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A Midsummer Night’s Dream Malvern Theatres ***** Award winning company Flabbergast Theatre bring a stunning, rambunctious, and colourful approach to this much loved Shakespearian comedy. The cast,Reanne Black, Nadav Burstein, Vyte Garriga, Simon Gleave, Krystian Godlewski, Pauline Krzeczkowska, Lennie Longworth and Elliot Pritchard double up to cover all the roles. The story involves four plots elaborating four groups of characters; the court party of Theseus, the four young lovers, the fairies and the rude mechanicals or would be actors. We do not actually meet the king and queen, Theseus and Hypolyta whose impending wedding is being planned. The action opens with the seemingly insoluble dilemmas facing the four young lovers. Demetrius has the consent of Hermia’s father to marry her, but Hermia is in love with Lysander. Hermia’s friend Helena is desperately in love with Demetrius who is also in love with Hermia. An unhappy situation which seems impossible to resolve. In the other part of the story, Fairy Queen Titania and Fairy King Oberon are arguing because Titania refuses to give Oberon custody of the Indian boy she is raising.
Oberon sends Puck, the trouble maker out to find a plant called love-in-idleness the juice of which makes any person dote on the next creature he or she sees. In the mean time a band of unruly actors are rehearsing a play which they hope to perform for the duke and his bride. Puck dutifully finds the plant, love in idleness and administers it to Titania, making her fall in love with the first creature she sees, with disastrous results. He tries to follow Oberon’s commands that he also administers this to the lovers to resolve their problems but this again ends in disaster. The chaos and mayhem which follows, the order and disorder occurring in both the spiritual and human worlds, somehow miraculously manages to resolves itself into a happy ending, for all participants. This is a stunning production from a stellar and highly talented cast who bring real magic into the auditorium. Under the direction of Henry Maynard, Flabbergast use physical comedy, folk songs, dance and creative storytelling, to great effect to bring this enchanting story to life. The play runs to Saturday 25-11-23. Jane Lush 21-11-23 |
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