A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Shakespeare Anniversary Festival is being held to commemorate the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare; three theatre groups in Perth's hills are working together at the home of Darlington Theatre Players, to present three strikingly different Shakespeare plays.
A Midsummer Night's Dreamis presented by Garrick Theatre. Set on the reproduction Shakespearian era stage - the standard setting for all three festival shows; simple additions help to establish the Palace of Theseus and a wood near Athens.
The acting performances are of a very high calibre. Jesse Wood and Jayden Payne are a very young Theseus and Hippolyta but bring maturity and authority to their roles. The young lovers (Samuel Tye, Finn Alexander, Clare Thomson and Gemma Sharpe) work nicely as an ensemble and have distinctive, believable characterisations.
The band of mechanicals are a strong team with Rodney van Gronigen in his element as Bottom while Adrian Wood brings out quiet leadership as Quince.
John Taylor and Jacqui Warner are mature and sensual fairy monarchs, while Krysia Wiechecki was a highlight of the show as an androgynous, dynamic, volatile yet loveable Puck.
Nyree Clark's costuming is highly creative and refreshingly original. Distinct colour themes define each group of characters and individual costumes give a lovely sense of each person.
A central tree is used as an interesting and aesthetic setting device. Don Allen's lighting design gives a lovely sense of place and is gorgeously organic, but the low light for an extended period was a little tiring.
A very sexually charged production, it sometimes felt like it was aimed at Year Nine boys and played a little too much to the groundlings. On opening night, pauses sometimes felt too long. Otherwise, direction is very tight and the production is thoughtful and clever. It is clear that the actors have an excellent understanding of the language and this is conveyed well to the audience.
A Midsummer Night's Dream was a quality production that provided entertaining viewing. I look forward to the rest of the festival.
Kimberley Shaw
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