Redlass's Full Review: Ann-Marie MacDonald - Goodnight Desdemona (Good Mo...
Scripts aren’t the easiest things to read. They are, after all, merely the building blocks which actors, directors, and technicians use to create a show. They’re not really meant to be read. They’re meant to be performed.
People involved in theater spend a lot of time learning how to read and interpret scripts. They spend a lot of time watching other shows so that they can learn how to take the bare words on a page and make them spring to life before an audience.
So I don’t typically expect a script to grab me merely from a cold reading of it. It usually isn’t until I’ve read it aloud, visualized how to put it together, or watched parts of it be performed that I get excited about a script. An exception to that generality was Goodnight, Desdemona (Good Morning, Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald.
Falling in Love
I picked up a copy of this script nearly a year ago after a friend suggested that I might want to direct it. I was barely a handful of pages into it before I was laughing out loud and reading bits of it to any hapless victim that happened to be near me. It immediately struck me as a play that our local theater group needed to do.
Before I begin to tell you why I fell in love with it, let me tell you what the play is “about” even though that barely touches on the brilliance of this work. The play centers on Constance Ledbelley, an academic at Queen’s University who has been plugging away at her thesis. Her thesis is that Othello and Romeo and Juliet were originally comedies that Shakespeare turned into tragedies through the removal of the Wise Fool. As she explains in Act I, Scene 1:
What if a Fool were to enter the worlds of both Othello and Romeo and Juliet? Would he be akin to the Wise Fool in King Lear? A Fool who can comfort and comment but who cannot alter the state of the tragic heroes? Or would our Fool defuse the tragedies by assuming center stage as comic hero? Indeed, in Romeo and Juliet, the Fool is conspicuous by his very absence, for these two tragedies hinge on flimsy mistakes—a lost handkerchief, a delayed wedding announcement—mistakes easily concocted and corrected by a Wise Fool.
She gets the chance to unknowingly test her theory when, after the arrogant and pompous Prof. Claude Night shatters all of her hopes and dreams, she falls into both of these plays and is able to search out the Fool and the Author to make them cough up their secrets. She yanks the handkerchief out of Iago’s pocket just as Othello is about to commit to the murder of his wife and then tackles Tybalt and Mercutio, announcing that Romeo and Juliet have just wed.
More Than Just a Story
But to simply describe the play based on a plot summary is to miss much of the joy of this play. It is a play that takes place on the level of subconscious mind. The chorus opens the play talking about alchemy and he neatly summarizes everything that will take place in the play by saying:
What’s alchemy? The hoax of charlatans? Or mystic quest for stuff of life itself: Eternal search for the Philosopher’s Stone, where mingling and unmingling opposites, transforms base metal into precious gold. Hence scientific metaphor of self: divide the mind’s opposing archetypes –if you possess the courage for the task—invite them from the shadows to the light; unite these lurking shards of broken glass into a mirror that reflects one soul. And in this merging of unconscious selves, there lies the mystic marriage of true minds.
Not your standard Neil Simon fare, eh? Granted, she doesn’t quite reach the level of Tom Stoppard, but then, who does?
In this play, Juliet and Desdemona emerge as two opposites of Constance’s subconscious. They are the victim and aggressor, the pacifist and the aggressor. They eventually play tug of war with her, each pulling her toward the extremes of the spectrum in which Constance really exists in all places on that spectrum, not just one.
Although there are 16 characters in this play, it becomes essential to this underlying theme that the parts are played by five actors. Constance’s mind creates Othello and Tybalt in the image of Professor Night, her tormentor. The Chorus permeates Romeo, Iago, and the Ghost, all characters that push Constance toward discovery.
The mystery of the play—Constance’s search for the Fool and the Author—parallels the subconscious search for identity. To tell you further would ruin the mystery, so I shall remain mum at this point.
Just Try to Read Without Laughing
I will say that even if I gave away every secret of the plot in this review, the play would still be worth seeing and reading. Why? Because MacDonald’s wit permeates every page. The Village Voice wrote of the play: “Stratford-upon-Acid: that’s where MacDonald’s dizzying Goodnight Desdemona lives…MacDonald traipses through the canon with glee.”
Goodnight Desdemona is true comedy—whether you are a groundling or an academic. It is merciless to each of its victims, even while displaying an intimacy and affection for them.
The set-ups alone can make one laugh: Desdemona is a bloodthirsty warrior who married Othello because she loved to hear him talk of war. When Constance foils the plot against her, Iago begins to turn Desdemona against Constance using the very same ploys he used with Othello. Desdemona is first passionately Constance’s sister, then becomes just as easily swayed to be her sworn enemy.
In Verona, Constance is mistaken for a boy (Desdemona had ripped her skirt off during a sword fight, leaving her in her long johns) and both Romeo and Juliet proceed to fall in love with the new “boy.” When they each think that “Constantine” is attracted to the other, Romeo dresses in Juliet’s clothes and Juliet in Romeo’s clothes to further their wooing. Nor is Juliet swayed in her passion when Constance reveals herself as a woman.
Perhaps the funniest scene in the whole play comes in Romeo and Juliet’s bedchamber “the morning after.” The two 14-year-olds are already bored with each other and end up getting in a tug-of-war over a turtle.
But you needn’t take my word alone that the play is side-splitting. Allow me to share a tidbit of the dialog so you can judge the humor for yourself. This is a smattering of a scene in Act III, scene IV:
Romeo: Oh, Constantine, oh emperor of my heart! It is my sex that is thine enemy, call me but love and I’ll be new endowed.
Constance: It isn’t that, good grief, get up!
Romeo: Then love me! [He jumps up to kiss her, Constance escapes]
Constance: No, please, I’m not that kind of, of—boy.
Romeo: What kind of boy?
Constance: The kind that can just hop into bed with any Tom, Dick or …Romeo.
Romeo: Where be these rivals Tom and Dick?! Are their sweet lips more to thy taste than mine?
Constance: Oh no, I suspect that you’re beyond compare.
Later in the scene Romeo and Juliet are now playing tug of war with Constance:
Juliet: [Aside] Thy pretty boy, I will ungreek thee yet.
[Intercepting Constance]If I do profane with my unworthiest hand… Romeo: Hold! I saw him first.
Juliet: Thou wouldst corrupt him.
Romeo: Sayest thou? Thou that bedded the first doublet
to o’erperch thine orchard walls?
Juliet: Thou caitiff!
I sicken of thy blubb’ring, boyish charm.
Romeo: Thou’rt in the green-eyed clutch of envy, sweet!
Juliet: “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,” Romeo,
for with each new lust thou creepest close
unto the aged day when soft moist lip
and dewy eye convert to senile rheum.
Romeo:Thinks thou to leave a lovely corpse, my dear
when even now the crows have footed it
in merry measure all about thine eyes?
But do not think that these are the funniest lines, the play is full of exchanges like this and there is barely time to take a breath between all of the repartee.
And the Language? Which is it?
Many people shy from Shakespeare or plays set in the period because of the language. Others love the archaic language with its poetry and rhythm. Goodnight Desdemona strikes a balance between the two that supports both the searching and the humor.
There are spatterings of Shakespeare’s lines throughout the play—always set off with Zaph Chancery italics. Most of the characters are, after all, his creations. Although even someone unfamiliar with Shakespeare can enjoy this play, those who have devoted study and passion to the Bard are likely to find it even funnier. The lines are twisted, given to different characters, and set in different contexts. Each scene gets played out multiple times—once as the “true” form that Shakespeare wrote, again with the scene being interrupted and the tide turned, and a third time with different characters—the victims becoming aggressors who set their eyes on new targets.
Shakespeare’s characters speak in the melodic poetry with which we know them. Constance speaks always in modern English, though when she is in the plays, she adopts unrhymed iambical pentameter—a convention she comments on during one of her monologues.
Dramatic Power
Although I fell in love with this play simply by reading it, I will insist that reading it is only half of the experience. This play is truly theatrical, though definitely a challenge to the actors who undertake it.
The play contains swordfighting, cross-dressing, dancing, heads rising out of baskets, disappearances, quick costume changes, arrases, tombstones, and ghosts. There are love scenes, fight scenes, monologues galore, and the juggling of multiple characters.
About a year after I first read this play, Bath Community Theatre Guild decided to produce it and I had the good fortune to be given the part of Constance (a character whom the original director said had more lines than Hamlet, I didn’t bother to count).
The more time I spent with the play, the more passionate I became about it. To this day there are few plays that I like more than it. It is filled with energy and intelligence that often dips into out and out silliness.
The play was a blast to rehearse and perform as well. You might want to pity the actor playing Romeo—he had to kiss me several times in front of my husband, who was also the fight coach and always had sharp, pointy, steel sticks in his hands. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that he had to wear a pink dress and roller skates as the ghost.
Ah, but if I get started telling stories from our play, this review might never end, so I’ll get back to the point.
A Few Flaws
The play is not, alas, flawless. The first act is perfectly crafted for the reader who can sit back and appreciate the witty dialogue. For a play, there is very little action and it can be difficult to keep the audience’s attention. Constance spends almost the entire act talking to herself. It does a good job of setting the play and her character, but it drags out.
Goodnight, Desdemona dates itself in several ways. There are many feminist jokes that simply fall flat. And who remembers why drinking Coors Light makes a political statement?
There are also a few times when a single character must make such a quick costume change to become a different character that there is barely time. It is easy to spend much of this play being out of breath if you are an actor in it.
It can be difficult to visualize some of the more physical humor. One of my fellow actors claimed he didn’t care for the play much when he first read it, but that it grew on him with every reading and that he was constantly discovering new things about it.
Adults Only
Be forewarned, this is not a play for children. MacDonald is exploring the topics of love, literature, gender, sex, war, and relationships. While children may miss the meaning of some of the more bawdy exchanges such as the one between Mercutio and Tybalt that talk about them sheathing their “jocund tools of sport” at Mistress Burnbottom’s and getting paid with a French crown:
Tybalt: I’d as lief to pluck a green maid off the street.
Mercutio: Thou’dst feel that green fruit yerking in thy guts,
when that her kinsfolk ‘venged her maidenhead.
Tybalt: She’d never know who’d had her maidenhead,
for I would pass as quickly through the wench,
as any fruit so green, would pass through me!
The bawdy gestures would certainly make any parent whose child was watching squirm. I certainly didn’t let my own son watch the bedroom scene where Juliet finally succeeds in seducing Constance. Nor did I let him watch the balcony scene where Juliet responds with rapture to “Constantine’s” admission that she’s never tasted women:
Then are thy vestal senses all intact?
O let Juliet initiate
Thy budding taste of woman’s dewy rose.
Learn how the rose becomes a sea of love:
Come part the waves and plumb Atlantic depths.
I’ll guide thee to the oyster’s precious pearl…
We’ll seek out wat’ry caves for glist’ning treasure,
Spelunk all night until we die of pleasure.
When Constance tells her she isn’t in to that sort of thing, Juliet invites her to “claim another conduit for thy use.” In our production of the play, I was made all the more squirmy by the fact that Juliet was played by a 17-year-old girl whose mom helped her practice lines. I felt like I needed to apologize to her mother!
The Author
Indications of her talent bursts from Ann-Marie MacDonald’s resume. The Canadian playwright and novelist was recently in the news as the author of the Oprah pick, Fall on Your Knees. It would be an over-simplification, though, to merely call MacDonald a playwright or a novelist. She is also an actor who performs on both stage and screen. She hosts CBC TV’s Life and Times. Some 13 years after she wrote this play, she starred in the lead role of Constance for a Canadian Stage revival.
Her lists of literary awards are impressive:
@ Winner of Governor General's Award for Drama (Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet))
@ Winner of the Chalmers Award for Outstanding Play (Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet))
@ Winner of the Canadian Authors' Association Award for Drama (Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet))
@ Winner of the 1997 Commonwealth Prize for Best First Fiction (Fall On Your Knees)
@ Winner of the 1997 CAA Harlequin Literary Award for Fiction (Fall On Your Knees)
@ Winner of the 1997 Dartmouth Book Award (Fall On Your Knees)
@ Shortlisted for the 1996 Giller Prize (Fall On Your Knees)
@ Shortlisted for the 1997 Trillium Award (Fall On Your Knees)
@ Shortlisted for the 1997 Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award (Fall On Your Knees)
@ Shortlisted for Britain's Orange Prize for Best Novel by a woman writer (Fall On Your Knees)
@ Shortlisted for The 1997 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (Fall On Your Knees)
If you get the chance, See It! If you don’t, then read it!
I simply can’t recommend this play highly enough. The Globe and Mail wrote about the play: “Clever, pointed and entertaining…This play is one of the wildest and woolliest feminist appraisals that theatre has seen, and one of the most intellectually ambitious.”
The Commercial Appeal in Memphis wrote, “Imagine a collaboration among Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and Woody Allen, and you have the essence of Goodnight Desdemona.”
I agree with both of them. The play is a wild romp loaded with puns, mixed identities, humor, and an undercurrent of serious searching for identity and self-knowledge.
Treat yourself, find a copy of this play and spend an afternoon in laughter.
When ghostwriter Constance Ledbelly s mentor marries a rival, Constance embarks on a what-if writing spree that brings her face-to-face with literary ...More at Buy.com
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