Comparison and Contrasting Experience of Drama

Comparison and Contrasting Experience of Drama

Everyone has a preference when entertaining one’s self with a drama. Live theatrical performances, video production, and reading novels or poems are a few examples of how an individual may want to expand the mind. Personally, I feel that reading a drama is the best way to experience a story, depending on the author. The mind can produce extraordinary images that a live performance or video productions are limited to. In this essay, I will be discussing comparisons and contrasts of these examples.

Like a motion picture, live theatrical performances such as William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice brings the characters from the story to life to give the audience a look at the scenery, costumes and lifestyle of this era. In a Louisville review of a recent presentation of this play, director Curt L. Tofteland brings the storyline to life. The article states “In what may be the most significant effort of his Kentucky Shakespeare Festival tenure, he presents “Merchant” with no apologies and no diluting” (Adler B3). In other words, this play was performed exactly the way Shakespeare had written it. In comparison to a motion picture, the audience would just have to sit back without having to think or visualize. Today, video productions have computerized visuals to enhance or astound audiences. Most authors or directors of plays use only music, lights and costumes to give viewing enjoyment. My preference between watching a live performance and watching a movie would depend on the story, who wrote the story, and taste of entertainment. For example, I would rather watch a Shakespeare movie over a play or reading the novel. On the other hand, I would rather read Edgar Allen Poe than watch a movie tie in. Poe’s macabre story gives me more interest than Shakespeare’s tragedy/love style.

Video productions produce, or at least make a tremendous effort in delivering a story as if reading a novel. The 2002 release of Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” comes about as close to reading a story. “Even at two hours and 45 minutes, “Gangs of New York” never feels overlong, but occasionally it is overstuffed. Influenced by Dante Ferretti’s marvelous production design, which brings entire neighborhoods of old New York to life in a studio outside Rome, Scorsese occasionally pauses to make sure we are appreciating the history. Marveling as an Irish jig absorbs African rhythms, the otherwise racist Bill proclaims, “This is a new form of music!” (Westhoff, 1). Anyone who has seen this picture knows that this gives a picture that comes from the mind. I think Scorsese wanted to create these type of images of the Herbert Asbury’s 1927 story based under the same title. Actors portray these characters about as good if not better than any story. “In its best moments, the film also works off a chilling star turn by Day-Lewis as a sociopath gang boss with the tallest stovepipe hat in Christendom. He looks so much like Scorsese's usual star, Robert De Niro, which he almost seems to be doing a night club impression. But the performance still works: He's demonically magnetic.” (Arnold, 1) A great actor can deliver a performance and copy a persona of that character in any story. That’s how a film compares to a written piece of work. The previous quote from William Arnold’s Seattle Post article explains how actors can turn a novel into a life like performance. Daniel Day Lewis is so good at his character that he portrays a De Niro style of acting. This is an advantage for an actor over the audience. In other words, an actor must mimic a character perfectly in order to keep a viewer’s interest. The disadvantage for an actor would be a lack of keeping a viewer’s interest or a weak storyline.

Most live performances and some video productions such as “MacBeth” or “The Merchant of Venice” match or are as good as the the written pieces. But I feel that reading a written drama is in a league of it’s own. Almost all stories give a reader a more open mind and give visual aids