Director: Stacey Norris
Reviewer: Christine Stanton
“Pissed-Up Perfection”
4.5 / 5
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a Shakespeare classic but in this production, gone are the serious scripts and classically acted roles. Instead, the Bard gets boozy – this sozzled iteration of Shakespeare after a skinful is quite frankly, pissed-up perfection.
Before the start of each performance, one of the rotating cast-members gets drunk – not so much that they’re passed out asleep backstage (at least not during this performance!), but just enough to make the show almost nothing like the original text, and instead ridiculous, hilarious and an infectiously fun time. During this show (18th July 2024) it is Beth-Louise Priestley’s (Hermia) turn and what a superbly smashed performance she gives!
Of course, in the original, the storyline centres around a sort of love square – Hermia and Lysander are in love, rejecting her father’s choice of spouse; Demetrius. The pair escape, passing through the enchanted forest – with Demetrius and Helena (wildly in love with Demetrius) hot on their heels. The fairy King and Queen mischievously order Puck to resolve the lovers’ conflicts, which inevitably leads to chaos. This production does stay pretty close to the original tale of heartbreak, romance and fairies frolicking in the forest – with the brilliant additions of Hermia necking a beer every now & then, The Little Mermaid being a very unexpected (but welcome) prominent feature, and Lysander becoming a guinea-pig murderer.
The show immediately falls off the rails as Priestley enters in a fit of giggles, proclaiming her love for everyone on stage and going off script in the most fantastic way. The cast are wonderfully witty, quickly reacting to each of the unexpected outbursts and improv’ing the script as much as possible, while still impressively managing to churn out the entirety of A Midsummer Night’s Dream even if not quite to the letter! Charlie Keable (Lysander), Stacey Norris (Helena) and Eugene Evans (Demetrius) hilariously interact with Priestley, in many of the same scenes that wind up going haywire because of the boozed up brilliance on display. James Murfitt (Oberon) and Julia Bird (Puck) make the enchanted forest scenes silly and over-the-top with some great audience participation, and Natalie Boakye (Host) enthusiastically comperes the evening, managing to keep things on track as much as possible, even when it includes hilariously guarding the drinks trolley from Hermia’s advances.
This is an incredible premise and is executed by a top-tier group of comedic performers, who not only all clearly absolutely love performing the show, but have such great chemistry on stage that it’s almost like watching your drunken mates having an absolute ball. A must watch whether you love or hate Shakespeare’s classics.
Runs Until 7th September 2024
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