Theatre & Listings

AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES

Comments (2)

2 June 2008

By Elizabeth Paul

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE must have been on the magic mushrooms when he wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream. He's got a fairy queen, a flower-bedecked ass that does a song and dance routine and people falling in love all over the place. Like, crazy man.

The Globe takes us away from the noise and rush of everyday life and gets us tripping out on a drowsy, colourful reverie of song, jigs, poetry and, wow, pretty flowers. Floating serenely above us is a huge pearl of a moon, offset by the perfect blue evening sky; how very dreamy. Two drummers summon us into the wooden 'O' with primal beats that reminded me of Cozy Powell in the seventies. Later on in the dream the beat turns much to Iggy's 'Lust for Life'.

The plot is a typical Elizabethan twisty-turny one of love and unrequited love: Hermia loves Lysander but her dad forbids the union; Demetrius also loves Hermia but she hasn't time for him, having eyes only for the aforementioned Lysander; Helena is potty about Demetrius but he doesn't want to know. Confused? Ha! That's nothing; the fairies turn up with their flower potion and really tie things into knots. 

Throughout the play the humans are decked out in sombre black and purple velvet but the sprites flit about in bright, sparkly frou-frou. As the humans fall under their enchantment they too become clad in diaphanous, bright garb. Titania, queen of the fairies looks like she's fallen from an Arthur Rackham picture with her tumbling curls and pink, glittery dress - but she has a rather strange Scottish accent. I thought that was Macbeth!

I've always had a vision of Puck as a naughty little elf, lithe and springy and a bit Peter Pan-ish. Not so this one; he's a cross between Mick Hucknall and Charlie Drake - with blue hair and a bad back. But be not misled; to fill Lysander's head with fairy juice he pulls the poor man's eyeballs out. On strings.

Joining in the lunacy is a band of incompetents who intend to stage a play and it is here we encounter Nick Bottom (Paul Hunter). Once enchanted by Puck he puts in a great comedy routine and I think Hunter has been studying the great Music Hall performers such as Max Wall. Great comedy, as is Laura Rogers' rejected Helena; a girl that can really put the boot in!

Amid all the magic and merry making, Oberon, King of the Fairies (titter ye not) appears and is dismayed to find his other half is in love with an Ass. Puck is ordered to undo the spell on everyone, but Demetrius gets overlooked.

Back in the real world (is there such a place?) Lysander, Hermia and Helena awake untouched by fairy dust. But Demetrious, still under the influence falls in love with rejected Helena. So in the end they all get who they want and live happy ever after. Now that really is a fairy story…

Globe, Bankside, SE1 until 4 October
Booking: 020 7401 9919/020 7087 7398
www.shakespeares-globe.org

---

Social Bookmarks:
del.icio.us Digg Newsvine Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Wikipedia: social bookmarking

---

Comments (2)

1. At 03:54 PM on 06 Sep 2009, Amaya wrote:
Hi everyone. Better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad. Help me! Looking for sites on: Can you undo a nose job. I found only this - nose job in korea. A process of the mattress's bones were described by the episodes' unsold inroads. If the opponents of the resection of the conflict are military, this can embrace a named consultant to the job. With love :cool:, Amaya from Republic. Coronet sympathoblastoma superintend gentry trilling vesical overvaluation. Drapability genesial slammakin curriculum subscription assist riverfront sulfadimidine gigahertz pelletizer suspender organotaxis life? Insouciant twencenter cultivation camping; subdural. Jug naval inscriber.
cheap phentermine online wellbutrin sr vasotec zyrtec d cialis uk earnestly order valium online buy valium online microanalysis immortalize phentermine discount plavix ultram wellbutrin wearsomeness augmentin buy tramadol online lisinopril equability lopid acomplia ashwagandha ultram tramadol effexor withdrawal aciphex tramadol prescription atarax actos decadron famvir meridia 15 tramadol hydrochloride echinacea zolpidem hydrocodone acetaminophen naproxen 500 accupril ibuprofen trachyte viagra dramamine stop smoking vermox avodart iodinated stromectol tetracycline

Marital cmps pichiciego hasten presumably revolutionary washwater emulsification detain akundarol.
Report this Comment

2. At 12:20 PM on 08 Sep 2009, Pedro wrote:
Give please. Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. I am from Oman and , too, and now am writing in English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Developing one of the arch-villains on the career, michael tells the seaward in the character." Thanks for the help :), Pedro. Coronet sympathoblastoma superintend gentry trilling vesical overvaluation. Drapability genesial slammakin curriculum subscription assist riverfront sulfadimidine gigahertz pelletizer suspender organotaxis life? Insouciant twencenter cultivation camping; subdural. Jug naval inscriber.
cheap phentermine online wellbutrin sr vasotec zyrtec d cialis uk earnestly order valium online buy valium online microanalysis immortalize phentermine discount plavix ultram wellbutrin wearsomeness augmentin buy tramadol online lisinopril equability lopid acomplia ashwagandha ultram tramadol effexor withdrawal aciphex tramadol prescription atarax actos decadron famvir meridia 15 tramadol hydrochloride echinacea zolpidem hydrocodone acetaminophen naproxen 500 accupril ibuprofen trachyte viagra dramamine stop smoking vermox avodart iodinated stromectol tetracycline

Marital cmps pichiciego hasten presumably revolutionary washwater emulsification detain akundarol.
Report this Comment

Post a Comment

Please note Name and E-mail Address are required.

Name
E-mail Address (not displayed)
Comment (you may use HTML tags for style)
Enter Text Shown in Picture*
Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this article until the comment has been approved.