A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. To 1 November.

Sheffield

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
by William Shakespeare

Crucible Theatre To 1 November 2003
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat 8,15,22 October, 1 November 2.30pm
Audio-described + Touch tour 6pm 30 October
BSL Signed 9 October
Pre-show talk 6pm 14 October
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

TICKETS: 0114 249 6000
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 October

Dark, impressive staging with overall decent performances.Forsaking the star-cast Elizabethans of recent seasons' Elizabethabs (Fiennes J's Edward II, Branagh's Richard III, Jacobi in The Tempest), Crucible director Michael Grandage puts his trust in his stage. The acting's generally good, with Ray Fearon and Samantha Spiro's doubled mortal and immortal rulers notable. But it's Christopher Oram's vast, bare wood rectangle that makes the big impression.

Characters alone at its centre are truly isolated even if, like Lee Boardman's translated weaver, they try to put a brave face on it. Only Puck, in his final speech, is comfortable there but he has us to talk to, from the comfort of a solo spotlight, followed by the communal impact of the house-lights rising for his final, applause-inviting lines.

It's no friendly place the wooden boards give uncomfortable sleeping-ground for the body while the mind dreams or imagination and emotions flare. When the woods come (and Shakespeare puns fleetingly on wood and wood' = mad') the formal, protective rear wall of the court and city rises to reveal a huge, eye-like moon staring down on events. This disc itself is fringed with prickly lashes two of them later drawn as Demetrius' and Lysander's swords: this seeing moon is not all-over benevolent. Madness, very possibly, that way lies.

Beneath its unblinking gaze, mortals seem powerless. Even Titania's bower is a huge, smoky red pit, covered over after her entry, more temporary grave than bed. Adam Cork's score often thunders as if accompanying the scarier moments of a horror-pic, while a quick-throb, hollow sound resonance gives a sense of menace underparts of the action. The male fairies deliver much of Ye spotted snakes' with a low-growl. A few lanterns try to cast green foliage on the floor, but the setting and mood are dark. Spiro's Titania shows unusual concern over the terrestrial disruptions the fairy quarrel's producing but she will not surrender the changeling boy and betray his mother's loyalty to her. Self-assertion's common with the lovers, and Peter Quince isn't the only Mechanical to show the quality.

Despite evident annoyance at Bottom's suggestions, Quince is fairly controlled but during Pyramus and Thisbe' Moonshine impatiently shows even a courtly audience's interruption's not to be tolerated, with dignified rebuke. It's a world where any social harmony is established on a volcanic swell of human emotions.

Theseus/Oberon: Ray Fearon
Hippolyta/Titania: Samantha Spiro
Philostrate/Puck: Dylan Brown
Egeus: Peter Bygott
Hermia: Lisa Ellis
Demetrius: Orlando Wells
Lysander: Ben Turner
Helena: Nancy Carroll
Robin Starveling/Cobweb: David Fairweather
Francis Flute/Mustardseed: Steven Webb
Snug/Fairy: Stuart Burt
Bottom: Lee Boardman
Tom Snout/Peaseblossom: Mark Hilton
Peter Quince/Moth: James Tucker

Director: Michael Grandage
Designer: Christopher Oram
Lighting: Hartley T A Kemp
Composer: Adam Cork
Choreographer: Scarlett Mackmin
Flying: Foy

2003-10-09 23:49:12