Review: a magical and disordered Dream from ATC

A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Auckland Theatre Company
Maidment Theatre
Until May 26

Shakespeare gave some good advice to actors in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream during a scene where the main characters watch a play being performed.

Lysander: “He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt: he knows not the stop. A good moral, my Lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true.”

Theseus: “His speech was like a tangled chain – nothing impaired but all disordered.”

These instructions to actors are particularly relevant when dealing with comedy.

One of the skills a comedian learns very early on in their career is to make sure the audience always gets the punch line.

It’s a skill that most of the cast of ATC’s A Midsummers Night’s Dream should have learnt as well.

With any Shakespeare production the most important thing is getting the dialogue across to the audience.

It can be difficult, the language is tricky at times and there are some subtleties to the language which needs precise acting to convey the meaning of the words and the jokes.

Diction and projection have to be right and falling back on a bit of slapstick or meaningful looks isn’t enough.

This inability to articulate wasn’t universal with Stuart Devenie a model of Shakespearean delivery, while Brooke Williams and Laurel Devenie spoke their lines flawlessly.

The problem s with delivery, however, was only a small fault with an otherwise sparkling production.

The play intertwines lovers and marriages on several planes, the regal, the common man, the mythic and the spirit world.

These four tales create a clever take on love as well as allowing for a Shakespearian reflection on the nature of drama, reality and illusion.

The various threads are carefully knitted together with a riotous, fast-paced piece of theatre with a cast who work together like a well-tuned piece of machinery.

The play races along partly because there are no scene changes, just one set, a huge raked lipstick red stage across which the cast bound in and out.

The hectic central story of Lysander (Josh Mc Kenzie) and Hermia (Brooke Williams) eloping pursued by Helena (Laura Devenie) and Demetrius (Jono Kenyon) was stylishly and crisply played.

Laurel Devenie handled the role of Helena superbly with her performance as a lapdog slobbering over Demetrius brilliantly conceived.

The play within a play, Pyramus and Thisbe, one of the real highlights of the show, was a fine accomplishment aided by the inspired performance of Andrew Grainger as Bottom.

Raymond Hawthorne gave a lively performance as Puck the elder, anarchic fairy of the spirit world, while Alison Bruce (Tatania) was classy as his queen.

Helping meld the show together was musician and sound effects man Brett Adams, who provided music and sounds which never intruded or interfered with the action adding greatly to the overall production.