Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Venue: The Lowry
Date Reviewed: 31st October 2007
When I first heard about Tim Supple’s Dream, I was unsure of how it would work on stage. As, it is at times faithful to the original text but also features music, dance, dialogue in several languages and has a strong eastern flavour. Highly ambitious and epic in scope, maybe but it achieves its goal, despite your preconceptions.
Whatever you have read about this piece, you cannot prepare yourself for the visually arresting backdrop in which the scenes are set. Quite simply, you will not see a better looking or sexier production of a Shakespeare play on any stage!
To set the scene, imagine if this beautiful tale of love, lust, mischief and magic featured fairies that literally burst through the walls, running onto the stage, full of side eyed wonderment. Well, that dream becomes reality in Supple’s sumptuous feast for the eyes.
Another breath-taking scene features acrobats suspended from the ceiling in bright red fabric, almost womb-like in appearance. But the wonderful thing is that these elements enchance the narrative as opposed to seeming like flashy unique selling points.
At times though, this stunning production is a victim of its own success. There is so much for the eye to take in that you may miss pivotal dialogue as a result, which is a shame. For this reason, if you are new to the text, this is probably not the best place to start. But for coverts it is a thrilling piece of work.
Performance wise, Archana Ramaswamy’s Titania exudes inner beauty and heart stopping athelticism. But she is matched by all of the brilliant performers including the jolly Joy Fernandes (Bottom) and the pitch perfect Prasanna Mahagamage as dashing Demetrius.
Devissaro’s hypnotic music takes you to another world and works wonders alongside the rich canvas that Supple weaves.
For the young audience on the night I attended, this was the stuff that dreams are made of. It had me gasping during several scenes as I admired the sheer ingenuity on display. It is well worth catching if you can get a ticket.
-Glenn Meads