A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. To 4 October.
London.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
by William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s Globe In rep to 4 October 2008.
2pm 30, 31 May, 17, 21, 24, 26, 28 June, 11 July, 16, 19, 22 August, 6, 9, 11, 16, 19, 24, 26 September, 2 October.
7.30pm 30 May, 4-7,9, 11, 16, 23, 25, 27 June, 1, 5, 7, 10, 14 July, 15, 18, 21, 26-27 August, 1, 5, 8, 10, 15, 18, 23, 25 September, 1, 4 October.
Midnight 21 June.
Audio-described 31 May 2pm.
BSL Signed 28 June 2pm.
Runs 2hr 55min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7401 9919.
www.shakespeares-globe.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 May.
A production full of fine, pointed detail: a dream of a Dream.
Jonathan Munby provides a clear, thoughtful and energetic Dream blessed by a cast whose speech shapes language and verse, thereby expressing meaning more clearly than happens with the kind of generalised energy that so often limits the lovers in this play especially, and the fairy-folk to a considerable extent.
By casting two Scottish actors, Munby distinguishes between day-world monarchs Theseus and Hippolyta, speaking standard English, and the natural Scottish accents Tom Mannion and Siobhan Redmond employ as their night-time fairy equivalents.
This goes with their change in costume, though this idea is extended beyond their doffing of the formal rich robes of Athens’ rulers. The lovers too remove their conformist black as they tear through, and are torn at by, the maddening woods, though their semi-dress has a colour-coding which suggests all will ultimately be well.
Munby makes the Indian Boy, cause of the Oberon/Titania rift, unusually significant. Redmond’s Hippolyta, not initially hostile to Theseus (as are some Hippolytas, picking-up on his reference to conquering her) is horrified by the treatment her new country’s laws mete out to Hermia, clasping her in a strong, sympathetic embrace and having to be called away several times by Theseus, pointedly leaving by a separate exit from him when she finally unclasps the girl.
Redmond’s Titania (who leaves by the same exit, alone, after her first angry meeting with Oberon) shows comparable depth of feeling when talking about the Indian Boy’s mother, making clear she clings to the lad out of more than principle. This in turn, during Shakespeare’s comedy of transformations, points up the madness of desire when, besotted with Bottom, she excludes the Boy from her presence.
Each step of the lovers’ progress registers clearly in four finely-delineated performances. Michael Jibson’s Puck shows even sprites can find work tiring. Richard Clews (a resonantly-voiced actor) gives Peter Quince a solid sense of craftsmanlike purpose; while Paul Hunter, with his enquiring look and voice, and physical skills, is a fine Nick Bottom from the moment he stands eagerly next to Quince during the casting-session to his fountain of comic effects in ’Pyramus and Thisbe’.
Theseus/Oberon: Tom Mannion.
Hippolyta/Titania: Siobhan Redmond.
Philostrate/Puck: Michael Jibson.
Egeus/Cobweb: Richard Clews.
Lysander: Christopher Brandon.
Demetrius: Oliver Boot.
Hermia: Pippa Nixon.
Helena: Laura Rogers.
Peaseblossom: Bethan Walker.
Moth: Sian Williams.
Mustardseed: Adam Burton.
Pigwig/Francis Flute: Peter Bankole.
Indian Boy: Ajay Patel/Amman Jutla/Chaitan Bagary.
Peter Quince: Michael Matus.
Nick Bottom: Paul Hunter.
Tom Snout: Jonathan Bond.
Robin Starveling: Sam Parks.
Snuh: Robert Goodale.
Director: Jonathan Munby.
Designer: Mike Britton.
Composer/Music Director: Olly Fox.
Choreographer: Sian Williams.
Movement: Glynn MacDonald.
Voice/Dialect work: Jan Haydn Rowles.
Text Work: Giles Block.
Assistant director: Poppy Burton-Morgan.
Assistant text work: Rachel Briscoe.
2008-05-30 14:49:49