By Harry Mottram: Written in around 1595 in a very different England, A Midsummer Night’s Dream remains one of William Shakespeare’s most popular and most often staged and filmed comedies. The fairies, the Mechanicals featuring the over confident Bottom, Puck and above all Titania Queen of the fairies plus the quartet of warring lovers: Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius – make the unfolding drama a crazy mixture of folklore, Greek mythology and high comedy – mixed with a slightly darker side of Tudor social politics.
Axbridge Community Theatre are set to bring the evergreen comedy to the Town Hall from Wednesday 20th November to Saturday 23rd November, 2024, nightly at 7.30pm. The talented trio of Tony Leach, Marieke Roebuck and Katie Underhay are the artistic directors behind the production featuring a large cast of local actors, singers and musicians. Set in Athens in Ancient mythic Greece, the directors have transplanted the play into the modern Glastonbury Festival era complete with the colour and vibrancy of a contemporay pop festival – which will connect with contemporary audiences.
With a backdrop of the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta the drama features the four lovers Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius whose true path to love is hijacked by the meddling Puck with his magic potion that transform rational human beings into besotted lovers – who fall for the first person they see. Meanwhile in another part of the forest a group of workers plan to stage their own play to celebrate the wedding – it leads to one of the famous scenes in the drama when Bottom (no spoilers) is briefly turned into one of our cloven footed friends.
The drama features Tony Wilson as Bottom, Marieke Roebuck as Helena, Chris Jarman as Puck, Sue Hughes as Titania and Katie Underhay as Hermia – with an all star ACT cast of familiar names and faces along with those new to treading the boards.
The play runs from Wednesday 20th November to Saturday 23rd November, 2024, nightly at 7.30pm. Tickets £14, at from TicketSource and paper tickets available at the Post Office. More details about about Axbridge Community Theatre at https://sites.google.com/site/axcomtheatre/next-production and https://www.facebook.com/AxbridgeACT/?locale=en_GB
The main photo is by photographer Emma J Bailey of Brighton for a production of the play in the seaside resort.
Axbridge News is edited by Harry Mottram and is published for the interest of himself and fellow residents.
Harry is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc
Email:harryfmottram@gmail.com
Website:www.harrymottram.co.uk
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