A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: Shakespeare.

Touring.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM: Shakespeare.
Heartbreak Productions: Tour Info 01926 430307 www.heartbreakproductions.co.uk.
Runs: 2h 30m: one interval: touring nationwide till 24th August.
Performance times: Mostly 7.30pm but varies with venue.
Review: Alan Geary: Nottingham: 22nd August.

There’s enough variety in Heartbreak’s Dream for three plays.
There’s enough variety in Heartbreak’s Dream for three plays; from Gordon Brown gags to a more than slightly glam rock Oberon, everything seems to be thrown in. Theseus (Tom Moody), in tweed cap and Barbour, and Hippolyta (Abigail Gallagher) are landed gentry and the rude mechanicals are their estate workers.

Reasonably enough, director, Maddy Kerr emphasises the contrasting worlds of the play: the upper-crust, the plebeian and the magical. And the contrast works well. What don’t work well are the clunky and gratuitous topical references and slabs of pedestrian dialogue she inserts from time to time. At one point we even get a radio weather forecast.

Bottom and the low-lifers make their rehearsal and performance scenes some of the best of the play, though the finest probably belongs to the two pairs of lovers at the point when their affairs are at their most tangled.

Wearing masks, the denizens of the fairy world are far more sinister than mischievous: Puck (Gabrielle Meadows) comes over as evil rather than properly puckish and Oberon (Tom Moody again) has more than a touch of the Gary Glitters about him.

Despite the unwelcome textual intrusions, Shakespeare’s incomparable verse is honourably delivered by a cast of accomplished actors. The outstanding performances are from Owen Bevan, as both Lysander and Bottom. He and Gemma Kelly, as Hermia, are nicely matched. Even before the confusion starts there’s a well-judged brittleness about their relationship; you can imagine what they’ll be like as a married couple.

It’s all done on a simple but surprisingly realistic set which blends with the Nottingham Castle venue.

Tom Moody.
Abigail Gallagher.
Gabrielle Meadows.
Gemma Kelly.
Richard Gee.
Owen Bevan.

Director: Maddy Kerr.
Designer: Emma Morton.
Composer: Darren Scott.

2008-08-25 08:52:46