A Midsummer Night’s Dream Review and Pictures

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

February 10, 2009

Southwark Playhouse

4- 28 February

For the Southwark Playhouse’s annual Shakespeare production, director Jonathon Man utilises the classical Japanese dance genre of Kabuki in this ambitious re-imagining of romantic comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The play is centred around the wedding celebrations of Daimyo Theseus and Hippolyta, and is comprised of three overlapping plots: Hermia elopes with her lover Lysander, threatened with death by her angry father Egeus at her refusal to marry Demetrius, who follows them, chased by his first love Helena, who is still infatuated with him; Oberon, the king of spirits intervenes with the help of his servant, Puck, whose mistakes lead to some dangerous consequences, not to mention love triangles; Meanwhile, the ‘Kaga Craftsmen’ are rehearsing a comic tragedy to be performed at the wedding, drawing some interesting parallels between characters, regardless of their sizable class-divides.

The production opens with a chorus of seven singing players performing a classical Kabuki song with handclapped accompaniment, which leads into both Japanese and English dialogue, with a strong commitment to the original script. The formal Japanese dance is too much for some audience members though, as I become slowly aware of a girl shaking as she bites her fist in an attempt to contain her sniggering.

However, the second half sees a transformation in Watanebe, whose more animated physical performance as Oberon is a million miles away from his somewhat awkward playing of Theseus. He is particularly strong in the scenes where he is commanding and scolding Puck (played by the versatile Jay Oliver Yip, who also plays Egeus and Quince) and ad-libbing; when a member of the audience interrupts his singing in Japanese, he responds with an “Eh?” and carries on seamlessly. The audience erupts with laughter, but this time the sniggering is with, rather than at the performance.

The first half is much harder to follow overall, with the Japanese-English language mix just a little too disjointed. Again, this is resolved in the second half, where we are treated to a wide range of spectacles, from an elegant fan and mask dance to a truly hilarious rendering of Pyramus and Thisbe, the play-within-a-play.

The stars of the show are Hermia (Nina Kwok) and Helena (Julia Sandiford), whose comically violent physicality and witty grasp of the script (respectively) stand out above all else. Matt McCooey (Lysander and Bottom) also has a wide-eyed optimism and innocent charisma that is a pleasure to watch.

-Patrick Coyle