In short: Fabulous! I have never enjoyed a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream more. It’s joyful from start to finish and the venue is a treat in itself. Now, for some more information.
It is not often that a Shakespeare play is prefaced by an explanation of the construction of the theatre, in this case, a three-storey, 16-sided, 900-person capacity structure that unites cutting-edge scaffold technology with a 400-year-old design to transport audiences back to the time of the second Globe Theatre, built in 1614.
On opening night, Tobias Grant, executive director of the Pop-Up talked to us about its genesis, the safety features, probably the rivets… I don’t remember everything he said because I was too busy looking at the details of the set, the boxes, the actors who were strolling among the groundlings. Regardless of where you’re sitting or standing, you are never more than 15 metres from the heart of the action on stage. Even before the play started, the audience was primed and ready to enjoy something special.
And we were not disappointed. Here’s Theseus (Jason Te Kare), victorious and regal and also quite tetchy, “full of vexation”. Here’s Hippolyta (Asalemo Tofete), decidedly unimpressed at her impending marriage to her conqueror.
Then we have the lovers, all played by men as they would have been in Shakespearean times of course, although here it adds to the comic effect. Director Gregory Miles knows how to find the comedy and the strong ensemble cast knows how to deliver it. Patrick Carroll’s Demetrius is such a wonderfully foppish prat that we were all onside with Hermia (Max Loban) and Lysander (Will Alexander) straight away. What was Helena (Thomas Wingfield) thinking?
Next up, the feuding fairy king and queen. Another delightful surprise. This Oberon and Tatiana (Te Kare and Tofete again) are no 19th-century ethereal spirits with gauzy wings and glittering costumes. No way. Instead we have Maori warriors, a very combative Queen and a manic Oberon, alongside a muscled-up Puck in tribal dress. If you didn’t already know, Pop-Up Globe is a NZ-based troupe, so perhaps it wasn’t such a stretch for them to have a fairy kingdom based on Maori folklore. On the other hand, perhaps it was just inspired. Either way, it makes perfect sense for these warring sprites to be big and powerful, and for Puck to be likewise. Again, the comic timing in their scenes is spot on. Most of the words are delivered in te reo Maori so bad luck if you don’t know the lines, but the gestures make the meanings clear enough.(Although, I did miss hearing “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”)
Then we have the rude mechanicals, in the guise of tradies, complete with orange vests, shorts and knee-pads. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Sweet Ass Mechanical Solutions team, and its self-appointed chief performer Bottom (Chris Huntly-Turner), who certainly knows how to play a crowd.
These three worlds collide with much humour, plenty of slapstick and some new gags. The final scenes, in which everyone is subjected to the lamentable comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, are driven along with panache (not always the case, in my experience) and helped by heckling nobles. And this is the first time I have seen a Thisbe (Patrick Griffin) outdo a Pyramus in the business of dying spectacularly on stage!
Hilarious, raucous, full of vim and vigour, with excellent performances from the whole company, I can only say don’t miss it!
Also in rep are The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors and Macbeth. Can’t wait. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, EQ, Moore Park, Sydney, until mid-November .
