THEATRE REVIEW: A Midsummer Night's Dream - The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester.

This is Time And Again Theatre Company’s concurrent Shakespeare, together with ‘Much Ado About Nothing'. After a production of the latter in the cavernous Victoria Baths, the company moved across the city to the intimate surroundings of the Anthony Burgess Centre, near the Home complex. This Manchester theatre group have a passion for interpreting history in new and relevant ways and it is hard to imagine a much bolder re-take on Shakespeare than to set what is probably the bard’s best love comedy against the backdrop of the 1984 miners' strike. However, since most of the action takes place in the dreamy world of fairies and magic, the play remained recognisably a Shakespeare comedy with the dialogue unchanged and the delivery and actions in keeping with the style of Shakespearian theatre.

This production was certainly performed in the thrust with actors often sitting on the floor right next to audience or at less than touching distance. This worked really well in this instance because the delivery of the archaic dialogue was excellent across the cast and the close proximity to the audience enabled all the associated facial expressions and nuances to be seen to full advantage. The performance was also very physical including many movements between actors which must have needed a lot of rehearsing and direction to pull off quickly and seamlessly, which they certainly achieved.

Time And Again clearly have a passion for Shakespeare which shone through all the performances. Special mention must be made of Samantha Vaughan’s Oberon, with life breathed into lengthy soliloquies, and Ty Mather was an excellent cast choice for the role of Puck. Tim Cooper was a memorable ‘Bottom’ (a role that has frequently been played by comedians such as Frankie Howerd). Jessica Ayes was a suitably passionate Helena and Keziah Lockwood displayed considerable versatility as Titania. The enthusiasm of all the cast shone through and the production could truly be described as a labour of love.

The miners' strike was represented by wire fencing, behind which the cast staged a workers’ protest, complete with banners and dustbins (suggestive of the fires in metal containers that were a hallmark of '70's and '80's pickets). The fence also served as a gallery of images of numerous '80’s musical icon and naturally '80’s music was prominent throughout the show. ‘Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This’ was just too appropriate not to include with the cast singing a stylised version together with snippets of the Eurythmics. In juxtaposition, the period songs of political singer Billy Bragg caught the angst of the period. The '80's theme was well handled, with a lot of attention to detail right down to crimped hair (who remembers that?) and political badges. It was also nice to see a faithful representation of the greatest Doctor Who of them all (certainly IMO), Tom Baker.

Special credit must be give to the period dance movements, superbly executed by virtually the whole cast. The 1980s was the heyday of the music video where massed dance sequences, from Adam Ant to Michael Jackson, were often a key component and this was really caught well in this production. The New Romantic movement lent itself to portraying the ephemeral aspects of the play whilst neatly showing the other side of the decade; as with many periods of history, the '80s had its light and dark sides.

This was a fun and original yet authentic take on one of Shakespeare’s best known plays and the humour was certainly well appreciated by the enthusiastic audience.

Reviewer - John Waterhosue

on - 8.7.22