BWW Reviews: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - PROPELLER, Rose Theatre Kingston, March 11 2014
This is a fast, very fast, production of one of Shakespeare's most (dare I use the word?) accessible plays - the night of arguing, of magic and of reconcilement.
On a bare set with chairs running like a picture rail high round the back wall, Puck appears from a box (like a malevolent brother of the ballerina in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). Sure enough, despite his good intentions, he's soon wreaking havoc. Lovers become enemimes, enemies become lovers and a man becomes a donkey, the better to love a Fairy Queen, before all is set to rights as the dream fades.
Propeller Theatre's all-male cast may hark back to the productions of Shakespeare's own times, but their madcap energy and physical comedy draws more on The Young Ones - and will appeal to teenage demographic who watched that TV series and also those teenager viewers themselves, now in middle age and ready for The Bard and not The Ben (Elton).
Both the setpiece speeches (with James Tucker's Titania often a wonderful calm amidst the chaos) and the fighting are delivered with great skill and fidelity to the text - this is accessible Shakespeare, not dumbed down Shakespeare. Amongst the lovers, Matthew McPherson does a super job with Hermia, going from sweetness and light to Donner and Blitzen when she feels tricked. David Acton channels the spirit of Captain Mainwaring as Peter Quince, trying to maintain authority and dignity as his mechanicals' "play" collapses around him. Alasdair Craig shamelessly steals the show with a tottering Thisbe even taller than Helena - and even more violent when roused.
There's the poetry, the interweaving of the lovers' tales and any number of razor sharp insights into the minds of men and women (more every time you see it) but A Midsummer Night's Dream is, at its heart, a great evening out, as much fun now as 400 years ago. Propeller recognise that and deliver it.
A Midsummer Night's Dream - Propeller continues at The Rose Theatre Kingston continues until 15 March and on tour with A Comedy of Errors.
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