Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at Shoreside Theatre, Pumphouse Theatre

It’s the second night of the Shoreside’s 28th Summer Shakespeare in the Park  – and indeed,  it’s an ideally warm midsummer evening with clear skies and stars – and an enthusiastic audience awaits -  filled with anticipation. The play is set in the woodlands of Athens, and the dream-like fantasy realm of the fairy kingdom. One of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, is constructed around several intertwining plots that stem from the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One such plot involves a group of six amateur tradesmen “would-be” actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding.  Another plot involves the comic conflict of Athenian lovers who, in the forest inhabited by the Fairy King Oberon and Fairy Queen Titania, find themselves victims of identity confusion and matrimonial dispute.

 

An imaginative opening “dream” sequence has been added by the creative director Grae Burton. This innovation sets the scene for the workings and whims inherent in dreams and immediately establishes the director’s interpretation.   The simple staging and set (Grae Burton, James Bell and Paul Saussey)  of the centrally raised platform will support this concept and focus all of the important action on the reveries, the daydreams, the illusions, the magic . It becomes the sleeping place of so many lovers. The recurring motif of dreams and visions on this centrally raised bed cements the director’s artistic vision and interpretation.  

This bed is where Oberon (Toby Furmanski) will entreat Titania (Katie Hemus) to surrender her changeling boy, and on her refusal, where he will plot to use the magic flower to make her suffer. This bed will be where he drops the magic potion in her eyes so that Titania falls in love with the first thing she espies when she wakes. This bed is where Bottom (Aiden Allen) and Titania will have a romantic tryst!  This bed is where “invisible” Oberon will overhear Helena’s  hurt and plot to help her. This bed is where the confused and love potion manipulated lovers will fall asleep, where mix-ups will happen, and where important “love” disclosures will occur. This is where (in dramatic and magical lighting) Puck (Gus Woodgate) Will Close the play, directly addressing the audience with the famous epilogue:

"If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber'd here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream.”

 

The magical notions and dream conceptions inherent in the play are superbly supported and fashioned through well-executed lighting (Jeff Philp) and imagination triggering sound (Grae Burton). We are transported to a magical world – and as the dusk falls, the trees are lit with fairy lights, as indeed is Oberon. For Titania, Demetrius, and Lysander, sleep literally becomes an enchanted reality, since Puck uses Oberon's love potion on each of them. 

 

One of the finest moments in the play is when the four lovers: Hermia (Sofia Kirkwood-Smith) and her Lysander (Dylan Spiers), Helena (Sofia Shaw) and her Demetrius (Daniel Rundle) sit in stunned contemplation about what has transpired. This quiet moment is an effective contrast to the preceding tumults. Shakespeare meant his audience to be addressed directly and to feel as if the character's thoughts are being spoken to us - for us to consider. What is especially effective at this point is that the dialogue is suitably slowed, and entirely credible, and audience aware. We can now connect to that wonder they communicate. Was this all just an implausible dream they all shared?

 

In the enthusiasm to create lively conversational delivery, some of the text’s rhythm and splendour was lost at times. It’s important for lighter voices to remember to sustain a pace and project effectively so that key words and ideas to be stressed and heard so that the audience can follow all the words and gather both meaning and mood in an outside ampitheatre.

However, this was not a problem  for Aiden Allen as Bottom, that somewhat opinionated but loveable “want to be” actor who wants to play all the parts in the Pyramus and Thisbe performance. Allen is a comedic highlight in the role, convincing, genuinely funny, and sometimes endearing, especially as the ass.  Those donkey brays escape like hiccoughs. His line delivery is fresh and spontaneous, well-paced and projected with a spirited clarity, delivered with adept audience connection and excellent comic timing. His facial expression and movement are credible and motivated by emotional truth.

 

Excellent performances and vocal execution also from Toby Furmanski who convincingly plays both Oberon and Theseus, Dylan Spiers as lovelorn Lysander and Daniel Rundle as Demetrius. It’s a comic delight to see them caught up in their hopeless desires. All three paced and delivered their lines so that the audience could easily follow the intent. Their physicality was realistic and vital, bringing a masculine energy to the quarrels of love. Of special mention is the talented Ben Martin, who demonstrated a skilful diversity in the three characters he portrayed: the imperious father Egeus, the dim-witted Flute the bellows mender, and the dramatic love-destroyed Thisbe.

Theseus, too, identifies sleep as a magical state. When his wedding play is over, he says, 'Lovers, to bed, 'tis almost fairy time.' Shakespeare didn't make this expression up: in Ireland, when someone is asleep, it's said that they are 'away with the fairies.'

 

Prepare to be entertained on a summer evening – the production offers everyone the chance to enjoy Shakespeare’s humour. Prepare to be enchanted by the magical charm of Shakespeare’s world of playful dreams and woodlands mischief.

 

The 28th Summer 2024 Shakespeare in the Park  (A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and MEASURE FOR MEASURE)  runs January 20 – February 17. Tickets on eventfinda.co.nz or (09) 489 8360. Children 12 and under FREE.

 

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