Interpretation is Art

Interpretation – an explanation of the meaning of another's artistic or creative work; an elucidation

When I think of interpretation I think of retellings of classics; Shakespeare, Homer, fairy tales and mythology. There’s always someone using Alice in Wonderland as a template or Greek mythology to build their world. There’s even a new series retelling the Wizard of Oz with Dorothy as a wicked, slutty villain (I thought that was hilarious.) I personally love retellings. I love the challenge of twisting well known characters and plot lines to my own personal tastes and it seems every time I see a new book on the shelf full of mythological gods and heroes my hands itch to pick it up and flip through it. If it is based on a tale I really like I find myself praying that this book will be just as good, something fresh and exciting, but let’s be honest – it doesn’t always work out that way. I find myself disappointed more than not and it’s not always disappointment in novels, sometimes it’s in other art forms.

The last time I actually got to go to the ballet I saw a rendition of Shakespeare’s classic love story Romeo and Juliet. Let me start with saying that I’m jaded on the subject of Shakespeare. I was a theater major in college and I have seen more bad (like I would rather have fallen down some stairs than have to watch those performances again bad) than good. I won’t say what ballet company it was or where they performed but I will say it was a disaster.

When I walked up to the theater I heard the soundtrack from Baz Luhrmann’s movie version playing over the loud speakers. While I once was a huge fan of the film (when I was thirteen or somewhere around there) I don’t feel the same all these years later. I was ready to open my mind to it because I didn’t have my husband there complaining or a two year old to chase around and I thought “Well I guess this will be a modern version of the story. How refreshing! No outdated or tacky colored costumes or silly head dresses.” Then they came, a troupe of actors from some nearby high school. They walked around in tacky and ill-fitted costumes staring at the unsuspecting people who were just having a drink or two before the performance. I immediately knew what they were after and ignored them. Not everyone could. When they found their “audience” by making eye contact they would randomly begin yelling monologues or scenes from the play. It was awkward and so uncomfortable I didn’t know whether to laugh at them or feel sorry for them. They had the bravado of an actor who has finally been cast in something they thought important but the pieces were so out of their depth it hurt to watch.

If you’re going to perform Shakespeare buy a dictionary and know what the hell you are saying!!!

That goes for high school kids, colleges, community theater, EVERYONE! If you can’t understand what you are saying then how can you properly act it or even expect the audience to believe it? The short answer is you can’t.

So the ballet was off to a rough start but I will say that from the moment the curtain rose I was hooked. It was like watching a fabulous train wreck. The dancers couldn’t keep time if their lives depended on it; they couldn’t stay in sync while performing group numbers and the death scene was beyond laughable because the dancer’s got overzealous with their bad acting. I’m supposed to be sad at the end, not holding back a chuckle.

Now what would have made this better? Besides better dancers? How about a different interpretation of the story? I didn’t expect the choreography to be out there and radical. I prefer classical ballet and that’s exactly what I got but it would have been nice to see Romeo and Juliet in a different setting, maybe in ancient Greece or at Knossos playing on the myth of the Minotaur and having one of the fathers as King Minos. Go crazy and make them aliens on a distant planet, set it in a traveling circus or have the families be mobsters from New York. Mix it up, have Romeo and Juliet’s story mingle with another legend of lovers, borrow from another plot line, you could even change the ending! It’s not illegal, it’s interpretation. Maybe Tybalt is not truly dead and he follows Romeo to Juliet’s tomb and kills them both because he is in love with Juliet? Why not? Maybe Juliet’s father comes in to see his daughter alive and in Romeo’s arms. He flies off in a rage and kills Romeo and Juliet has to end her own life. Let’s have a better reason than teenage love for the leads to die. Was Juliet abused? Does she really love Romeo or is he just a way of escape?

I am all for borrowing. I myself have a finished novel where I borrowed a ballet plot line and made it my own. I kept what I wanted and changed the rest. It doesn’t make me less of a fan and it doesn’t mean I didn’t love the original, it meant I had a different story to tell. Interpretation is an art form in itself whether one is borrowing from a well known novel or basing a story off of a single character or even your favorite sentence from the book. Ideas come from everywhere. Continue to read, continue to watch films and theater and the opera, any form of art, continue to grow as an artist and find your own story hidden in the worlds that came before. After all, variety is the spice of life!    

What's your favorite retelling? Maybe you've written your own? I'd love to hear about it!