It was billed as a brand-new way to experience a bewitching Shakespeare play, transformed by the magic of social media – and all played out in real time, over the space of the midsummer weekend.
Midsummer Night's Dreaming, a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Google's Creative Lab, certainly grabbed the headlines when it was announced back in May. It harnessed a variety of technologies, from Google Plus to Vine, live photos and specially created gifs, combining a company of real-life actors specially convened for the occasion with a cast of virtual characters (many of whom are nowhere to be seen in Shakespeare's dramatis personae). Everything culminated on Sunday in a live community event in which everyone in Stratford-upon-Avon was invited to the "wedding of the year". You could participate via the central dreaming.dream40 website, which contained various live feeds, or follow various strands on Twitter and other social media.
But how did everything pan out in the end? Did you take part, either live or online? Did you stay up all night to watch it, or fall asleep before Puck had had a chance to put a girdle round the earth? And, if so, what did you think of the experience? Were you an eager fan – or did you agree with the Telegraph critic Dominic Cavendish, who was largely baffled by the project and admitted that he was confused by "what the Puck was going on"?
And, in general, what do you think of using new technologies as a way into theatre? Is this kind of experiment with live performance brave or bewildering? Most crucially – can it ever be as good as the real thing?
