Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream entertains Leighton Buzzard

So, what can you do to freshen up one of the World’s greatest and most well know comedies? Well, LBDG came up with an absolutely superb idea. Set it back as if you were performing it in the 1940’s and start with a radio interview of Phyllis Harcourt recounting her memories of her drama group’s production set just before the men all went off to war.

The stage set, designed by David Sachon and Mike Ward was truly magical. A full sized backcloth of an enchanting wood covered the back wall with two large plinths to either side of the stage and two large trellis beautifully decorated in flora patterns. Nice job by set builders, Colin Delamore, Mike Ward and Colin Aldous.

What made it truly magical was the LED lighting interwoven into the trellis work. In combination with Dave Miles beautiful atmosphere setting of the standard lighting plot. Tom and Emma Davis did a great job with the sound, which was particularly impressive during the radio interview.

What made this production stand out was the 1940’s costuming. And an excellent dress for Bottom by Sheena Ward.

The first scene was cleverly played very ‘stiff upper lip,’ exactly as you would expect for the 1940’s. Henry Esdon was very military Duke Theseus commanding his court with Dee Denehan as Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons and his bride to be demurely on his arm. Randell Moll as Egeus, was Hermia’s demanding father again suitably military and Debbie Kaye played Philostrate, Thesus’s Chief of Staff or Master of The Revels as it is usually called.

The four lovers, Hermia, played by long time LBDG stalwart Emma Brown, Helena, played by Chloe Nixon, Lysander, played by Steven Cotton and Demetrius, played by Simon Theodorou are the backbone of this play and were absolutely spot on with their delivery and certainly knew how to put across medieval English to a modern audience. Great job. And the interaction between them was a real comic delight. Particularly liked the brilliantly choreographed scenes where Demetrius enters with Helena holding one of his legs and being dragged across the stage, or where Demetrius and Lysander are both trying to outdo each other whilst vying for Helena’s hand. That was a comedic masterpiece of a scene thanks to the absolutely brilliant choreography. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done better.

Our fairies by contract brought us the mischief and the atmospheric magic of the play. The first thing to say is hats off to Harry Rodgers who came in at the last moment to play Oberon and, believe it or not, apparently learnt the part in nine days. That, to quote my grandchildren, is quite simply awesome! Puck was a super contrast to Oberon, and being played by actress, Hannah Williams Lovell, it worked really well. That’s the second time I’ve seen Puck played by a female and I’m almost convinced it works better that way. Couldn’t fault it. Another professionally trained actress Olivia Davies raised this show to another level with her portrayal of Titania, Queen of the Fairies, producing yet another comedic scene of genius with the iconic love scene with a donkey headed Bottom. Dee Denehan, Tania Amado Fish and Debbie Kaye gave us the entrancing Peaseblossom, Mustardseed and Cobweb.

The mechanicals brought a rather well thought out military presence to them as they marched on. Kara Flourish, a newcomer to LBDG, gave us a very good Peter Quince. Ben Dards, as Bottom was a superb piece of casting. He has stage presence in spades and was obviously born with a natural sense of comic timing. His reaction when Tom Snout, played by Toby Comerford, comes on as the wall in Pyramus & Thisbe, was one of those side-splitting moments you remember for a longtime. Very well backed up by Tania Amado Fish as Snug The Joiner, Lorna Daggett as Robin Starveling, a Tailor and Tony White as Francis Flute a Bellows Mender.

The radio voices were played by Emma Brown as Phyllis Harcourt and David Sachon as the BBC Wireless Interviewer, both of whom really nailed that 1940’s plummy accent.

To sum up, this was indeed a topflight production of the Bard’s work, from the initial concept of setting it in the 40’s, the very tight directing, to the breathtaking set design, to the delivery with a lot of emphasis on this being first and foremost a comedy. There were several places where the audience broke out into spontaneous clapping, which I think is unique to my watching a Shakespearian play. A thoroughly entertaining show all round, so well done indeed to Sue Sachon and her cast and crew, with its mixture of old stalwarts and, most encouraging of all, a whole lot of new faces who all joined LBDG within the last year or so. It doesn’t come better than that!