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A Midsummer Night’s Dream |
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I always try to approach productions with an open mind. It is only fair to the director and the cast not to prejudge what you are going to see. Being new to the Oxford School of Drama, I was certainly ready to be impressed. However, on reading the programme notes, my heart began to sink. Too frequently, productions of Shakespeare are plagued by “conceptitis” – the desire of the director to make their mark by imposing a concept on the given play. By recasting the fairies as modern day fetishists, the sense of otherworldliness and magic was, at a stroke, destroyed. And in this the most magical of the Comedies, that was a fatal mistake. Given that the performers were all at the Drama School, I was hopeful that the basics of verse-speaking were going to be observed. I was disappointed on this score. Too many of the cast ignored the building blocks of technique and so much of the beauty of the language was lost and meanings were obscured. Having said that, there were a number of creditable performances. Simon Milward was a spirited and lively Bottom, stealing the scene every time he walked onto stage. As Lysander, Richard Flood had a clarity of diction and pleasing manner that set him apart from the rest of the romantic quartet. All in all, this was a missed opportunity by the OSD. They could have presented a clear and elegant production with this cast – but the gimmicks and the poor preparation of the text let them down. Many in the audience were enjoying the performance, but it is not one I would wish to see again. I will, however, catch the OSD in performance again in the hope that this was not totally representative of their work. The balloons, however, were a triumph! Simon Tavener 8.6.04 |