A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Watermill Theatre

Reviewed – 14th May 2018

★★★★

“Artistic Director Paul Hart and his youthful players have magnificently overcome the twin risks of over-familiarity and complacency in this joyful new production”

Buried deep in the English countryside is a little theatre that consistently beguiles. The 200-seat Watermill just outside Newbury stages its own plays twelve times each year. Casts live together throughout every production and shows are marked by both excellent ensemble work and by high levels of creativity and innovation.

But how to shine new light on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream? ‘I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows’. And so do we all, for the play is a favourite of almost every outdoor theatre season, consistently ranking in the top three of all the Bard’s thirty seven plays. We love to laugh again (and again) at the play within a play, with its hackneyed ‘rude mechanicals’, two fingers held up to make another chink in the wall.

Watermill Artistic Director Paul Hart and his youthful players have magnificently overcome the twin risks of over-familiarity and complacency in this joyful new production. Appropriately enough for a play about make-believe, the show opens with a shadowy view of theatre fly ropes, part of a stage design by Kate Lias. Rope tricks of various kinds help make the magic in this celebratory show which also has a strong commitment to diversity.

Sign language is an integral part of the production, since the cast includes a co-founder of the Deaf & Hearing Theatre Company in a speaking role. Sophie Stone’s partially signed scenes with Evening Standard award winning Tyrone Huntley are delightful, the signing very much enhancing the show. As well as being a witty and persuasive actor, Tyrone Huntley has a fine singing voice. Singing and signing also combine in a moving ensemble number after the interval.

There’s more magic in the mix when shadow play begins behind a spangly red curtain that descends rapidly to transform the enchanted wood into a nightclub. It’s a good setting for some witty musical interpolations. Is this the first Midsummer Night’s Dream to feature Rodgers and Hart’s ‘Blue Moon’? In other scenes the always engaging Eva Feiler as Puck cleverly works dolls to underline the point that we are witnessing a dream time, engineered by otherworldly creatures for their own amusement.

Victoria Blunt was brilliant as Bottom, switching from broad Lancashire to a booming Gielgud parody as the most thespish of the ‘rude mechanicals’ who finally get to perform their play within a play right at the end of the show.

As Oberon, ‘King of Shadows’ Jamie Satterthwaite seemed at first a little too insubstantial for the patriarchal world of Athens where a father let alone a king of the fairies ‘should be as a god’ but he gained authority as the evening went on.
Some careful cuts and rearrangements are characteristic of the close reading that’s evidently gone into a show that quite bursts with ideas. The night this reviewer saw it, Emma McDonald’s role as Titania was magnificently covered at very short notice by Rebecca Lee. She appeared to be all but word-perfect, with a vampish authority that was most engaging. Her substitution may have understandably explained a slightly hectic breathlessness that characterised more than one scene in the performance I saw.

The show ends in a magnificently farcical version of ‘Pyramus & Thisbe’, the play within. Talented Offue Okegbe doubles Snout and Theseus, as well as playing an instrument, like many other cast members. His ‘wall’ is much too funny a surprise to spoil in this review. Joey Hickman was an owlish Demetrius as well as the show’s musical director.

But for a bizarrely unexpected flash of light across the crowd, Tom White’s lighting design was highly effective, particularly so in the final scene ‘If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear.’

On press night, a good part of the audience came whooping to its feet at the end of this big-hearted and dazzling show. Cast and a large supporting crew, including magic, movement and BSL advisers, all deserve huge congratulation for their contributions to such a delightful Dream.

Reviewed by David Woodward

Photography by Scott Rylander

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Watermill Theatre until 16th June

Previously reviewed at this venue

Teddy | ★★★★★ | January 2018

The Rivals | ★★★★★ | March 2018

Burke & Hare | ★★★★ | April 2018

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

★★

“in desperate need of greater cohesion and direction, but is supported by some stand out performances and lovely comic moments.”

In the palace of Theseus, Lysander and Demetrius fight for the hand of fair Hermia. Unfortunately Hermia loves Lysander, Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius and Helena, Demetrius’ spurned lover, is still pining for him. Hermia and Lysander run away to be married, followed by a desperate Helena and a determined Demetrius. However, they are all soon lost in a wood which is, unbeknownst to them, filled with mischievous fairies and magical flowers. This is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies reimagined in a music festival, certainly a setting for a contemporary audience.

There are some fantastic performances. Michael Claff as Oberon is the stand out performance of the night. The text feels natural in his mouth and he elevates the play every time he sets foot on stage. Robert McLanachan is charmingly convincing as Peter Quince. Thomas Witcomb as Bottom brings an infectious pace and energy to the stage and is particularly strong when playing Pyramus. Lisa Lynn as Helena is bold, funny and unapologetic, instantly likeable. Dorian Hasani brings a lovely playful quality to the role of Lysander, reminding us that this is, after all, a comedy. There are also some lovely moments where the whole cast comes together onstage.

However, in general, the actors need to remember to respond to each other. Whilst Theseus’ lines are strongly delivered, he does not respond to or acknowledge the sexualised Hippolyta’s gestures. Puck is eloquent but unexciting, and there is nothing unique about his performance. Titiana improves over the course of the play, but fails to establish her regality and gravitas on her entrance. Like her counterpart Hippolyta, she is a heavily sexualised character, but this makes her seem weak if she is continually moving around the stage, circling and following Oberon like the spaniel Helena begs Demetrius to let her be. There is power in stillness, something the success of Oberon’s performance is clear evidence of. It is particularly vital that Titania achieves this sense of royalty and power early on, in order for her debasement (falling for a man with a donkey’s head) to be truly effective.

Whilst the music festival theme works to some extent, it would have been considerably more effective if it had only been used in the forest, and had been approached with a higher level of commitment. In some scenes it was cleverly referenced and well captured, whilst in other scenes I forgot about it all together. I think the play would be helped by clear differentiation between Theseus’ court in Athens and this magical, fairy-filled forest which is only remembered as a dream. The theme also needs to be investigated more specifically, both aesthetically and in terms of the range of music used by the production which jumped from genre to genre, and made the piece feel thematically incohesive.

As a whole, the piece lacks cohesion and direction. People are often blocking one another, and there seemed to be a tendency to push the action to the edges of the stage, sending the actors’ faces half into darkness at points. Lines were occasionally lost under the music, and many of the comedy moments were sexualised, sometimes effectively, sometimes unnecessarily. It is important to remember that the play is already funny. In trying to find new comedy within the music festival theme, much of the innate comedy of Shakespeare’s writing is lost.

The play ends on a high, with the mechanicals’ play within a play. Snout (Andre Pinto) as the wall is particularly funny, and the slapstick visual comedy is well-timed and a comic highlight of the piece. The actors work well together and it is a fantastic way to finish the play.

Credit must be given to the play’s commitment to making language which is often perceived as impenetrable, seem accessible and relevant, and it is refreshing to see such a large cast comprised of so many different nationalities (twelve to be precise). This is a production that is in desperate need of greater cohesion and direction, but is supported by some stand out performances and lovely comic moments.

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Tag Archives: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – 4 Stars

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Watermill Theatre

Reviewed – 14th May 2018

★★★★

“Artistic Director Paul Hart and his youthful players have magnificently overcome the twin risks of over-familiarity and complacency in this joyful new production”

Victoria Blunt was brilliant as Bottom, switching from broad Lancashire to a booming Gielgud parody as the most thespish of the ‘rude mechanicals’ who finally get to perform their play within a play right at the end of the show.

But for a bizarrely unexpected flash of light across the crowd, Tom White’s lighting design was highly effective, particularly so in the final scene ‘If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear.’

On press night, a good part of the audience came whooping to its feet at the end of this big-hearted and dazzling show. Cast and a large supporting crew, including magic, movement and BSL advisers, all deserve huge congratulation for their contributions to such a delightful Dream.

Reviewed by David Woodward

Photography by Scott Rylander

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Watermill Theatre until 16th June

Related

Previously reviewed at this venue

Teddy | ★★★★★ | January 2018

The Rivals | ★★★★★ | March 2018

Burke & Hare | ★★★★ | April 2018

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – 2 Stars

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Theatro Technis

Reviewed – 20th April 2018

★★

“in desperate need of greater cohesion and direction, but is supported by some stand out performances and lovely comic moments.”

The play ends on a high, with the mechanicals’ play within a play. Snout (Andre Pinto) as the wall is particularly funny, and the slapstick visual comedy is well-timed and a comic highlight of the piece. The actors work well together and it is a fantastic way to finish the play.

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Theatro Technis until 5th May

Related

Also from the Acting Gymnasium

The Misanthrope | ★★ | Theatro Technis | April 2018

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com