Junior production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is 'engaging and energetic'

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is often played as one of Shakespeare’s most twee and genteel comedies – it’s a favourite of country-house outdoor Shakespeare companies, and the play’s imagery of forests and fairies can easily become comfortable and cute.

Mrs Cissone’s fierce and fabulous Junior School production, therefore, gives the play a welcome sense of grit and energy. Instead of wafting acres of tulle and sparkles, these fairies are punky rebels in leather and miniskirts. Led by a charismatic Oberon (Ethan P (R, IV)) and sparky Titania (April H (MSH, III)), the fairies inhabit a junk-yard forest of steel girders and discarded washing machines. In this world, Puck (Freya C (G, III)) is a celebrity influencer, whose pranks find their way instantly onto Youtube. The fairies observe the hapless mortals who stumble into the wood as if it were a Renaissance Gogglebox, offering a hilarious commentary (‘Love that journey for you!’) on the on-off relationships of Lysander, Hermia, Helena and Demetrius (Johnnie T (Ch, IV), Faye P (G, IV), Pippa L-S (G, IV) and Luca G (S, III)).

The lovers are played with endearing innocence and naivete by this young cast; I particularly enjoyed the spoilt disdain with which Hermia received her suitors’ puppyish affection, and the boys’ attempts to show off their physical process to impress her. In an addition to the script, Pippa L-S’s Helena bursts into song in the second Act, bemoaning Demetrius’s failure to see beyond the surface. It’s a dramatic and musical triumph, with brilliant lyrics by Pippa herself and orchestration by Ivo W (Rb, LVI).

The comic subplot of the play is provided by a group of wannabe thespians, who also find themselves in the forest. Letty H (M, III) is hilarious as the beleaguered director (I wonder where she got that from…) who is trying to herd a motley crew of workmen through rehearsals. Will O’H (Ch, IV), Isaac S (SH IV), Angus P (PH, IV) and Lucy B (G, III) wring every moment of slapstick brilliance out of Shakespeare’s script – I particularly loved Will’s expression of moonshine through interpretative dance. The show is stolen, however, by Gethin H’s (Rb, IV) egomaniacal Bottom, who is desperate to play every part at once.

Played straight through in a breakneck 75 minutes, this is a tremendously engaging and energetic production by a young cast who are clearly having a ball. Congratulations to all the cast, crew and staff involved.

Dr Helen Brown

Deputy Head (Co-Curricular) and Director of Drama