A Midsummer Night’s Dream Review – regal musicians and a group of magicians cause trouble | Theater

The magic comes in Atri Banerjee’s music for Shakespeare’s comic romance. “Rock’n’roll, you can’t beat it,” says someone, and it sounds like a gig during the break when fairies and Athena take the microphone for a musical number.

The beautiful folk music that accompanies the drama – sometimes full stop – is created by Men Memon. Titania’s crew is a four-piece band, variously playing electric guitar, violin, keyboards and other instruments. Theseus is a rock star; and Puck.

There is much to delight in Max Pappenheim’s sound design, whose birds connect with the park’s surroundings, while Naomi Dawson’s opens up the world of the forest, with open doors leading from design to reality. A sign reads “This Green Plot” and a clothes rail is placed in the background.

The film feels a little better in its combined stories of the upcoming wedding of Hippolyta (Jenny Rainsford) and Theseus (Olivier Huband) and the conflict between the sorcerer king and queen, Oberon (Huband) and Titania (also Rainsford), as well as the play of the lovers on the run through the forest and the humor of the game.

There’s modernity and humor, especially through Bottom (Nadeem Islam) – he’s D/deaf and brings sign language and great humor. But some of this innovation seems to have borrowed from the Jamie Lloyd school. The steps of the set can distinguish between the worlds of Athens, people and myth, and emphasize the extent of their power, but they also seem to be based on Lloyd’s Evita.

Clothing and accessories are also very stylish with contemporary clothes with period flecks (dresses on side skirts, puffball skirts). Their modern hits (“I see you”, “Stay cool”) are not isolated, and they play a similar time (representing the present and some unknown, ancient world), but the other beauty of the verse is that the mouths of the cast are not speaking. The wisdom of love and deception is all there (“Love is not with the eyes but with the mind”) but it floats, unsteady.

The doubling of the royal families isn’t distinct enough, and Theseus and Hippolyta’s chemistry is unconvincing. Some couples work well: Hermia (Hiftu Quasem) is every inch the rebellious princess who runs away to the forest with her lover, Lysander (Misia Butler). Helena (Mary Malone) is the best, with a wonderfully tortured sense of humor brought out by her unrequited love for Demitrius (Terique Jarrett). Puck (Georgia Bruce) not only pours “love in laziness” into the eyes of the couple but also sings and mocks, being like a compere at the gig, in spirit.

The world of Mechnics brings great joy; everyone here is fun and interesting. However, the pace is so slow that their drama is long and tedious. So creating a dream in its look and sound but you don’t feel like you are part of its magic.