The American Drama Group Europe and Art Promotion presents:
TNT Theatre Britain in Shakespeare's:
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Shakespeare's most popular comedy deserves its reputation, for here the "lunatic, the lover and the poet" combine with the magical world the perfect mix of comedy and romance. After the success of last season's MACBETH, Paul Stebbings brings the company's unique style to bear on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. There will be no attempt to impose a geographical setting or style on top of the original, but rather a careful freeing of the text so that its deeper meanings and conflicts can emerge.
The play is surely a fertility rite and the energy this releases will power the play forward. Its conflict is rooted in the battle of the sexes: the production begins by dramatising the conquest of the Amazon Queen by Theseus and links the final comedy of Pyramus and Thisby to the drama and others in the play. The fairy wood is a dangerous place, dangerous and exciting in the same way that Thesues' Athens is dangerous and sterile.
Shakespeare happily mixes traditional English spirits with classical heroes and fantastic creatures. What unites these traditions are paganism and that energy lies at the root of our production. Bottom is perhaps Shakespeare's greatest clown, in our production he will be played not just as a man consumed by vanity but as a man trying to understand love without understanding himself. The style will combine music, dance and song with powerful conflict that demonstrates not just the joy but the pain and madness of love.
The play is full of energy and that energy will be released through more than words; the wild wood was still a wild place in Shakespeare's day. Too often the play becomes an excuse for easy laughter and is neither believable nor are its themes and characters united. We will attempt to unify the themes and characters and link the serious and the comic.
The company's recent MACBETH toured to fourteen countries on three continents and only received good press. The same team of director, dramaturge and choreographer will aim to present an original but faithful version of Shakespeare's finest comedy.
Paul Stebbings
Artistic Director
