A Midsummer Night’s Dream Archives - Page 2 of 2

All-female version of Shakespeare favourite set for the stage after Covid delay

3Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

All-female version of Shakespeare favourite set for the stage after Covid delay

A hugely anticipated modern version of a William Shakespeare classic is set for a busy run in Manchester – with all the roles played by women. The 21st century interpretation of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ will be staged at the Hope Mill Theatre, from October 6th – 16th, following on from two similar sold-out Shakespeare shows in 2018 and 2019. In a twist on the plot of the original play – which revolves around the marriage of Theseus, Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons – this reimagined version is set on Hipppolyta’s hen-do in a Manchester nightclub. Billed as ‘Canal Street’s explosive imagination meets the instability of Love Island and the classiness of the Real Housewives of Cheshire’, the play has been produced by HER Productions in partnership with...

HOME launch purpose-built Manchester outdoor theatre for the Summer

11Apr

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

HOME launch purpose-built Manchester outdoor theatre for the Summer

• HOME announces Homeground – a brand-new temporary outdoor venue on First Street offering the best in live entertainment across two stages. • Featuring a 400-seat socially distanced outdoor theatre, and second stage with free live performance. • Productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Alice in Wonderland with tickets just £10 for adults and £5 for children. HOME, Manchester’s largest multi-arts venue, are launching a massive temporary outdoor arts space this Summer. The new space, named Homeground will be located on an 80,000ft2 future development site on First Street, just next to HOME. It will feature a 400-seat socially distanced theatre space: the specially designed and purpose built, Covid-safe outdoor theatre. At the heart will be two magical, musical productions of cl...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – SHAKE Festival

1Apr

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – SHAKE Festival

For one night only, SHAKE Festival presented a confident, rehearsed reading of Shakespeare’s much beloved romantic comedy, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ starring Rebecca Hall (Titania/Hyppolita), Luisa Omielan (Bottom/Pyramus) and Dan Stevens (Oberon/Theseus). Set in a mystical woodland surrounding Athens, and loaded with a dizzying fizz of magic, love, and poetry, one of Shakespeare’s most accessible plays was brought into our homes live via Zoom and served a delightful and welcome addition to the many online productions that have graced our computers and devices during lockdown. Given that the play explores inner desire, passions, sexuality and gender, tonight’s reading maintained a somewhat traditional and straightforward delivery of the work. That said, Director, Jenny Cannon Hall ...

Dream – live, online performance leads the way in future audience experience

9Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Dream – live, online performance leads the way in future audience experience

Theatre, music and ground-breaking technology combine in Dream, an exhilarating glimpse into the future of live performance inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Created by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in collaboration with Manchester International Festival (MIF) Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) and Philharmonia Orchestra, Dream is the culmination of a major research project called Audience of the Future which helped develop Skepta’s mixed-reality rave for MIF19, DYSTOPIA987. Gabrielle Jenks, Digital Director at Manchester International Festival said: “Audience of the Future has been an invaluable space for world-leading organisations to consider the future of virtual production and understand the opportunities and challenges of working with real-time technologi...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Queer Shakespeare Project

14Sep

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Queer Shakespeare Project

The Queer Shakespeare Project’s interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s dream is an all singing, all dancing salute to the LGBTQ+ community, rehearsed and recorded entirely in lockdown. Thanks to these remote circumstances, the show, directed by Zach Waddington, features an international cast. The play opens with overlapping dialogue led by Philostrate (Kit Foreman) which becomes an overwhelming blend of emotive language of which key words are only audible, setting the scene of a complex play with multiple storylines and characters. Following this we meet Puck (Sadie O’Conor) whose costume and make up, together with filming location, stand out for their ethereal beauty within the show. Due to the circumstances of production, costume and setting does vary massively, but this glimpse int...

Bolton Octagon are back with a live online production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

2Sep

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Bolton Octagon are back with a live online production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Bolton Octagon are back with a live online production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream Bolton Octagon are back with their first bash at a live streamed production offering an online version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the theatre’s £12million redevelopment is completed before reopening in December. They are working with Guildford Shakespeare Company (GSC) to present streamed performances from Thursday 24th to Saturday 27th September 2020. This is a new version of GSC’s acclaimed open air production, which was directed by the Octagon’s Artistic Director Lotte Wakeham, who also directs this latest online version. The 75-minute production, which will be live streamed on Zoom, features a cast of six actors. Making their Octagon Theatre debuts will be Jack Whita...

31Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – The Globe

As part of the BBC Culture in Quarantine season, we are offered a selection of Shakespeare’s plays performed at two of the UK’s most well known theatres for Shakespeare. Written in 1596, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a regular feature in theatres’ Summer calendars for their Summer season. We have seen many adaptations of this play as theatres become more creative, but this version is like the making a cocktail, the ingredients can be the same, but it is how much of each ingredient that creates its individual flavour. In Emma Rice’s first play as Artistic Director of The Globe, we were treated to a feast of energy and colour. The play positively buzzed with excitement as we experienced an adventurous modernised version of this much-loved play. The play is ...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Bridge Theatre

27Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Bridge Theatre

Gwendoline Christie (Titania), Oliver Chris (Oberon), David Moorst (Puck) and Hammed Animashaun (Bottom) lead an ensemble cast of actors, acrobats, singers and dancers in The Bridge Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, currently streaming on YouTube as part of the National Theatre's online programme. The production's advertising calls it “Shakespeare’s most famous romantic comedy”. Even in a sentence in which every word is necessary (no one could call it Shakespeare's most famous play, or his most famous romance) it is a bit of an over-statement, not just because of other, possibly more famous ones such as Much Ado About Nothing, but also due to the play itself: the romance is the least interesting thing about it. Even the “comedy” aspect isn't its main feature as, like happens with mos...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

16Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies and is widely performed worldwide, with one of its many delights being the three interconnected stories within one overarching theme with the further added bonus of a fourth story if you count the hilarious rendition of Pyramus and Thisbe at the end. In a cleverly choreographed battle scene opening, we meet the Duke, Theseus (John Light), and his newly conquered betrothed, Hippolyta (Michelle Terry), whose animosity crackled across the stage. Egeus (Edward Peel) interrupts proceedings to complain about his daughter, Hermia (Olivia Ross), who loves Lysander (Luke Thompson) despite her father’s preferred match of Demetrius (Joshua Silver), who in turn is unwelcomingly pursued by Helena (Sarah MacRae). Hermia’s choice ...