"Shakespeare's beloved comedy takes on the eternal themes: love, jealousy, and unreality. The action turns around the romantic infatuations of a love quadrangle, an approaching wedding, and a clumsy acting troop. It foregrounds the changeability of passion, the agony of unrequited feelings, and the delights of lust. Experiencing the play might feel like drifting through dreams in the small hours of the morning, the real and the fantastical weaving inextricably together. It's both hallucinogenic and sharply lucid theatre."
"Holly Race Roughan's ( Henry V, Small Hotel) production opens on a regency-style dining room. Silverware is set out by the cast across a long, white-clothed table that runs perpendicular to the pit, news conference style. Designer Max Johns offers a pearly-white marble floor; the backdrop is a pale, corniced façade. Characters don lapels and smart evening wear; animal skins hang around necks. This is a moneyed, impersonal universe, far from sun-baked Athenian stones."
"This production of A Midsummer Night's Dream leans heavily on the inherent hierarchies of the stately family. Nick Bottom (Danny Kirrane - Jerusalem) doubles as the house chef; Oberon (Michael Marcus - The Land of the Living) is his tyrannical master, so furious that he slams a roasted pig to the floor in Act I. Demetrius, played by Louis Jackson ( Tom's Midnight Garden), is an entitled son, swanning and squinting about the stage."
Holly Race Roughan stages A Midsummer Night's Dream in a regency-style dining room at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, replacing sun-baked Athens with a moneyed, impersonal interior. Designer Max Johns supplies a pearly-white marble floor, a pale corniced façade backdrop, and a long white-clothed table set perpendicular to the pit. Cast wear lapels, smart evening wear, and animal skins. The production emphasizes class hierarchies and the violence of love: Nick Bottom doubles as a house chef, Oberon behaves tyrannically, a roasted pig is slammed to the floor, and a revolver appears. The staging feels hallucinogenic and sharply lucid.
Read at London Unattached
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