An Electric, Exuberant Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre
It’s Theatre Tuesday! Today’s show is A Midsummer Night’s Dream at London’s Bridge Theatre, playing until August 31.
If there are any doubters that Shakespeare’s comedies can be just as hilarious as anything modern (and yeah I mean Mike Schur television shows too! I KNOW!), send them to the Bridge Theatre. Their (what’s appearing to be) annual immersive Billy Shakes production (after last year’s crowd-storming Julius Caesar) this summer is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of my two favorites (prize for whoever guesses the other one!) but one that often gets dismissed for not being as substantial as the others. Well fork off to anyone who says that, because it’s the greatest. Sure it has a few flaws, as does Nicholas Hytner’s forking hilarious production, but I defy anyone not to have a jolly good time.
A big part of the cheer and party atmosphere is the immersive nature of it. Giving its version of the groundlings standing area at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Bridge has taken out the stalls seats and replaced it with a pit (OF DESPAIR no) where audience members who are able can stand the whole time among the action and the actors. Well-directed staff usher the pit-standers around the space as needed, to avoid being in the way of actors or set pieces (lots of moving platforms coming up from the ground and bedframes hanging from the ceiling!). Standing tickets are cheaper (as they should be), yet it’s the best spot in the house for experiencing this incredibly entertaining show. (I assume it’s weird for people in the seats above to be forced to stare at tons of civilians milling about too, so you definitely want to be in the pit (I FELL IN THE PITTTTT, YOU FELL IN THE PITTTTT, WE ALL FELL IN THAT PITTTTT)). At first glance, with the cast beginning preshow by singing hymns in the drabbest costumes and all looking like farm witches (“um, they were MENNONITES?”), you can’t begin to predict how uproarious shit’s gonna get.
The main draw of this production, besides the immersive nature and the crowd of civilians in the pit, is Gwendoline Christie, from TV’s (yay TV!) Game of Thrones, which you people can STILL NOT SPOIL, OKAY? She plays Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. The doubling up (Oliver Chris (excellent) plays Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Theseus, the Duke of Athens) of these smaller roles added a great deal of mystery and mysticism to these characters, who have not-huge roles otherwise. They clearly wanted the big name draw to have more to do (does Hippolyta have more than two lines? Discuss) while also clearly wanting her to play the queen of the Amazons because helloooo she tall as hell. Anyway, I loved the move, but that wasn’t even the most important or my favorite move concerning these characters. If you know your Billy Shakes, you know that Titania has a changeling boy (so weird guys) that Oberon wants, so they’re in a fight, and Oberon sends Puck, the best little fairy elf and mischief-maker in all of fairyville, to cast a spell on Titania so she falls in love with the first thing she sees – which happens to be the ridiculous goofball Athenian ‘actor’ named Bottom, whom Puck has transformed into a donkey. IT’S ALL VERY GOOD. Well, instead of having men trick a woman into a love affair with an animal and having us think that’s all fun and games and fine, they switched it up so Oberon has the changeling and Titania orders the spell on him, and HE falls in love with Bottom and IT’S THE FUNNIEST THING EVER. It’s a good change, it’s a gooood chaaaange. It’s so much better to have two men tricked and avoid the power imbalance and ickiness that would come with a male-female relationship. Oliver Chris as Oberon and Hammed Animashaun as Bottom are given the best scenes and most hysterical direction, and they are worth the admission price alone. I’m still laughing thinking about them, how the other fairies react to them, and the modern music choices used to augment their scenes. Usually I’m like “ugh can we just cut the acting troupe and all the Bottom crap and get back to the four lovers” but Hammed convinced me that Bottom is probably the best, and definitely the funniest, role in the play. Perfection.
I might have been biased before anyway, because AMND was the first Shakes I ever read and then performed, and I was Helena, so I’ve always been partial to the scenes (and the incredible verse!) with Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius, and all their magicked and regular troubles. This production made me realize I still remember ALL her forking lines and most of everyone else’s too, which is like a fun party trick but I need room in there for other stuff. The foursome was wonderful, but for the first time they didn’t feel like the main characters to me. It definitely felt more of an ensemble piece, with everyone getting a chance to shine (but really Oberon and Bottom stealing the forking show (and that one ensemble member who did a forking human flag)). And Puck (David Moorst), the glue that often holds the show together, was goddamn fabulous. God I remembered all his lines too WTF I can’t remember what I was supposed to do at work but ENDLESS IAMBIC PENTAMETER sticks.
Apparently there’s a production of AMND happening concurrently at the actual Globe just down the road from the Bridge, but I’ve heard honestly terrible things! I’d be sad, but when there’s a production this fun and funny and wonderful happening, you can’t be too sad. The final scene, with the acting troupe’s performance, goes on for way too long (and if you read this blog, you know I’m the expert at things that go on too long, like this!), but each and everyone one of those actors does such a great job that I imagine Hytner just didn’t want to stop anyone from shining. It’s too bad to end such a fabulous experience thinking that it should have ended 15 minutes ago, but overall it’s a gem.
INFORMATION
The production is running at the Bridge Theatre (just on the south bank side of Tower Bridge (which is the one you probably think is London Bridge but isn’t)) until August 31. If you can’t make it, NT Live will broadcast it in theatres on October 17, throwing a bit of a wrench into their whole ‘live’ conceit. If you go and you’re in the pit (WE ALL WERE IN THE PITTTT), you must check all coats and bags (for free) so they don’t get in the way. Fun fact, they let pitgoers have drinks (of course they do this is London), so they let me keep my reusable water bottle with me, which is bigger than most people’s pocketbooks. Flouting that system y’all! The crowd in the pit wasn’t great – lottttts of talking with their friends, at full volume, I guess because they thought since they were standing that no one could hear them??!! I don’t know how idiots think – but the best part is that you can just WALK AWAY FROM THEM!
STAGE DOOR
The stage door for the Bridge is around the corner (turn right and right again when you exit the theatre), past The Ivy restaurant and down the block on the right till you see the red STAGE DOOR lighted sign. Fun fact, it’s next to the restaurant we learned last week not to patronage so you can do what I did and stare at everyone inside while you wait and shout “SHAAAAAME! SHAAAAAME! SHAAAAAME!” like from the show you probably watch if you’re a fan of Gwendoline.
For a weekend night, the stage door was quite tame (especially considering the one we tried the following night (more on that bullshirt on the next THEATRE THURSDAY)), less than a dozen people. Because most people are there for Gwendoline to talk about GoT, the rest of the cast bounced like FAST, without looking at the crowd. That was a shame because I was there for everyone and they didn’t even know it! But Gwendoline came out after only a short while, maybe 15 minutes tops, and signed programmes and took pictures with whoever wanted. Most people mentioned GoT and she seemed to expect that, so when I told her how well I thought the swaps worked for Oberon and Titania she seemed genuinely pleased. ONE POINT FOR ME.
1 Comment
Ahhhh I LOVE the Titania/Oberon switch!! I love that they made you feel it was a true ensemble piece. AND I WAS HERMIA so I mean we pretttty much could put on the show. So so great that you can stand amongst the action!! I would love to see this version, though no one will ever convince me that any interactive version of AMND can be better than the ART’s Donkey Show (closing this fall after a ten year run, ahhh).