A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM To 7 November.
Keswick.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
by William Shakespeare.
Theatre By The Lake In rep to 7 November 2009.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 16 Sept, 1, 7, 28 Oct, 7 Nov 2pm.
Audio-described 28 Oct 2pm.
Captioned 7 Oct 2pm.
Under-26s Free 11 Sept, 2, 23 Oct.
Runs 2hr 55min One interval.
TICKETS: 017687 74411.
www.theatrebythelake.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 August.
One of modern theatre’s sweeter Dreams, where the play’s three strands cohere.
‘There’s no escaping the connectivity of Shakespeare’s comedy in this Keswick season. “The Donkey Play” as Rick Thomas’s Shakespeare calls it in studio show For All Time offers a chance to laugh at amateur dramatics, like main-stage repertory companion, Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval.
Shakespeare captures lesser amateurs precisely: a director concerned with literal details, a cast focused on costume, props and outlandish ways of achieving effects, the know-all cast member who makes an ass of himself before magic makes a literal ass of him.
Back at court there’s tension fit to tear the air as Hippolyta resents her forthcoming marriage to loving Theseus, while others’ marriage arrangements are thwarted by the irrational compulsions of love.
Lunatics, lovers and poets of sorts abound. And Theseus, who comments on them, is an example of the problems engendered by over-reliance on reason in a play that throughout exemplifies G K Chesterton’s view that, “The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”
When the curtain rises (an innovation itself these days) on Ian Forrest’s production, it reveals another backdrop some way behind. Here is the daily world, where, left alone with her, Theseus, submissive in stance and with pleading voice, makes a more personal appeal to his conquest-bride.
When the fairy-land arrives, this backdrop rises to show a moon-white wood behind, a colour-blanked world where humans might well feel disorientated as the usual rules no longer work.
This remains a Dream rather than a nightmare, where the fierce tussle between the lovers benefits from actors who have worked together through the season, Ella Vale’s Hermia launching herself like an angry Exocet at Katie Hayes’ taller yet less forceful Helena. (Serial Keswick theatregoers have the bonus of comparing these actors' fight with their characters’ animosity in the Ayckbourn).
The amateurs’ ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ is handled with deft comic touches, and is judged more kindly than in many productions by the onstage audience. With a capable cast, this is a Dream to stimulate Lakeland audiences – who arguably reflect better the generality of Shakespeare’s patrons than the subscription-list and Festival crowds elsewhere.
Demetrius/Snug/Fairy: Richard Galazka.
Starveling/Fairy: Maria Gough.
1st Fairy: Janine Hales.
Helena/Fairy: Katie Hayes.
Snout/Fairy: Eliza Hunt.
Lysander/Flute/Fairy: Ben Ingles.
Titania/Hippolyta: Polly Lister.
Oberon/Theseus: James Nickerson.
Bottom: Simeon Truby.
Hermia/Fairy: Ella Vale.
Egeus/Quince/Fairy: John Webb.
Puck/Philostrate: Andrew Whitehead.
Director: Ian Forrest.
Designer: Martin Johns.
Lighting: Nick Beadle.
Choreographer: Lorelei Lynn.
Fight director: Kate Waters.
Assistant director: Mary Papadima.
2009-09-01 01:44:33