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Sixty-Minute Shakespeare : A Midsummer Night's Dream

Sixty-Minute Shakespeare : A Midsummer Night's Dream

List Price: $8.99
Your Price: $8.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I saw the other reviews of this book,and I have to wonder if the reviewers really read this abridged version of the play. This is one of our family's favorite plays, and I bought this book to allow us to do a living room performance of it in one evening. I was disappointed. First, the copy has many errors in it that make performing it confusing. For instance, in Act I, Scene 1, when Egeus brings Hermia and Demetrius and Lysander before Theseus, there is a stage direction that says "Demetrius exit and Helena follow." although Helena has not appeared (in this or any other version of the play) until later in the scene. Second, every person who has to make cuts in this play does it differently, but Cass Foster has cut some parts that I really miss, especially Bottom's playing the "tyrant" in Act I, Scene 2, and the rest of Thisby's death speech in Act V. Those scenes seem wooden and hurried without those lines. If I had known what this book was like, I would have ordered a different book with the full text and cut out lines myself. It would be easier than going through this text and correcting typos and adding lines that I feel need to be there.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I saw the other reviews of this book,and I have to wonder if the reviewers really read this abridged version of the play. This is one of our family's favorite plays, and I bought this book to allow us to do a living room performance of it in one evening. I was disappointed. First, the copy has many errors in it that make performing it confusing. For instance, in Act I, Scene 1, when Egeus brings Hermia and Demetrius and Lysander before Theseus, there is a stage direction that says "Demetrius exit and Helena follow." although Helena has not appeared (in this or any other version of the play) until later in the scene. Second, every person who has to make cuts in this play does it differently, but Cass Foster has cut some parts that I really miss, especially Bottom's playing the "tyrant" in Act I, Scene 2, and the rest of Thisby's death speech in Act V. Those scenes seem wooden and hurried without those lines. If I had known what this book was like, I would have ordered a different book with the full text and cut out lines myself. It would be easier than going through this text and correcting typos and adding lines that I feel need to be there.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A letter from a customer in Baku, Azerbaijan
Review: March 5, 1999

Dear friends at Five Star Pub.,

We have a small school on the other side of the planet from you in a country called Azerbaijan. It's kind of a home school coop. Two years ago we performed your version of Romeo and Juliet and last year, A Midsummer Night's Dream. We really enjoy your versions because of the suggestions for staging (we're all rookies) and your notes of explanation on difficult phrases. I have to admit that the kids liked the Romeo and Juliet notes the best because there were more of them but we also like the new layout of Midsummer. It's easier to use.

Thanks for your help,

Cindi Wagner Baku, Azerbaijan


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