A Midsummer Night's Dream

On a cold night on the penultimate day of the wettest February on record, it was very much a welcome break to be transported into a summer setting of floral clothes and vibrant costumes with love and magic in the air. Well yes. If you ignore the little problem of TADS theatre being a very cold venue!

Once again AFDS used the TADS theatre in Toddington for their chosen venue, and also once again chose to perform on the floor of the auditorium with the audience on two opposite sides, flat seating on the stage and the raked seating opposite. Adequate entrances via the side of the raked seating, a single door on the side wall and via the gangway from the rear of the actual stage. Thus with a scenery restricted to decorated side walls and furniture, some of which was both clever and highly amusing the atmosphere was provided mainly by the use of some excellent lighting, designed by Lucy Rai and Paul Horsler and very slickly operated by Lucy Rai. Add to that a constant but well controlled stage smoke machine and you were transported into a magical atmospheric fairy woodland well enhanced by the aforementioned lighting plot.

The Director, Sarah Benjamin certainly didn’t shirk the challenge of this well known Shakespearean comedy. She was even forced to cast herself in the role of Oberon after an accident to the original cast member, a brave decision from both a gender point of view and without an assistant director, a very taxing amount of work. Add to that she also took on costumes and props as her remit. Clearly a lady who is both dedicated and extremely competent. My hat off to her.

Being a play full of fantasy, the use of modern props such as mobile phones and a very amusing pop up tent blended perfectly into the plot that was mainly played in modern dress and found much merriment amongst the audience. Nice touches!

The cast certainly put their all into the delivery of the Bards text, amply demonstrating the hard work that had gone into this production with a pace that rarely flagged. Several of the performances were absolutely outstanding and showed a great understanding of Shakespearean English. Not an easy task to find a cast of twenty willing to take on the Bard in any village amateur dramatics society. So well done for even casting it let alone pulling it off!

Aldo Saralli as Theseus, Duke of Athens held court with aplomb and the very experienced Helen Morris was his Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.  She also played Moth, one of the fairies. Kelvin Horton was a particularly stern elderly Egeus, Hermia’s father, complete with walking stick (not sure why as he certainly didn’t need it when I saw him off stage later on?).

The two leading ladies, Sarah Vanstone-Howe as Hermia and Bryony Reynolds as Helena were both excellent with that rare gift of being able to put across the Bards words with clarity to a modern audience.  Both had a superb understanding and the range of emotions in their delivery.

James Kirkhouse (Lysander) and Josh Rush (Demetrius) were their matched lovers with excellent comedy between the two pairs. However, if I may add a small constructive criticism, I didn’t really get any passion between any of them as lovers, which is the crux of the play.

Sarah Benjamin as Oberon, King of the Fairies worked surprisingly well and made a good team with Samantha Golton as Titania, Queen of the Fairies.

Mark Tuck as Puck was destined to play this role, he had excellent comic timing accompanied by great presence and facial expressions to match. Lovely job!

The mechanical are always a highlight of this play and this lot were no exception.  Once again a gender change with Carmel Byrne as Mistress Quince very much in charge of this motley crew.

Mark Palmer absolutely revelled in his part as Bottom with sublime comic timing. He was definitely one of the outstanding performances of the night, He was ably backed up by Alistair Kelly (Frances Flute), Elizabeth Drewett (Mistress T Snout) who also played Mustardseed, Hansi Jayawardana (Snug) and Natalie Shearer as Robin Starveling who also played Cobweb, a fairy. The other fairy, Peasebottom was played by Robina Chatham

All round enthusiastic singing and dancing, well-choreographed by Jessica Podd and some clever original music by Bryony Reynolds and delivered by sound engineer Callum Humphries.

All in all, a very good stab at the Bard’s masterpiece with a well-paced and well directed show. Many thanks to Simon Tuck and the FOH staff for their kind hospitality, just please have a word with TADS about their plans to heat the auditorium.

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