A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To 26 July.

Newbury/Tour.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
by William Shakespeare.

Propeller Theatre Company at Watermill Theatre In rep to 2 May.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm except 2 May at 1.30pm & 6.30pm.
then tour to 26 July 2009 (in rep with The Merchant of Venice).
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.

TICKETS: 01635 460944.
www.watermill.org.uk (Watermill).
Review Mark Courtice 19 March.

Not so nimble.
In front of Michael Pavelka's set, which looks like it is covered by a giant doily, a gambolling, bustling crowd of fairy creatures gathers. However, Propeller’s usual all-male cast make somewhat heavy weather of what should be a “pert and nimble” tale of love and lust.

Propeller’s actors generally manage the trick of playing the women's parts entirely without camp. This isn't cross-dressing, it's proper acting. Here however, the young women are played as the sort of twittering idiots you'd have to be drugged to love.

The fairy elements (with the exception of Richard Dempsey's glittering, imperious Titania) are all a bit muscular and earthbound so they seem more like a pen of boxer puppies. Overall, it’s a sort of lumpy porridge from which the various characters emerge and to which they return after their scene. This needs very capable actors to work, and the challenge in some cases seems more than this cast can meet. The young lovers are difficult to care about, they are only different in the way they look, not how they are.

Because fairyland and its earthly counterpart - the court - are so leaden it’s hard for the workers represented by Bottom and co. to make much of a contrast; they are earnest and well-meaning, but there is no sense of lightness and this seems to stop them being funny. This in turn makes the court's laughter at their terrible play pure cruelty, which we don't have to join in with. Surely it was written to be more complicated for us than that.

It looks great, and there are some excellent performances from Bob Barrett as a consistently solemn Bottom (only released to be jolly under the fairy spell), and Jon Trenchard who invests Puck with energy, lightness of touch and an interesting equivocation between fairy feyness and earthy reality.

Edward Hall's direction looks uncomfortable in the small Watermill space but keeps everything moving on apace, and the score responds to this with clever use of voices, mouth organs and tinkling xylophone.

But in the end it could be a bit more fun.

Theseus: Thomas Padden.
Hippolyta: Emmanuel Idowu.
Egeus/Quince: Chris Myles.
Hermia/Snug: Richard Frame.
Demetrius: Sam Swainsbury.
Lysander: Jack Tarlton.
Helena: Babou Ceesay.
Bottom: Bob Barrett.
Flute: John Dougall.
Robin Goodfellow/Starveling: Jon Trenchard.
Snout: Kelsey Brookfield.
Oberon: Richard Clothier.
Titania: Richard Dempsey.
Fairy: Jonathan Livingstone.

Director: Edward Hall.
Designer: Michael Pavelka.
Lighting: Ben Ormerod.
Music: Jon Trenchard.

2009-03-25 01:45:07