A Midsummer Night's Dream

Synopsis

On a midsummer's night Hermia and her lover Lysander flee from Athens and Demetrius - the man Hermia's father favours as a son-in-law. Demetrius follows, pursued by Helena who loves him in spite of being spurned in favour of Hermia. On the same night Bottom and his friends leave Athens to find somewhere quiet to rehearse their play which is to be performed at the wedding feast of Duke Theseus. Drawn into the woods they enter a world of magic, mystery and wonder.

Our Review:

2 October 2003

As ever, the first movement of Shakespeare's comedy takes a while to crank into gear. At least, in this first production of Michael Grandage's new season at Sheffield, while you're waiting for it to do so - during the set up in the Palace of Theseus, where we hear the first grating cries of Hermia's (Lisa Ellis) despair of the harsh Athenian law preventing her from being with her true love Lysander (Ben Turner) - we can at least take in Christopher Oram's design.

But for the stage level seating, this could be Stratford. Grandage, utilising to full effect an almost totally black canvas, opens up the play to the expected high production values, for a magical interpretation.

Grainy yet luminous lighting projects the cast from this backdrop with no shadows at all. Typically, the audience should not be prepared for the appearance of fairies, and Grandage's lurch suddenly into view from the murk of off-stage with the full burst of colour and orchestration,...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (212.219.118.132) - 3 October 2003:

Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most beautiful productions - and this was no exception. The lighting and costume were just stunning and I found Puck's blue body paint to just look fantastic. My favourite actor of the night had to be the gifted man who portrayed Quince - he was spectacular. Lovely all round perfomance, great stuff. Bex....

Read more and add your own review