THE KAOS DREAM: Shakespeare, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham till 23 February
Nottingham/Touring.
THE KAOS DREAM: William Shakespeare (adapted Xavier Leret).
Lakeside Arts Centre: Tkts 0115 846 7777 www.lakesidearts.org.uk
Touring Details: www.KAOStheatre.com.
Runs: 1h 30m: no interval.
Review: Alan Geary: 22 February 2008.
Disappointing stuff from KAOS.
You can’t accuse KAOS of playing it safe: at least over the past four years each production has been radically different. But they don’t always get it right, and they don’t here.
Set in a cheap plastic nightclub, this isn’t so much an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a grotesque take on it. It successfully brings out the edgy unpleasantness just below the surface in Shakespeare’s original but it loses most of the textual beauty and nearly all the comedy. And the little that’s left of the magical quality doesn’t work.
More seriously, Xavier Leret has ripped out the romantic love and substituted lust - cartloads of the stuff - so that the play descends into an unfunny mire of gratuitous obscenity. Instead of turning into an ass, Bottom turns into a … bottom. The play within a play is done in a public convenience.
The, often jazzy, music from keyboard, double bass and percussion is excellent and so is the singing. But they fit oddly into a, part low-grade gangsterdom part low-life on a Saturday night, milieu. Theseus supports a massive beer gut, wears a string vest and wields a baseball bat; and Peaseblossom and Cobweb are straight out of a bordello.
Compared with their extraordinarily creative The Importance of Being Earnest four years back, this is disappointing stuff from KAOS.
Helena/Quince: Erica Roberts.
Egeus/Fairy: Jules Bushell.
Puck: Matt Fraser.
Titania/Lysander: Nicholas Chambers.
Demetrius/Bottom: Ralf Higgins.
Oberon/Theseus: Serge Srdjan Soric.
Hermia/Snug: Tina Barnes.
Director: Xavier Levet.
Set Design: Sarah Blenkinsop.
Lighting Design: Hansjorg Schmidt.
Costume Design: Lieutske Visser.
Musical Director: Jules Bushell.
2008-02-27 14:09:23