Directing Midsummers in India

When initially talking about the project, where I directed the college drama club, I wanted all of the show to be based in India- the lovers, the workman, etc. An objection arose because if the lovers in the play were Indian characters, then the character's decisions about love would be condoned. Namely the fact that the lovers run away from the will of the parents and chose for themselves who they wanted to love. This is, as they say in India, a western love marriage. In southern India, arraigned marriages are still the norm, where the man and wife meet maybe once, and it is set up by the parents. There are variations of how much the parents set up, but predominately the parents have a strong role in the decision.
When we talked to people about their arraigned marriages, we never met one who was bitter. A common phrase was that you learn to love, no matter what. One lady described how good it was to trust her parents, for them to make the decision, rather than have the pressure on themselves to make the right decision. A couple of times Indians would make jokes about how complicated western style of love becomes. The love in Shakespeare's Midsummers is complex, layered and poetically dances back and forth. So I guess it is true. A point to debate is if our culture and art make our understanding of love more complex, layered, or if love is truly that way. Anyways, the decision for the production was that the lovers and parents would be westerners on a holiday in India. So the rude mechanicals and fairies were in Indian style of dress, which did make them more fanciful and important.