Collaboration between RSC and Google demonstrates the continued relevance of Shakespeare

The Royal Shakespeare Company and Google joined forces this month to put on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that utilised elements of the latter’s social media site, Google+. A Midsummer Night’s Dreaming, as the project is titled, saw the plot of the play shared on the internet as it occurred over three days. Making use of text, animated and video posts and the hashtag #dream40, the project aimed to present the story of the celebrated play through the lens of social media.

This is not the first time the RSC has tried its hand at social media storytelling. Its previous project titled Such Tweet Sorrow, aimed to bring Romeo and Juliet into the 21st century and the digital world. The production made use of multiple platforms such as Wordpress, YouTube and Audioboo but primarily focused on Twitter. The 140 character limit of Twitter saw innovation from the cast. The actors for instance interacted with other Twitter users that were following the narrative, and improvised their tweets around a structured framework rather than quote lines directly.

One benefit of both these performances is that they are archived on the internet, so you can look back over them at any time. Although reading through the 4000 tweets posted over the five weeks Such Tweet Sorrow took place, is not a task to be undertaken lightly.

A Midsummer Night’s Dreaming took a different format, characters updated Google+ with pictures and videos of a performance that took place in real time over three days in Stratford-upon-Avon. “These projects highlight the continued relevance of Shakespeare in the modern day,” says Derrick Gask, Artistic Programme Manager at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre.

“They show that Shakespeare’s works can be transmitted over digital channels and still have an impact. With the recent release of Joss Whedon’s film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing garnering critical acclaim, the popularity of Shakespeare is higher than ever.”

You can buy tickets for the Stafford Festival Shakespeare performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream here (http://www.staffordgatehousetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/shakespeare/A-Midsummer-Night-s-Dream). View the archive for A Midsummer Night’s Dreaming at www.dream40.org to refresh your memory of the plot.