3 months ago
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Theatre connected Kew
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the eventual woodland play, and it is hard to ideate a much enchanting mounting for Shakespeare’s perennial mystical seasonal delight than the spotlit signifier nether Kew Gardens’ majestic practice trees. Always enriched by the acquisition of being viewed alfresco, the fairy-dust peppered drama takes connected a caller magnitude erstwhile the Bard’s star-crossed lovers and mischievous fairies cavort successful uniquely botanical surroundings. The earthy backdrop lends an incomparable earthiness to the play.
The Australian Shakespeare Company, nether the Artistic Directorship of Glenn Elston brings a remarkably fresh, dynamic and wickedly comic instrumentality to the 400-year-old play. The institution has a three-decade agelong past of outdoor show and homegrown partnerships with Kew’s counterparts Down Under – the Royal Botanic Gardens of Melbourne and Sydney.
The accumulation is adapted to suit the abstraction and there’s tons of amusive to beryllium had. Jono Freeman is an agile, tumbling Puck, guiding the enactment of the play flanked by a phalanx of punk fairies, alongside Hugh Sexton’s dour, brooding Oberon.
The quartet of lovers supply plentifulness of belly laughs arsenic they clash with each different beneath the stars. Solenn Mara-Lewis is an utterly bewitching Titania, delivering her code connected the "forgeries of jealousy" successful a astir beguilingly impassioned manner.
The Rude Mechanicals, nether the enactment of Peter Quince, the carpenter (played with sizeable comedic panache by Madeleine Somers) amuse with galore modern adjustments to the substance and a hilarious Pyramus and Thisbe interlude. Elston directs with gait and imagination, portion lighting decorator Peter Amesbury weaves his ain benignant of magic, flooding the signifier and frondescence surrounding it with washes of airy yellowish and green, animating the past woodland successful the acheronian and amplifying the enchanting quality of the play with melodramatic flashes of purple.
This is simply a stellar show, bringing world-class acrobatics and a interaction of cabaret to the signifier whilst adhering faithfully to Shakespeare’s script. It is simply a lively, accessible outdoor accumulation that volition delight young and aged alike. I took my seven-year-old girl on (she was 1 of respective young children successful the audience) and some of america were enthralled and entertained throughout. On a balmy August evening successful the capital, determination is surely nary amended theatrical treat.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream runsat Kew Gardens until 1 September 2024.
For tickets, delight visit:theatreonkew.starlight-tickets.co.uk
English (US)