Puck

Let’s begin by handing out some plaudits.  Hannah O’Donnell is a young local author who has written a play: a significant achievement, but a rather private one if that play remains as simply a script.  So Hannah pitched her play to the Banbury Cross Players, collaborated with creatives and technicians, selected and worked with her cast, and directed her play in a professionally-run Arts Centre.  That really is an immense achievement, as well as a brave thing to do as you are putting your work out there for the public to judge.  The Banbury Cross Players also deserve recognition for having the courage to devote one of their three annual production slots to an original work and an inexperienced director, with all the attendant artistic and financial risks.  But if every company simply stuck to the established repertory, the classics and the West End hits, how would new art ever be made?  How could authors get their work seen or directors learn their craft?  The future of the theatre depends on inexperienced authors, directors, creatives, technicians and actors having opportunities to try new things, to experiment, even to make mistakes.  Banbury Cross Players gave Hannah and her company that opportunity.

I always worry when authors direct their own work.  Something that looks good on the page and works brilliantly in the author’s mind doesn’t always translate well to the stage, but there was little evidence here that Hannah had pursued ideas that weren’t working.  It was clear from talking to her that rehearsals had been very collaborative, that the views and feelings of the cast had been taken into account, and that Hannah still regarded the script as a work in progress.

“Puck” is a sequel to some of the events in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and tells the story of King Oberon and Queen Titania’s “changeling child”.  The fairies in the woods outside Athens are joined by a party of young Athenians seeking adventure, and they are not disappointed.  While some familiarity with Shakespeare’s play probably helps, if only to identify and contextualise the characters at the beginning, no prior knowledge is required.  I’m no Shakespeare scholar, but Hannah would seem to have a keen ear for the metre of the Bard’s poetry, and her writing echoes the rhythm and phrasing of his work, albeit in more accessible language.

I liked the way in which the fairies spoke more formally, with greater emphasis on precision and rhyme, providing a contrast with the language of the Athenians.  All the words came across clearly thanks to the actors’ careful diction, although some of the actors were more comfortable with the peculiar demands of the poetry than others – a reflection, perhaps, of the wide range of experience within the company.  Hannah also used some dramatic techniques to distinguish the fairies from the Athenians, with the fairies encouraged into light, ethereal movements.  These were executed rather better by the actors who had some dance experience, and particularly by those characters whose costumes comprised the sort of insubstantial material that floats and flows, so while differentiating between the Athenians and the fairies through stage movement was an excellent concept it proved quite challenging in practice.

The staging of the production was driven by the Theatre Green Book which encourages sustainable practice in the theatre.  The essentially black box set appropriately meant that characterisation and story-telling were at the heart of the production, but the set did feature a grassy mound which flexibly allowed for seating, concealment and different levels as necessary.  It helped that the action takes place entirely at night, and the passing of time was cleverly indicated by the projected moon crossing the back of the stage.  The costumes were drawn from a wide variety of sources and included an even broader range of eras and styles, but the vision was strong enough to enable the Shakespearean mischief-maker to share the stage with the nobleman from the court of Louis XIV and the contemporary young woman.

This was a fascinating evening in the theatre - an original piece paying respectful homage to Shakespeare’s work and the beauty of the language he employed, while continuing some of the storylines established in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and developing its themes in ways to make them more accessible, and perhaps more acceptable, to modern audiences.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.