Left – Paula Arundell and cast. Cover – Matthew Backer and Rob Collins. Photos – Brett BoardmanShakespeare's silly ass comedy gets a dash of Gershwin in the Kip Williams' STC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The use of the song Summertime, from 'Porgy and Bess', could be considered a cheesy choice, a gimmick, but it works here as a musical leitmotif, summoning both the summer of the time of the action, and, through several orchestrations and refrains, a sense of simmering sensuality. Tonally, Williams could have cribbed another tune from the show, It Ain't Necessarily So.
Kip uses another popular song to fun effect, Buck Ram's Only You, sung by Tatania in Eartha Kittenish tone to serenade and seduce Bottom in her spellbound state of wanting to mate with a mule.
That bestiality underscores the nightmare quality of this Dream, a grim fairy tale where the fairies are malignant mischief makers, lewd and lascivious gremlins, convenors of carnal carnage.
The monstrousness of matrimony, part of the chauvinism of men regarding women as chattel, fuels the imagery of this production. Marriage is depicted as a sombre and solemn occasion rather than a genuine celebration, more sacrifice than sacrament. Hooded attendants looking like executioners, virgin white bride’s veils ghosting widow weeds, an ascension to the scaffold and the dread knot of wedlock.
Theseus’ words to his betrothed Hippolyta imply their upcoming nuptials are a spoil of war, “I wooed thee with my sword… doing you injuries.” added to Egeus’ vexatious request that his daughter be annihilated lest she annul her affections for Lysander and obey his demand to marry Demetrius do not auger well for wedded bliss. Neither does Oberon’s bestial bed trick on Tatania.
Robert Menzies and Paula Arundel double as Theseus/Oberon and Hippolyta/Tatania, he in world weary mode, she in sultry stoicism. Bruce Spence is vexatiously vile as Egeus.
As is customary with this play, The Mechanicals steal the show, in their cack-handed production of Pyramus and Thisbe, the show ordered by Theseus to provide mirth, merriment and revels in the lead up to his wedding, and mirth and merriment is what this cast revels in.
Emma Harvie (Starveling), Jay James-Moody (Francis Flute), Josh McConville (Bottom), Susan Prior (Quince), Rahel Romahn (Snug) and Bruce Spence (Tom Snout) form an ensemble of slapstick side splitters with knock-out knock about antics that provide requisite comic relief.
Robert Cousens' set design is simple, basic, stage stripped bare, black and white, a space where character and costume reign over décor.
Costume design by Alice Babidge has the lovers in white underwear, Oberon and Titania in sparkling gold numbers, the fairies in grotesque onesies, and Puck resembling a cross between the MC from Cabaret and Rocky Horror's Frank n Furter.
A dark burlesque with striptease, garish make-up, bump and grind, this remarkable production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream brilliantly illustrates that the charm of Shakespeare’s text can survive any kind of treatment.
Sydney Theatre Company presents
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by William Shakespeare
Director Kip Williams
Venue: Drama Theatre | Sydney Opera House
Dates: 12 September – 22 October 2016
Tickets: $104 – $78
Bookings: 02 9250 1777 | www.sydneytheatre.com.au
