Matthew Dunster’s anarchic direction / adaptation of the well-known text swerved between Brechtian working-class humour set in the modern day, and moments of real power using more historically-themed Elizabethan staging. Sometimes these two extremes got in the way of each other, and it would have been more satisfying to have had the production totally in either of the two versions being presented. Having already seen a lot of pop-music and swearword–infused modern-day interpretations of “The Dream” (the aspect that was being promoted as the innovative and radical part of the production), I was more drawn to some quite interesting thinking going on with the Elizabethan supernatural romance side of it, and would have liked to have seen more of that world. Maybe Dunster, as a director, was trying to please too many stakeholders at once in this opening show for a new venue.
The meta story surrounding the production was that it was opening night for Shakespeare North Playhouse; half of the professional actors hadn’t turned up; and so an enthusiastic group of Playhouse staff members would put on the show instead – extending the Mechanicals idea to an extra level, and still being supervised by the neatly efficient Peter Quince (Andrew Butler). Bits of costume were hastily grabbed off a rail and put on around normal theatre staff clothing; Bottom (Jimmy Fairhurst) kept his bright orange security guard uniform on for most of the first half, and everyone plunged in. This served the comedy well. The performers frequently broke out into new lines to reflect this. I especially loved Flute’s (David Nellist) reaction to being cast as Thisbe: “I’m fifty three! Look around, you’ve got Thisbes coming out of your arse!” – and there were a lot of other extraneous interjections too, and as Helena (Kate James) was getting snogged by a love-struck Demetrius (Tyler Dobbs): “I wish this was happening in real life and not just in the play!”, leading to Demetrius to step out of character for a moment to assure her it was just pretend. There weren’t quite enough people to cover the Lion as well, so a poor audience member called Brian was dragged in to do all of those bits. And throughout the performance, the audience were taught the moves for a funky dance which we all ended up doing together after “Pyramus and Thisbe” had been performed.
When it did swerve into supernatural romance, Dunster’s
direction really shone. Puck (Louise Haggerty) was on stage almost from the
beginning as a silent homeless person of the street, perfectly invisible to
all the mortal characters. Oberon (David Morrisey) was presented as a circle of
light coming from above, with a booming omniprescent voice, and it felt
perfectly plausible that he could do anything with magical forces. Titania (Nadine
Shah) was elegantly shimmering, yet constrained within the circle of Oberon’s
power, and her own power was palpable as she restrained Bottom within the same
circle. The four fairies (Tia Bella-Easton, Yazmin Kayani, Kelise
Gordon-Harrison and David Nellist) were dark, nightmarish creatures with
screeching voices and talon-tipped fingers. The four lovers had their own fiery
set of comedy going; Lysander (William Grint) could only communicate in
British Sign Language, which only Hermia (Rebecca Heskith Smith) and Helena
could understand, leading to some deliberate mistranslations to Demetrius, but
they also had an ethereal quality in the forest, and love really did shine
through for the wedding night scene at the very end.
Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore
on - 27.9.22
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