A Midsummer Night's Dream

So, what can you do to freshen up one of the World’s greatest and most well know comedies? Well, LBDG came up with an absolutely superb idea. Set it back as if you were performing it in the 1940’s and start with a radio interview of Phyllis Harcourt recounting her memories of her drama group’s production set just before the men all went off to war. Now that got the audience’s attention straight away. Very clever and the vision of the Director, Sue Sachon.

The stage set, designed by David Sachon and Mike Ward was truly magical. A full sized backcloth of an enchanting wood covered the back wall with two large plinths to either side of the stage and two large  trellis beautifully decorated in flora patterns. Even the front of the stage greeted us with florally decorated trellis to set the scene before the curtain opened. Nice job by set builders, Colin Delamore, Mike Ward and Colin Aldous.

What made it truly magical was the LED lighting interwoven into the trellis work. In combination with Dave Miles beautiful atmosphere setting of the standard lighting plot. It took some clever timing too, as a flick of fairy finger cued them on.

Tom and Emma Davis did a great job with the sound, which was particularly impressive during the radio interview and took me straight back to my early childhood and the days of crackly steam radio. Nostalgia in abundance.

Costumes of course are an essential part of this play, particularly for the fairies who certainly didn’t disappoint in that area, but what made this production stand out was the 1940’s costuming. Sue Sachon and Sheena Ward can certainly take a bow for not only the totally authentic uniforms for the men of The Duke’s Court but also the absolutely superb idea of dressing the Mechanicals as Air-Raid Wardens complete with ARP tin hats. Even the stagehands changing the furniture between scenes were dressed in classic brown coats of the day. And an excellent dress for Bottom by Sheena Ward.

The first scene was cleverly played very ‘stiff upper lip,’ exactly as you would expect for the 1940’s. Henry Esdon was very military Duke Theseus commanding his court as you expect a general in the British Army with Dee Denehan as Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons and his bride to be demurely on his arm. Randell Moll as Egeus, was Hermia’s demanding father again suitably military and Debbie Kaye played Philostrate, Thesus’s Chief of Staff or Master of The Revels as it is usually called. It apparently later metamorphosised into The Lord Chamberlain’s Office.

The four lovers, Hermia, played by long time LBDG stalwart Emma Brown, Helena, played by Chloe Nixon, Lysander, played by Steven Cotton, both professionally trained in performing arts at Chichester University and Demetrius, played by self-confessed Shakespeare buff Simon Theodorou are the backbone of this play and were absolutely spot on with their delivery and certainly knew how to put across medieval English to a modern audience. Great job. And the interaction between them was a real comic delight. The derision between them was absolutely comical as they delivered put down after put down. Particularly like the brilliantly choreographed scenes where Demetrius enters with Helena holding one of his legs and being dragged across the stage, or where Demetrius and Lysander are both trying to outdo each other whilst vying for Helena’s hand. That was a comedic masterpiece of a scene thanks to the absolutely brilliant choreography. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done better.

Our fairies by contract brought us the mischief and the atmospheric magic of the play.  The first thing to say is hats off to Harry Rodgers who came in at the last moment to play Oberon and, believe it or not, apparently learnt the part in nine days. That, to quote my grandchildren, is quite simply awesome! Puck was a super contrast to Oberon, and being played by actress, Hannah Williams Lovell, it worked really well. That’s the second time I’ve seen Puck played by a female and I’m almost convinced it works better that way. Couldn’t fault it. Another professionally trained actress Olivia Davies raised this show to another level with her portrayal of Titania, Queen of the Fairies, producing yet another comedic scene of genius with the iconic love scene with a donkey headed Bottom. Dee Denehan, Tania Amado Fish and Debbie Kaye gave us the entrancing Peaseblossom, Mustardseed and Cobweb.

The mechanicals, as I previously stated were all air raid wardens and thus brought a rather well thought out military presence to them as they marched on. Kara Florish, another one of these excellent group of fully trained actors and a newcomer to LBDG, gave us a very good gender-neutral Peter Quince, their leader. Ben Dards, as Bottom was a superb piece of casting. He has stage presence in spades and was obviously born with a natural sense of comic timing. Totally at home on the stage and fully able to engage with the audience, he just commanded the scene. His reaction when Tom Snout, played by Toby Comerford comes on as the wall in Pyramus & Thisbe, ‘the play within a play’ performed at the wedding of Theseus & Hippolyta was one of those side-splitting moments you remember for a longtime. Very well backed up by Tania Amado Fish as Snug The Joiner, Lorna Daggett as Robin Starveling, a Tailor and Tony White as Francis Flute a Bellows Maker.

The radio voices were played by Emma Brown as Phyllis Harcourt and David Sachon as the BBC Wireless Interviewer, both of whom really nailed that 1940’s plumy accent.

To sum up, this was indeed a topflight production of the Bard’s work, from the initial concept of setting it in the 40’s, the very tight directing, to the breathtaking set design, to the delivery with a lot of emphasis on this being first and foremost a comedy. There were several places where the audience broke out into spontaneous clapping, which I think is unique to my watching a Shakespearian play. A thoroughly entertaining show all round, so well done indeed to Sue Sachon and her cast and crew, with its mixture of old stalwarts and, most encouraging of all, a whole lot of new faces who all joined LBDG within the last year or so. And finally its was a pretty full audience as well for a Thursday, with I’m told a more or less full house for the rest of the run. It doesn’t come better than that!

Finally, many thanks to Mike and Barbara Springthorpe for your usual kindness and hospitality. Nobody does it better!

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