feeling listless

Shakespeare the cd boxset. I've always found that some plays work better than others in audio, which is odd because when the plays were produced for the most part the masses were left with a bare stage in The Globe and had to imagine the locale. But sometimes, it takes a previous understanding of the action to understand what is happening. For example, imagine listening to Romeo and Juliet for the first time without a prior introduction, and in particular the balcony scene. It's not all that clear that there is a balcony and the Baz Luhrman adaptation accepted it is really important that the space separates them. For me it represents the gap between the two families. In audio it wouldn't be there, the two lovers might as well be in the same room which doesn't work at all.

What I would like to hear is the play done in the mode of this, with each actor becoming a speaker. Perhaps stage hands could move the speakers about during the performance -- perhaps the Juliet amp could be placed much higher than Romeo creating that space again. [via AJ]