A Midsummer Night's Dream - Novello Theatre

SYNOPSIS

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

After a successful 7 month run at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Gregory Doran’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream will transfer to the West End and the Novello Theatre on 15th January 2009. The production revives the critically acclaimed production first created by Doran in 2005 as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Comedies Season. A strong cast for the Shakespeare classic is led by returning RSC actors including Joe Dixon, Peter de Jersey and Mark Hadfield. The production marks the RSC debut of Kathryn Drysdale who audiences may recognise as Louise from the long-running BBC sitcom, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

One of Shakespeare’s most popular and performed plays around the world; A Midsummer Night’s Dream intertwines three different plots which are all brought together by the forthcoming wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and his love, Hippolyta. Discarding the boundaries between reality and imagination, a four-way ‘love square’ develops thanks to the magical fairy Puck. Simultaneously, Nick Bottom and his friends look for somewhere quiet to rehearse a play which will be performed at the royal wedding. The events that proceed are magical, mysterious and comical all rolled into one.

Gregory Doran is one of the biggest names in British Theatre today having recently directed the phenomenally successful Hamlet production starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. Chief Associate Director of the RSC, Doran’s work has also included a production of Macbeth, starring Antony Sher, which was transferred from the stage to television screens in 2001. Arguably Doran’s biggest success occurred in 2002 when he oversaw a season of Jacobean (period of 17th century English history in which James I was monarch) plays at the Gielgud Theatre, which led him and the cast to being awarded the Olivier Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement of the Year’.

Having played Oberon in Doran’s 2005 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Joe Dixon returns to the cast to portray the role of Bottom, the over-confident and smug actor. Based upon his list of previous RSC credits, Dixon has every right to be smug himself; having played the role of Mendoza in The Malcontent in 2002, he has gone on to play Paris in The Roman Actor as well as appearing in The Comedy of Errors. Peter de Jersey, performing the role of Oberon, worked with the RSC during the 2005 Gunpowder Season, whilst Mark Hadfield, who takes upon the role of Puck, most recent RSC credit came as Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream appears at the Novello Theatre from the 15th January 2009 to 7th February 2009.