Fairycakes

Fairycakes is a play written by Douglas Carter Beane the dialogue of which is written almost entirely in rhyming couplets. It is supposedly a new version of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and mainly follows the four fairy daughters of Oberon and Titania - Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustard Seed - who find out that their parents are intending to divorce which would threaten their very existence. Included also, are a number of other fairytale characters. 

The set, built in-house by Paul Jones, Ken Radmore and Mick Whitehouse consisted of flats surrounding the stage with steps on one side leading up to a raised dais and on the other side was a small wooden screen. All of the surfaces were beautifully painted by Scenic Artists, Andrew and Sabina Aucock, to depict a Forest glade. 

At the start four faces appeared one by one above each other in the parting of the main curtains and on their opening four stunningly dressed fairies beautifully sang and danced. Peaseblossom was superbly played by Leanne Collins. She most definitely was the ‘head fairy’ showing firmness and determination whilst keeping calm and practical and her ‘story narrations’ to the audience were sublime, as were her comedic asides. Whilst not wanting to ‘get involved’ with Puck they do have some quite funny episodes together particularly when they hide themselves behind the screen watching the antics of others. In the end she was pressurised, by Titania, into declaring her love for Puck. She tells him that she hates being called ‘Fairycakes’, Puck responds by telling her it means ‘I Love You’, it was such a poignant moment. It was an extremely powerful yet endearing portrayal from Leanne. Lyndsey Ashley too, gave a superb performance as Moth. She was much more exuberant than Peaseblossom with whom she has quite a chaotic relationship and was consistently causing distress to others. Her comedic antics were wonderful, none more so when she discovered that she couldn’t fly. Her ‘test runs’ across the stage were just hilarious. She was quite feisty and the on-off attitude, particularly towards Peaseblossom, was so well displayed and I loved it at the end when they were still vying with each other as they left the stage. As Cobweb, Cinderella’s fairy Godmother, Beth Dudman was delightful, her shaking when she couldn’t fly was so lovely. Beth, also played the Princess, and was equally charming in this role. Amanda Huntingdon excelled as Mustard Seed, she brought out the quite forceful nature of the character perfectly and when she suddenly appeared as Mermaid, well, what a quick change of costume that was! The headstrong and domineering aspects of Oberon, King of the fairies, were stridently and, on occasions, so aggressively delivered by Chris Nussey. His fiery interaction with Titania over his infidelity was super and following his separation, his not so subtle chasing of Elizabeth 1 ending up with him picking her up and carrying her away, was just sublime. Titania, Queen of the Fairies, was superbly played by Kristen Dougherty. She delivered the tenacious and confident nature of Titania ideally and although her accusations towards Oberon were true she herself provocatively flirted with A Changeling. Her demands that Peaseblossom finally tells Puck of her feelings was most decisively commanding. Early on in the show we met Geppetto quickly followed by the appearance, from behind the small wooden screen, of first a leg and then an arm and suddenly Pinocchio appears. Istvan Koszegi was superb as Geppetto, who was talked into carving Pinocchio out of wood. He becomes quite despondent when he is dumped by A Prince and believes that no one could love him and that life is meaningless. There was quite a touching scene when Dirk Dead-Eye lets him touch his eye patch and instantly falls in love with him. This was the happy ending for Geppetto as he, Dirk and Pinocchio become a family. Pinocchio was so impressively played by Jarad Higgins. He so animatedly lolloped about and his enthusiastic joyousness was just perfect for the role especially when he is made into a real boy, and he shouts ‘I’m alive’. Katie Jones was terrific as Robin Goodfellow, known as Puck. She brought out the mischievousness of the character so splendidly and it was at her hand, after finding the flower touched by Cupid’s arrow, that she goes about causing chaos. Along with Peaseblossom they do go about trying to find away out of the romantic mishaps mainly to reunite Oberon and Titania so that the fairy children will not die. Katie and Leanne were a perfect pairing playing off one another superbly thus making the relationship between Peasebloosom and Puck all the more successful. Mitch Cole excelled as Dirk Dead-Eye. He had a super ‘pirate-like’ accent and demeanour and tries his best to woo Moth, to no avail, but in the end does find happiness with Geppetto. Wendy Blunt, so gloriously attired with an amazing orange wig, was so majestically imposing as Elizabeth 1 as she so regally moved around carrying a work by Shakespeare but not so regal as she is picked up and carried off by Oberon. Cinderella was well played by Bethany Thomas, who tries so hard to win A Prince by constantly moving around dropping things in his path and a fine portrayal came from Josh Hodgson as A Prince, who also made a very dashing Cupid. Excellent support came from Ben Lawrence as A Changeling and a Cricket, and from Susie Moore as Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn. The finale was top notch as the whole cast so exuberantly sang “Oo-pah-loo-pah” (hope I’ve got that right) along with a super dance routine.

I think that I would need to see the play again to fully grasp and appreciate all of the complexities innuendos and humour it contained but, putting that aside, I couldn’t be more praiseworthy of the production as a whole because the enthusiasm and commitment by the fantastic cast was just that and together with absolutely stunning costumes, Mich Cole and Katie Watkins, Properties, Chris Nussey, a very atmospheric lighting plot and good sound effects, Philip Clark, the incidental singing and dancing and the innovative use of exits and entrances, all made for a most magical, enchanting and wonderful production.

Many congratulations to Director Katie Watkins, to Producer Holly Kirk, to Musical Director Nigel Turner, to Choreographer Leanne Collins, to all of the Back Stage and Front of House Teams and most especially to the fabulous cast. Also, my heartfelt thanks for the very warm welcome that I always receive. 

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