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The People's Shakespeare - A Midsummer's Night Dream
with many thanks to Clive Davis for the review and to Richard James, Gerry Clark and Pauline Clark for the photos
(13 May 2011)
Shakespeare is dull, Shakespeare is dusty. Some
people are put off the Bard by uninspired teachers who reduce the great
man’s works to long, boring lists of similes, metaphors and the
dreaded onomatopoeia. As for acting in the plays, well, we tend to think
it is reserved for hardened professionals or four hundred year-old
stalwarts of am-dram societies. All credit, then, to the indefatigable
Richard James and his team for showing that you can round up a cast of
local people of all ranges of experience and ability and lead them on a
memorable journey through the enchanted forest.
The
Bernard Miller Centre’s fire alarm let rip at one point (the dry ice
wafting around the stage set it off, apparently) but the actors carried
on regardless, and by the end of the evening it was the ringing of
cheers that filled the room. David Fisk’s Bottom also won admiring
glances, especially when the IT worker-turned-thespian advised his
fellow Mechanicals to use Google to search for moonlight. Cannily mixing
the modern with the traditional, James’ production, galloped along as
Athenians and pixies mingled with moonlighting members of The Fabulous
Shirtlifters on a minimalist yet atmospheric set.
While
it is unfair to single out members of a spirited cast, Nick King
(Oberon), Lesley Willis (Titania), Susan Rimmer (Puck) and Nick Stopien
(Lysander) were a particular delight. In ten years’ time we’ll all
be able to say we remember seeing 18 year-old Ryan Campbell Challis - a
Redroofs graduate – when he was just starting out on his career. The
children who made up Titania’s band of followers were a neat bundle of
mischief. Great costumes too. And who would have thought that Lower Road
resident Peter Edwards would make such a gorgeous, pouting Thisbe?
Final
performances on Sunday afternoon and evening.
Review by Clive Davis
CLICK HERE FOR EVEN MORE PHOTOS (with thanks to Pauline Clark)
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