Nov 30-Dec 2
I don’t often write about student and amateur productions
here, mainly because it requires readjusting my criteria. Participants in such productions
may not necessarily want to measure themselves against “professional”
performers. We have to consider their reasons for performing, which may possibly
be more social or community-based than on the economic necessity of a trained performer
who has chosen a livelihood of the stage. This is not to say that there is a
differential between either student/amateur and professional in terms of creativity
and who is capable of being creative. In fact, creativity can sometimes be better
nurtured in non-“professional” environments, which I argued in my review of
NUIG Dramsoc’s The Hero Returns.
The production of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream currently running in the Samuel Beckett Theatre is
undoubtedly the most impressive student production I’ve seen. A component of the
Trinity Drama department’s Debut series – in which graduating directors are
given an opportunity to produce on a large scale, supported by sizeable
budgets, casts and production crews along with academic guidance – Rosanna
Mallinson’s Midsummer feels more like
a lost Fringe play.
The fading in and out of a jazz-era piano and a vocal nod to
Nina Simone by a Sixties-dressed
Titania implement the musical genre as an ornament of the production’s design.
Furthermore, ‘jazz’ is a very apt description of the approach of this piece to
its source. Mallinson has taken the classical “scale” of Shakespeare’s comedy
and used it to create an original, mischievous arrangement of her own which overlooks hardly anything.
With the script condensed to an hour, she manages to cater the essentials
without glossing over any opportunity for comedic flourish. The cast are
well-schooled in humour and charm, and all deserve and take their individual
moments to own the spotlight. A radical design trades in fairy wings for
military rifles, and a serene forest for a radioactive dystopia. Coincidentally,
THEATREclub designer Doireann Coady is listed as production manager, and there
is somewhat of a Twenty Ten
similarity in how the screwball stage is uncluttered while possibly threatening.
This is not to overlook the members of the design team who have all
demonstrated a competency in interweaving these different aesthetics cohesively.
This production of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream is entertaining and ambitiously designed. It also
introduces some names to keep in mind for the future. Well worth the admission
charge of 8 euro (3 concession). Let me know what you think.
thank you so much for such a glowing review, it is so very exciting to see that ones work has been appreciated and understood by someone else, and to have my ideas clarified from anothers perspective. I never thought of words like dystopia for it, or that I was jazzing up shakespeare, but once you said it it became clear that was what I had been doing, I just hadn't formulated the words for it. So thanks again so very much!
ReplyDeletebest wishes
Rosanna Mallinson
Cheers for a good show Rosanna. Hope to see more!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete