A Midsummer Night's Dream

It was a pleasure to be back with Caerphilly Players for their performance of William Shakespeare’s, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

The play is a romantic comedy featuring some of Shakespeare’s most famous characters and is proving ever-popular with the societies in District 4 as this is my third production of it in 12 months.  I can almost quote the script now!

Scenery was basic, but well-constructed and well-used and the society made use of the playing space in front of the main stage which helped to add levels and depth to the performance.  Lighting was effective and sound quality was generally good.

The very hard-working Terrance Marshman-Edwards had a lot to do as he played Theseus and Oberon.  He played both roles very well and each character was different, which is a difficult thing to do.  Well played.

The society opted to slightly change the make up of ‘The Lovers’ from the traditional two male and two female characters to three females and a male.  This worked well and my congratulations go to Hannah Williams, Heather Donnelly, Jennifer Gruffudd and Jack Desambois who played Hermia, Lysandra, Helena and Demetrius respectively.  The quartet worked well together and on their own and each had distinct, well thought-out characters which added to the storytelling.  Well done all.

‘The Mechanicals’, played by Conor Hufton, Helen Bryan, Kathy Lye, Ethan Cleverly, Phil Lye, Helen Payton and Hannah Williams added the comedic element that this production is known for.  Particular congratulations must go to Conor who was great as the larger-than-life and completely over the top, Bottom.  Good work.

Ashton Cubitt did an excellent job as Puck.  He was mischievous and engaged well with the audience throughout the production. 

Other named characters all added something to the production; well done.

My thanks go to Caerphilly Players for their invitation and for a lovely night of theatre.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.