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aveincobalt's review against another edition
3.0
Older works can be hard to stomach, but I had liked this one up until this moment.
I find it hard to believe that these people (who had collectively found love, joy, and terrible truths about themselves) would so easily dismiss all this. If you knew one change would greatly improve your life, wouldn't you pursue it?
JOANNA A strange experiment, Matey; does it ever have any permanent effect?
MATEY (on whom it has had none) So far as I know, not often, miss; but, I believe, once in a while.
I find it hard to believe that these people (who had collectively found love, joy, and terrible truths about themselves) would so easily dismiss all this. If you knew one change would greatly improve your life, wouldn't you pursue it?
renbooks's review against another edition
4.0
3.5
Read this play because I am auditioning for it on January. It has some good ideas, not very fleshed out characters or plot. Some of it is very dated and sexist
Read this play because I am auditioning for it on January. It has some good ideas, not very fleshed out characters or plot. Some of it is very dated and sexist
pickett22's review against another edition
5.0
This has been my bath-time reading for a while, and I finished it tonight. It was an excellent bath book; fairly cheerful, clever, and funny, and yet thoughtful.
When I started it I was kinda...
Can't tell if funny... off-putting...
I wasn't sure at first if the narrator was very tongue-in-cheek or actually serious. It becomes clear really early on, though, that it's the former. And it's really funny. And sweet. And rather sad. It's sad for my favourite characters, but really lovely for my runners-up.
Also, I was so pleased with how the philanderer ended up. That was really, really well done.
Actual quote:
JOANNA: It's so lovely not to be married to you, Jack.
JACK: (spiritless) I can understand that.
I see in Margaret Hopkins' Spring and Fall. I'm sure that's not an accident. Literary references abound, this was just my favourite.
I'm not sure how well this translates to stage, or if it's meant to be one of those plays that are read and not performed, because the stage directions are a.) hilarious and b.) very important to the tone of the thing. You'd need to really ham it up, I think, to make it come across with the same kind of feeling. Actually, if you hammed it up, it would lose something, because part of the hilarity is in how serious everyone takes themselves. So yeah, I dunno.
Really good read, though.
Re-read in 2020:
This book is really fun to teach. Watching a bunch of teenagers try to puzzle out what went wrong with the Dearth's marriage is really funny and interesting, even though in the end I had to point it out to them.
I actually read it twice in a very short time-span, because we also did it as a Covid-19 online read-along for drama club. I pulled parts out of a hat and away we went. The play is SO funny in places, and then shifts tone to be so heart-wrenching, but it's all handled so beautifully. It would be great to see it (or be in it), but the entire group agreed that a narrator would be required as the stage directions are pretty fundamental to the story.
When I started it I was kinda...
Can't tell if funny... off-putting...
I wasn't sure at first if the narrator was very tongue-in-cheek or actually serious. It becomes clear really early on, though, that it's the former. And it's really funny. And sweet. And rather sad. It's sad for my favourite characters, but really lovely for my runners-up.
Also, I was so pleased with how the philanderer ended up. That was really, really well done.
Actual quote:
JOANNA: It's so lovely not to be married to you, Jack.
JACK: (spiritless) I can understand that.
I see in Margaret Hopkins' Spring and Fall. I'm sure that's not an accident. Literary references abound, this was just my favourite.
I'm not sure how well this translates to stage, or if it's meant to be one of those plays that are read and not performed, because the stage directions are a.) hilarious and b.) very important to the tone of the thing. You'd need to really ham it up, I think, to make it come across with the same kind of feeling. Actually, if you hammed it up, it would lose something, because part of the hilarity is in how serious everyone takes themselves. So yeah, I dunno.
Really good read, though.
Re-read in 2020:
This book is really fun to teach. Watching a bunch of teenagers try to puzzle out what went wrong with the Dearth's marriage is really funny and interesting, even though in the end I had to point it out to them.
I actually read it twice in a very short time-span, because we also did it as a Covid-19 online read-along for drama club. I pulled parts out of a hat and away we went. The play is SO funny in places, and then shifts tone to be so heart-wrenching, but it's all handled so beautifully. It would be great to see it (or be in it), but the entire group agreed that a narrator would be required as the stage directions are pretty fundamental to the story.
schottjm's review against another edition
4.0
I was not familiar with this play until I was asked to take part in a Zoom reading of it. Timely in its message today, it asks the question of whether it is our choices that make us who we are, or is it who we are that determines our choices? I would love to see a fully-staged production of this.
zeemeermijn's review against another edition
3.0
Bit of a dry read (and weird) but it's an interesting play
sherbertwells's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
On a magical midsummer night, eight strangers are offered a chance to experience their greatest “what-ifs.” Although the gender politics of Barrie’s genteel, crepuscular world evoke a few eye-rolls, his sincerity transforms this obscure play into an enchanting almost-classic.
“PURDIE: What really plays the dickens with us is something in ourselves. Something that makes us go on doing the same sort of fool things, however many chances we get…We can at least control him if we try hard enough. But I have for the moment an abominably clear perception that the likes of me never really tries” (62)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Alcoholism and Emotional abuse
izabrekilien's review
1.0
I really tried reading it, I did... But seeing grown-ups acting like kids right from the start (Lob hiding under the table and pulling a tantrum, for example) plus other actions that really made me think about A midsummer night's dream... I couldn't keep reading, it just lost my interest.
lnatal's review
3.0
From BBC radio 4 Extra:
4 Extra Debut. Midsummer's Eve. In a magic wood, a second chance awaits people who have taken a wrong turn in life. Stars Bernard Hepton. From February 1987.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bn5b71
4 Extra Debut. Midsummer's Eve. In a magic wood, a second chance awaits people who have taken a wrong turn in life. Stars Bernard Hepton. From February 1987.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bn5b71
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