Shakespeare’s plays resonate with diverse peoples around the world. Rawiri Paratene, one of Aotearoa’s most illustrious Shakespeareans, told me he used to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday with his whanau in Northland.

When his daughter Marama Davidson got to high school in Auckland, she objected: “Dad, why don’t they celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday here?”

Indeed, read or performed well, the likes of A Midsummer’s Night Dream remain celebration-worthy, being both entertaining and insightful. [More]

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

We’re clapping before it even starts. A packed Soundings Theatre audience is warmed up as the Pop-up Globe’s eight actors and three musicians get themselves and us in the mood for the festivities to come. They top it off by taking requests so we find ourselves singing along to ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ (Crowded House) and ‘Shake It Off’ (Taylor Swift).

David Lawrence, Artistic Director of the Pop-up Globe and Director of their latest iteration of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (which opened in Auckland at the Q Theatre; see review below) delivers a politically witty welcome. For many it’s also a ‘welcome home’ moment from Wellingtonians who flocked to his Bacchanals productions over the years and have been missing them. (Was Richard III in January 2015 their last Shakespeare? They ended that year with A Christmas Karel Čapek then David left us to Pop-up in Auckland.)

A drop-cloth fabrication of the Globe’s permanent setting, ideal for touring, encloses the stage. While the publicity shot seems to adhere to the Pop-up kaupapa of using Elizabethan costumes no matter where or when a play was set, it turns out this production blends that with David’s belief, in the Bacchanals days, that Elizabethan was modern dress in Shakespeare’s time so today’s modern dress remains true to that. Royalty and their entourage are Elizabethan, the ‘common people’ wear modern dress and Fairyland does its own thing, constrained from too much detail by the need for quick costume changes (more of that later).

A strong opening scene sets up the Athenian lovers quadrangle: Hermia and Lysander love each other but her father, Egeus, demands she marries Demitrius who used to love Helena but now he fancies Hermia, much to Helena’s distress. Despite the dictate of Duke Theseus that Helena must marry Demetrius on pain of death if she refuses, Hermia holds fast to her love of Lysander. The Patriarchy looms large. When Egeus spits, “Your body, my choice,” the audience emits a loud laughing gasp of recognition: that fight is not over yet.

Hermia tells Helena of her plan to elope with Lysander, Helena tells Demetrius in the hope he’ll love her again but instead he follows the others into the woods so she follows him … Thus all is set for the convolutions and interventions that will prove Lysander’s observation that “The course of true love never did run smooth.” The thoroughly engaged audience is fully enrolled in the import of the themes and the fun inherent in this production.  

To summarise the remaining plot:

Carpenter Peter Quince, an aspiring playwright/director tries wrangle weaver Nick Bottom, bellows-mender Francis Flute, tinker Tom Snout, tailor Robin Starveling and joiner Snug into rehearsing The Tragical Tale of Pyramus and Thisbe. They hope to be chosen to perform it as part of the wedding festivities for Duke Theseus and his war-prize bride Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. The monstrous ego of Bottom comes to the fore as he claims to be the only actor suited to every role …

Deep in the woods Titania and Oberon, Queen and King of the Fairies, are engaged in a custody battle over a changeling boy (never seen on stage – presumably her care-giver fairies are looking after him). When she refuses to give him the boy, Oberon vows to humiliate her into submission – and sends his puck, Robin Goodfellow, to find the plant whose juice, dropped in her eyes, will make her dote on the first being she sees. And on observing what’s happening with Helena’s unrequited love for Demetrius, he instructs Robin to anoint the Athenian man’s eyes as well.

Thus, once Robin G transforms Bottom into an ass, Titania is charmed into falling in love with him. Meanwhile mistaken identity has led to Robin anointing Lysander, instead of Demetrius, and the first person he sees when he wakes is Helena. Likewise Demetrius, when Oberon rectifies the error by squirting his eyes. So now both men pursue Helena with ardour and ignore Hermia …

Eventually all comes right and Pyramus and Thisbe gets to be performed at the wedding celebrations. They finish the farce with a Bergomask dance; the Oberon-Titania-Robin G epilogue morphs it the last of the songs and dances that have graced the production throughout, and then there’s a jig. Despite its running 20mins over the advertised time, delight and appreciation carries us forth.

There are 21 named characters in the Dream. Normally it’s 18, with Theseus/Oberon, Hippolyta/Titania and Philostrate/Puck being doubled, although in 2017 the Pop-up Globe’s all-male Buckingham’s Company, directed by Dr Miles Gregory, did it with 13 actors. So how, you might ask, can 8 actors do it? With great skill and ingenuity is the answer – and by making a virtue, in the final scene, of the Lysander, Demetrius and Philostrate actors having to slip in and out of their roles in Pyramus and Thisbe. It’s meta-theatrics-plus and we love it.

As the hyperactive Robin Goodfellow, Frith Horan is never still – except when she is – and is the main connector with the audience. Brilliant. She also plays Philostrate, Master of the Revels, and Starveling who in turn plays the Moon, with flair. Plus she’s a very strong singer in a cast of good singers.

Kevin Keys contrasts his autocratic then benign Theseus with an Oberon who reminds us of an entitled CEO who can be both cruel and kind. Equal to the challenges they present, Kirsty Bruce stands tall and unbowed as the Amazonian archer Hippolyta and as Titania, queen-of-the-night and her loyal fairy attendants.

Natasha Daniel is a wonderfully confident and determined Hermia – until she isn’t – and a patiently long-suffering Peter Quince. Helena’s self-esteem issues are winningly explored by Alice Pearce who also gives us a bewildered Snug/Lion. Natasha and Alice also do duty as Cobweb and Peasblossom respectively

Lysander, as played by Bala Murali Shingade, is a loyal romantic hero – except when he gets into a karma sutra-esque tangle with Robin G then switches his affections from Hermia to Helena. Tyler Wilson-Kokiri’s Demetrius is suitably unable to take ‘no’ for an answer from Hermia and dismissive of Helena, until he too becomes besotted with her by virtue of the magic herb. Both Bala and Tyler are impressively acrobatic with their competitive attempts to one-up each other. In contrast, Bala gives us a stolid Snout/Wall while Tyler’s Flute/Thisbe is wondrously weightless. They also play Mustardseed and Moth respectively.

Jehangir Homavazir is a formidably angry Egeus and creatively comical with great physicality as Bottom/Pyramus – a real crowd-pleaser.

Musicians Shimna Higgins and Louie McGlashan, with David Lawrence, add subtle sound-effects and a range of musical accompaniments that greatly enhance the action.

Having seen multiple productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream it’s hard to park your preconceptions at the door. Inevitably there are elements I’d like to have seen, like a vocal change in Bottom’s ass, more nuanced characterisations with the tradies … But this relaxed yet hard-working company totally own their choices and I’m not “offended”.  

There’s a special magic to be enjoyed when the make-believe of the inter-twined stories entrance us in a basic set with no special lighting, giving our attentiveness, empathy and imaginations free rein. Add to that the deceptive ease with which 8 actors play 21 characters and “all is mended”.  

Just one more chance to see it tonight (Saturday 16/11) – grab it if you can.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

With its woodland setting, its noble protagonists and its fairies, burlesque humour, lyricism and of course, dreams, it is easy to see why A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the top three of Shakespeare’s plays being produced today.

And what a production this is.

Director David Lawrence has created, together with the actors, a fast paced, energetic, humour filled show which picks the audience up and carries us through all the shenanigans of Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies, squabbling over the possession of a changeling child, where Bottom and his country players put on an entertainment and where star-crossed lovers are allowed at the close, to finally fall into each other’s arms.

This company of eight players, dressed in a combination of traditional and modern costumes, are a huge delight.

Unfortunately, Kevin Keys is unable to play Theseus/Oberon at this showing due to Covid so Director David Lawrence steps into the breach seamlessly and the play gets off to a very smart start with clear and loud diction which continues from all the players who uniformly give intelligent readings of their lines.

Alice Pearce as Helena, Natasha Daniel as Hermia, Bala Murali Shingade as Lysander and Tyler Wilson-Kokiri as Demetrius almost steal the show.

They each take their character, which in some productions I have seen have been surprisingly insipid, by the throat and squeezed every ounce of nuance and humour from the lines and the situations causing the audience to hoot with laughter or sigh with sympathy as these clever players play the audience. 

The scene where the two men vie for Helena’s affection is full of robust physical comedy from all four players and the use of the white shirts to titillate is very funny. 

Kirsty Bruce is perfect for Hippolyta/Titania.  With a strong stage presence and imperious look, Ms. Bruce is able to also show an enchanting soft and sexy side and charming humour when dealing with Bottom the ass.

This play’s success can ride on the performance given by the actor playing Robin Goodfellow, a puck. Here, Frith Horan nails it. A very expressive face matches her eloquent reading of her lines together with her physicality, captivates and entrances us. 

Jehangir Homavazir is fabulous as Bottom. This role is a dream role for an actor and Mr. Homavazir makes it a show stopping, scene stealing one. Loud, robustious and with an attraction that seems to captivate all around him, this is a star turn.

The crowning glory of the play is the play within, performed at the marriage celebrations. 

The players playing other major roles also double as the Mechanicals, creating slight mayhem with costumes and props while performing “Pyramus and Thisbe”.

Brilliantly directed to extract every coarse acting effect in the coarse actors’ repertory, this has the audience crying with laughter. When Tyler Wilson-Kokiri as Thisbe chokes him/herself with the scarf, tears are running down my cheeks.

To the people who go “Oh, Shakespeare? No thanks”, go and see this totally captivating show. It will change your mind. 

Long live Pop-Up Globe!

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer