This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the invite of Birmingham Rep.
For Brum Radio’s Interval Theatre, Adam Carver spoke about their role of Puck in A Midsummers Night’s Dream. Listen Below:
By Dave Massey
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Birmingham Rep: Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐A dreamy retelling
Directed by Joe Murphy and Madeleine Kludje written by William Shakespeare
Titania, a fairy (Ellena Vincent), wants to play matchmaker or, at the very least, move things along faster. Fellow fairy Puck (Adam Carver) has sprayed the love spray onto the wrong person, and now the couples are all mixed up. Meanwhile, down on the ground, Quince (Hannah McPake) has taken a bunch of wannabe actors into the forest to rehearse a play, as the two stories start to converge.
This is a fun retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that largely sticks to the story whilst throwing in a mix of newer ideas, music and songs appear throughout, including versions of; Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) , Beautiful by Christina Aguilera, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers – Islands In the Stream, I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner and Kissing You which features in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.
For those new to Shakespeare, this is a pretty full on delve into it, compared to lighter stories. There are a lot of characters to consider, and the strands take their time to weave together. The music interludes really draw the audience closer, and at one point, we are even invited to sing!
Adam Carver is excellent as Puck, with more than a nod to classical court jesters or a harlequin or a royal court. Ellena Vincent and Haydn Oakley are great Titania/Hippolyta and Theseus/Oberon, Omar Malik is a total scene stealer as Bottom, becoming engulfed by turning into an Ass.
The stage is pretty static for the most part, huge columns hang from the rafters and there as steps leading up from the centre-rear of the stage. Thankfully, these huge columns become the trees of the forest and even light up. At one point, boxes lower from the sky, a cube of light with branches within.
The costumes are a mixture of styles, and I know this is because they were sourced from the Rep’s own archive. From tracksuits to “American Prep” style uniforms and then classical dresses, each costume and outfit has its own echo of history to it. Shakespeare folklore lives on at Birmingham Rep, and this production confidently demonstrates a new vision from Joe Murphy and Madeleine Kludje.
A dreamy retelling, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is at Birmingham Rep until 24th May. Book tickets here: birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/a-midsummer-nights-dream.
