeare in Hollywood”

(All photos are from the original 2004 production at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. They can be found Ken Ludwig’s website, which will be listed below)

Imagine you were watching a movie based on your favorite book. What if some of those characters literally came from a reality where that world existed, and was playing themselves in the film?

Written by Ken Ludwig, Shakespeare in Hollywood is about two fairies from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Oberon and Puck, who find themselves on a film set in Hollywood, 1934. The film that is in production? That’s right: A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Various characters based on real life people, from director Max Reinhart, to Will Hays (the creator of the censor guideline Production code) to Olivia Darnell, based on actress Olivia de Havilland, whom Oberon is attracted and it seems the feeling’s mutual.

When the actors for Oberon and Puck are incapacitated, Oberon and Puck, mistaken for actors, are hired by Reinhart to replace them.

Hijinks ensue, especially when the fairies bring a magic flower that makes people fall in love with the first person they see.

I have never seen any production of this play. I discovered it when I was shopping at the Drama Book Shop in New York, and I thought I would enjoy reading it, so I am basing this post on the script itself. Make no mistake: it IS enjoyable.

When it comes to stories about making a film or a play, or even about the entertainment industry as a whole, it’s almost always depressing. Here, it is a comedy based on characters and their situation.

The plot itself, where two characters come into the real world where their world is being made into a movie, is nothing new. A good example is the episode “The French Mistake” from the show Supernatural. These kinds of stories only work when the audience knows about the characters for as long as they did. Both these works rely on knowledge of the characters and/or players involved, and because these topics have a very niche audience, it won’t be common knowledge. However, what makes these stories resonate with everyone is the comedy. After all, it’s about characters realizing that their life is a product for audience consumption; imagine the existential crises that must go on in their minds (this scene does NOT happen in the play. They actually go with the flow surprisingly well.)

Shakespeare in Hollywood is an entertaining play that doesn’t rely on the typical plot points with a plot it portrays, such as fish-out-of-water antics. Anytime a character witnesses Oberon and Puck acting like a Shakespeare character, they just believe they’re in character, or just being a foreigner. While love triangles (or squares) exist, it all gets resolved within the same act, and peace is finally restored. Be warned, it does feature a pretty bittersweet ending.