A Midsummer Night's Dream

In recent years Gordonstoun School has put on entertaining versions of some of Shakespeare’s darker plays (Macbeth – That Old Black Magic and Hamlet – Shadow Of A Man). This year it’s the turn of that rather jollier offering, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and once again it’s a great success.No significant changes have been made to Shakespeare’s story except that it has been abbreviated and speeded up to make it fit into the available time. All the familiar elements are present: Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena wandering in the forest, with unfortunate consequences; Oberon and Titania fighting endlessly and a group of rough artisans trying to rehearse a play for the Duke’s wedding. One major departure from Shakespeare is in the use of two actors playing Puck – when one runs off one side of the stage the second immediately appears on the other side, which helps to emphasise the fast-moving nature of the production.As ever, much thought has been put into the music, which is a mixture of pop songs (mainly from the 50’s and 60’s) and incidental music written specially for this production. A great deal of effort has gone into finding appropriate songs, such as Magic Moments and Dream A Little Dream.The costumes have been provided by The Royal Shakespeare Company and are absolutely superb throughout but particularly in the case of Bottom, where he has the most realistic donkey’s head I’ve ever seen.There was a minor problem in the first performance, when there was a loss of power for about ten minutes, causing the lights and microphones to go off suddenly. The cast carried on without a moment’s hesitation, including singing without microphones and with no musical backing.This is another excellent production by Gordonstoun School and would be an ideal introduction for any young person who finds Shakespeare intimidating. In fact, it’s hard to think of anybody who wouldn’t enjoy it.