A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. To 25 February.
London
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
by William Shakespeare
Novello Theatre To 25 February 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2pm
Audio-described 8 Feb
Captioned 18 Feb 2pm
Runs 3hr 5min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 609 1110
www.rsc.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 February 2006
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Dream arrives in wintery London, making for a magnificent night.
All is decay and junk on Stephen Brimson Lewis’s mysterious set, dark as the human passions infusing humans and fairies alike. Its shiny floor reflects a world filled with self-obsession, where love can be cruel and possessive. Never has the play seemed closer to tragedy, only a tweak of plotting needed to end up with Macbeth’s desire got without content.
Hermia moves from girlish pleading to hard-edged demands, then scorn at Lysander’s simplistic questions. Egeus is angered into threats by Lysander’s cheeky “Do you marry him,” to Demetrius. Theseus and Hippolyta have begun in mock-fighting, and Hippolyta’s usual tension at Hermia’s fate is echoed when she fears Theseus will let the Mechanicals make fools of themselves. Joe Dixon’s high-minded, lyrical Oberon (unlike Puck, not enjoying the lovers’ discomfiture) is unforgiving until he gets his wife’s Indian Boy.
Gregory Doran’s superlative production makes clear how the so-correct Demetrius, even his tie reflecting his proposed father-in-law’s (Lysander slouches casually, barely remembering to take his hands from his pockets in front of the Duke), was once Helena’s lover. It takes this Dream to restore humanity to human nature.
The Indian-Boy, a lifelike puppet climbing over fairies, leaning fondly into Titania, ends up affectionate also to Oberon. Even Bottom reflects for a moment, though his asinine imaginative journey is muddled and short-lived. And in the middle of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ there’s suddenly a shaft of light.
Peter Quince (cheerily excellent Paul Chahidi) knew better than he was aware when he introduced the Mechanicals wearing a leotard emblazoned with ‘TRUTH’ (though he mangles his prologue through stage-fright). Then, after all the mistakes and jockeying for position on the Mechanicals’ restricted stage - Wall ends up the object of multiple anatomical puns derived from his missing chink - Francis Flute, who’d so opposed having to play a woman, finds his character’s reality. ‘Her’ death is moving, and Flute automatically curtseys after the performance.
Only Jonathan Slinger’s prosaic Puck, a perpetual reductionist, remains unchanged; like most cynics, he knows a lot but learns little. It makes him an unlikely epilogue; for the rest this is a magical, transformational Dream.
Theseus: Miles Richardson
Hippolyta: Bridgitta Roy
Egeus: Tom Hodgkins
Hermia: Sinead Keenan
Demetrius: Oscar Pearce
Lysander: Trystan Gravelle
Helena: Caitlin Motttram
Peter Quince: Paul Chahidi
Bottom: Malcolm Storry
Flute: Jamie Ballard
Starveling: Patrick Waldron
Snout: David Rogers
Snug: Edward Clayton
Puck: Jonathan Slinger
Oberon: Joe Dixon
Titania: Amanda Harris
1st Fairy: Bettrys Jones
2nd Fairy: Alice Barclay
Fairy: Peter Bankole
Fairy: Geoffrey Lumb
Fairy: Chris McGill
Philostrate: Stewart W Fraser
Director: Gregory Doran
Designer: Stephen Brimson Lewis
Lighting: Tim Mitchell
Sound: Martin Slavin
Music: Paul Englishby
Music Director: Julian Winn
Movement: Michael Ashcroft
Puppetry: Steve Tiplady, Rachel Leonard
Company voice work: Lyn Darnley
Fights: Terry King
Assistant director: Phillip Breen
2006-02-08 12:43:20