A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Jonathan Munby
Shakespeare’s Globe
10 May - 4 October, 2008
 Couzens
A review by Mags Gaisford for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Have you ever drifted off in a lecture? Did a temporary loss of consciousness put a surreal spin on the serious and intellectual topic you were there to learn about? If so, you’ve had a glimpse of what it is to experience A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
The performance was punctuated by real, hearty audience laughter, which is leagues away from the academic chortle associated with Shakespeare by school children struggling with the ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ of GCSE texts. I was stunned by the play’s contemporary humour and, indeed, the apparent timelessness of many human concerns..This is surely thanks to the magical synthesis of the entire cast under the direction of Jonathan Munby.
Shakespeare’s sources for this play are eclectic and his plot absurdly elaborate. At its core is the illicit love between Hermia and Lysander, which contravenes the rule of the Athenian fathers. Demetrius, to whom Hermia is promised by her father Egeus, is pursued by Helena, his jilted lover. Given the alternatives of death or chastity, Hermia chooses to elope with Lysander into that most famously anarchic of places, the forest, with Demetrius and Helena close on their heels. Here, they are at the mercy of a different regime: that of Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies.
This tangle of lovers must be twisted further before it can be straightened out. In the forest their fates are mixed up in fairy disputes and their desires manipulated by Puck, the mischievious sprite. Add to this a troupe of ‘rude mechanicals’ practising amateur dramatics, some mind - altering herbal potions and some bestial spells... and try to hold onto your sense of what’s real.
Dreaming or no, our minds are awakened to a world pulsating with desire, where the imagination is the prime mover. Even the professed rationalist Theseus (Tom Mannion) needs it to ‘ease the anguish of a torturing hour’.
The open - air design of The Globe lends an egalitarian feel to the theatrical experience. The audience, far from being an anonymous critical presence, watching spot - lit celebrities, is included in the world of the play. This holds true from the outset, when two jaunty drummers compete for our favour, to the end, when we’re let in on the wedding group’s whispered commentaries on the ‘tragical mirth’ of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’. We share in the baudy humour, which is accentuated by the movement work directed by Glynn Macdonald. The coarsest jokes got the biggest laughs, rendering the laced - up courtesy of the Palace scenes all the more ridiculous.
In a world where the more refined aspects of ‘civilisation’ are put on trial, anything too avant - garde wouldn’t wash. Designer Mike Britton hits just the right note, employing a sophisticated colour palette. The black uniformity of courtly dress is in stark contrast to the purples and pinks of deadly nightshade and blushing cheeks. The fairies, in their fraying tutus, holey tights and smudged mascara, could be clubbers in Camden. Together with a space - age Shoreditch- camp Puck (Michael Jibson), with blue hair and silver trainers, Titania (Siobhan Redmond)’s fuschia Kate Bush - esque flailing and twittering and Oberon (Tom Mannion)’s profligate dispensation of the ‘love - in - idleness’ drug, these creatures have a seedy, grungey chic which is by no means alien to today’s culture of intoxication and excess.
Another enduring trait: the need to escape: is subtly illustrated by choreographic parallels between the ‘real’ and ‘fairy’ worlds. Theseus and Hippolyta’s stately dance is echoed in the freer, more playground version enjoyed by Oberon and Titania, surrounded by sinewy, bendy rubber fairies. In the forest, Hermia (Pippa Nixon) and Helena (Laura Rogers) strip off their restricting corsets to expose nymph - like slips, which give them necessary versatility for their fantastic acrobatic fights with Lysander (Christopher Brandon) and Demetrius (Oliver Boot).
Olly Fox cites the ‘drones and flavours’ of Romany Gypsies as inspiration for his magical score, in which William Purefoy’s eerie counter - tenor is backed by the spirit - summoning fusion of lute, soprano saxophone and mandolin. There are spell - binding moments of synthesis between movement and sound: when, for example, the changeling boy, (a role played by Ajay Patel) is rejected by Titania in favour of her new, unlikely love, he runs shyly from the stage to a musical accompaniment that chides him with refrains echoing the braying of a donkey.
Barriers between cast and audience are further broken down by the inclusive set design. Characters appear onstage from every angle, often mingling with the ‘groundlings’ standing in the yard. But to me the most impressive elements were the intelligent use of emphasis, comic timing and physical interpretation which brought the text to life.
Due appreciation of some priceless Shakespearian insults was encouraged. Demetrius is called a ‘spotty and inconstant man’, Helena a ‘painted maypole’. She lays, legs splayed, on the floor, to be told by Demetrius ‘you impeach your modesty too much’. She then smells the jacket torn from his back in teenage euphoria. Bottom (Paul Hunter)’s suicidal scene as the lovelorn Pyramus is not to be missed. Most of the cast slip seamlessly between roles, demonstrating the individuals’ versatility within the tight - knit troupe. Richard Clews transforms effortlessly from Egeus, striving hopelessly for paternal authority, to a rather world - weary fairy in a fetching lilac frock.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is described in The Globe’s programme as Shakespeare’s ‘most wild and inventive comedy’. But under the frivolity lies perhaps his most serious message of all: a tribute to the imagination, in all its mystery. If this had been my own dream I would have felt an un - justifiable sense of pride the morning after, and perhaps I’d try to re - create my eating pattern of the night before.
Box Office 020 7401 9919 (no booking fee)
www.shakespeares-globe.org
Shakespeare's Globe
21 New Globe Walk
Bankside
London
SE1 9DT
Within walking distance of
St. Paul’s, London Bridge, Southwark and Mansion House Tube Stations
Copyright © EXTRA! EXTRA All rights reserved
|