Summer Shakespeare Presents: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Directed by Shane Bosher
Love turns the world upside down.
Clothes and social skins are shed, nice people
turn nasty and imaginations run riot.
A Midsummer
Night's Dream will create a pop-up theatre event of one of
Shakespeare's most popular plays. Expect ferociously
beautiful poetry, robust physicality, anarchic invention and
a donkey, as Shakespeare's oh-so-magical play is brought to
life this summer.It's a love letter and a cheeky wink to
Wellington's art culture, built by a team of talented and
passionate theatre makers. A Midsummer Night's Dream is the
perfect opportunity to experience the Bard at his best!
Directed by Shane Bosher (Director of the Year by the
NZ Listener four times.), the play interrogates the social
demands, conflict and gender dynamics that every day people
currently experience and in their own way, learn to over
come.
For the first time in Summer Shakespeare's 31
year history, it will be performed indoors. As an
organisation, Summer Shakespeare has constantly
reinterpreted its relationship to space jumping from Te
Ngakau Civic Square to The Dell, to the carpark of a cinema
complex. The Basement Theatre space allows the cast & crew
to focus the storytelling, avoid pesky wet weather
cancellations and create a rambunctious spirit of play
between actor and audience.
Director Shane Bosher
says; ìI've always been struck by how this play connects
with audiences, regardless of age or experience. The
language is accessible and there is a great spirit of
democracy in the storytelling - we jump from lovers to
fairies to mechanicals to royals. We're in the midst of
rehearsal - Australia is burning and Trump is continuing his
crimes against humanity. We need theatre to tell us that we
are not alone, that there is possibility in the world. Dream
does exactly that.ì
A Midsummer Night's Dream at The
Basement Theatre, Te Whaea, features an ensemble of emerging
New Zealand talent including Ariadne Baltazar (Capital E's
Mr McGee and the Biting Flea), Grace Hoet (Chapman Tripp
Best Actress 2001), Dryw McArthur (nominee for Most
Promising Newcomer, Wellington Theatre Awards 2019), Andrew
Clarke, Phil Peleton, Jake Brown and Catherine Zulver.
Production date, time, location:
Thursday 13 February - Saturday 29 February (no shows
Mondays) Sunday Matinees. Te Whaea: National Dance & Drama
Centre, 11 Hutchison Road, Newtown, Wellington
Tickets:
Available from summershakespeare.nz
$25 Full / $15 concession
ENDS.