A Midsummer Night’s Droll

A wild, rough, raucous and drunken reimagining; a version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from the 1640’s, originally adapted for illegal performance in pubs and back alleys whilst theatre was outlawed, over 350 years ago. “The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom the Weaver” has remained unperformed ever since. Until now. In 1642 the Puritans overthrew the English monarchy; they beheaded the King, banned Christmas, and made all theatre illegal. But theatre didn’t die. Without a stage, without costumes, without props, theatre fell into the gutters, kept alive by an array of strange, ridiculous, over-the-top, chaotic and criminal plays, which their dissolute performers called Drolls. Performed illegally in back alleys, private homes, pubs and country fairs, of these bizarre, bastardised and boisterous sketch comedies one of the most famous and most popular was an extraordinary adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, shifting Bottom to centre stage as the star, and delving even deeper into renaissance fairy folklore.

Part of the Vaults Festival