On Monday 6th March, I visited a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Young Vic in Waterloo. The artistic director of the Young Vic, David Lan over the past years has introduced new radical types of theatre to be performed in order to entice the younger generation. Joe Hill-Gibbins, the director of A Midsummer’s is known for his cynical dark themes in theatre and this is what supposedly appeals to audiences.
Upon arriving in the theatre the only thing visible on stage was a mirror on the back concaved wall which immediately added to the intimacy between audience and characters and struck me as unique and enthusing.
The stage floor was full of mud, which appeared difficult and dirty to walk through. I found the concept of bringing the outdoors indoors very strange, nonetheless an appealing concept and this is something that film and TV is not able to capture.
The enactment was not what I was expecting and I had a clear outlook on how I believed the characters were going to be played however Puck altered this. Puck was played by an older, slower man and was portrayed as jaded and lacking in attitude and firmness however it worked and he was very likeable- constantly playing with illusions and the fourth wall for the audience.
Surprisingly I found the whole performance very entertaining and the use of limited lighting whether it was stark white or light blue and sound only coming from the actors themselves really added to the essence of the characters being stuck in a forest – remote from civilisation.
This dark twist on the Shakespeare classic enabled myself as a drama and English student to observe different interpretations of performances and appreciate and learn from them.
