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A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Playwright - William Shakespeare.
Director - Dominic Hill.
Designer - Naomi Wilkinson.
Composer - Dan Jones.
Lighting Designer - Bruno Poet.
Movement - Sally Owens.
Company - Dundee Rep Ensemble Company
Website.
Cast - here .
Venue - Dundee Rep, Tay Square 01382 223530.
Dates - 30 Aug - 16 Sept at 7.45 p.m. Matinees Sat 2 & 9 at
2.30pm also 6 &13 Sept at 2.00pm.
Run Time - 2 hrs 20 minutes with a 20minute interval
Reviewer - Jan Natanson.
Fresh, exciting and entertaining.
Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's best loved
, familiar and accessible play. But this is no run of the mill production.
It is fresh, exciting and entertaining. These are not airy-fairy fairies.
The magic isn't safe and anaemic. The underpinning darkness and cruelty
is restored to create a wonderfully powerful piece of theatre. Engaging
with a modern audience on many levels. at times the play is scary, bawdy,
sad, disturbing and shocking. It is always surprising, without being tricksy.
Stimulating the audience into thinking about the nature of love and madness,
it also produces the most whole hearted belly laughs from an appreciative
and enthusiastic audience with moments of the strongest comedy.
The design is simple - wooden floorboards, raked at an angle - with everything
reduced to its elements - a bucket, a bed . It creates an unreal and disturbing
atmosphere - the psychological terrain where the action takes place. There's
lots of rain, mist, lightening, darkness, water and mud. The characters
have to grapple with elemental forces. Nature (and passion) in the raw
is a messy business.
The cast give assured performances. At home with the language of the text
and the physicality of the production, they are rooted in strong characterisation.
Irene Macdougall as Titania and Hippolyta is outstanding. Robert
Paterson as Bottom is very very funny. But it is the fine ensemble
playing that makes this such an excellent production . Go and see it.
© Jan Natanson 1 September 2006 for EdinburghGuide.com .
Cast - of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Hippolyta/Tiatania - Irene Macdougall, Theseus/Oberon - Okon Ubanga-Jones,
Philostrate/Puck - Kevin Lennon, Egeus/Quince - John Buick, Hermia - Kim
Gerard, Helena - Emily Winter, Lysander - Cameron Mowat, Demetrius - Keith
Fleming, Bottom - Robert Paterson, Starveling/Peaseblossom- Ann Louise
Ross, Snug/Moth - Matthew Bill Boyd, Snout/Mustardseed - Ian Grieve and
Flute/Cobweb Ewan Donald.
Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is
thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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