A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, Wednesday 4th June, 2014
Propeller’s first visit to Birmingham brings a double bill of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and, the show I saw, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, giving the people of our second city the chance to see this all-male troupe bring their inventive and accessible takes on classic plays. Edward Hall is surely the most reliable director of Shakespeare – I have yet to see one of his takes on Will’s plays that I didn’t enjoy or admire. Here, he dresses his cast as street performers, pallid clowns or saltimbanques. They don bits of costume to identify them as main characters or otherwise blend into the chorus, flitting and running around in a swarm of activity. The aesthetic never obscures the action and the verse is spoken with clarity and emotion – I defy anyone to fail to be charmed and transported by the production. It’s also very funny.
Matthew McPherson is a pouting, petulant Hermia (and also doubles as Snug the Joiner) contrasting splendidly with Dan Wheeler’s taller and heartfelt Helena. There is a fantastically funny brawl between these two, helped and hindered by their bewitched boyfriends, Demetrius (Arthur Wilson) and Lysander (Richard Pepper). This scene was the comic highlight of the evening for me, outshining the Pyramus & Thisbe interlude, which I feel is a little too manic and overdone – However there is much to enjoy in Chris Myles’s Bottom. James Tucker is an elegant and haughty ‘proud Titania’ and Will Featherstone rounds out his Hippolyta, making her a character rather than an ornament for Theseus (an excellent Dominic Gerrard). The female roles are never impersonations or drag acts; the actors evoke femininity with gestures and attitude, while keeping their maleness apparent.
Joseph Chance is a merry, balletic puck in striped red and white tights and frilly tutu, while Darrell Brockis’s Oberon is the master magician in sparkling cloak, while David Acton’s impassioned Egeus memorably establishes the conflict that triggers the rest of the plot.
It’s a prouction that uses theatricality to bring out the magical aspects of the story, but the tricks and gimmicks are all in service of the script, proving yet again that Propeller is the go-to company for intelligent, effective interpretations that actually work as entertainment.
Bum on a Seat 