{"id":10476,"date":"2019-07-16T17:41:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T17:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=10476"},"modified":"2019-08-07T15:55:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T15:55:22","slug":"an-electric-exuberant-midsummer-nights-dream-at-the-bridge-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2019\/07\/16\/an-electric-exuberant-midsummer-nights-dream-at-the-bridge-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"An Electric, Exuberant Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream at the Bridge Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
It\u2019s Theatre Tuesday!\nToday\u2019s show is A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream at <\/em>London<\/em>\u2019s Bridge Theatre, playing until August 31.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If there are any doubters that Shakespeare\u2019s comedies can be\njust as hilarious as anything modern (and yeah I mean Mike Schur television\nshows too! I KNOW!), send them to the Bridge Theatre. Their (what\u2019s appearing\nto be) annual immersive Billy Shakes production (after last year\u2019s\ncrowd-storming Julius Caesar<\/em>) this\nsummer is A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>,\none of my two favorites (prize for whoever guesses the other one!) but one that\noften gets dismissed for not being as substantial as the others. Well fork off\nto anyone who says that, because it\u2019s the greatest. Sure it has a few flaws, as\ndoes Nicholas Hytner\u2019s forking hilarious production, but I defy anyone not to\nhave a jolly good time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A big part of the cheer and party atmosphere is the\nimmersive nature of it. Giving its version of the groundlings standing area at\nShakespeare\u2019s Globe, the Bridge has taken out the stalls seats and replaced it\nwith a pit (OF DESPAIR no) where audience members who are able can stand the\nwhole time among the action and the actors. Well-directed staff usher the\npit-standers around the space as needed, to avoid being in the way of actors or\nset pieces (lots of moving platforms coming up from the ground and bedframes\nhanging from the ceiling!). Standing tickets are cheaper (as they should be),\nyet it\u2019s the best spot in the house for experiencing this incredibly\nentertaining show. (I assume it\u2019s weird for people in the seats above to be\nforced to stare at tons of civilians milling about too, so you definitely want\nto be in the pit (I FELL IN THE PITTTTT, YOU FELL IN THE PITTTTT, WE ALL FELL\nIN THAT PITTTTT)). At first glance, with the cast beginning preshow by singing\nhymns in the drabbest costumes and all looking like farm witches (\u201cum, they\nwere MENNONITES?\u201d), you can\u2019t begin to predict how uproarious shit\u2019s gonna\nget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The main draw of this production, besides the immersive\nnature and the crowd of civilians in the pit, is Gwendoline Christie, from TV\u2019s\n(yay TV!) Game of Thrones<\/em>, which you\npeople can STILL NOT SPOIL, OKAY? She plays Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and<\/em> Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. The\ndoubling up (Oliver Chris (excellent) plays Oberon, King of the Fairies, and\nTheseus, the Duke of Athens) of these smaller roles added a great deal of\nmystery and mysticism to these characters, who have not-huge roles otherwise.\nThey clearly wanted the big name draw to have more to do (does Hippolyta have\nmore than two lines? Discuss) while also clearly wanting her to play the queen\nof the Amazons because helloooo she tall as hell. Anyway, I loved the move, but\nthat wasn\u2019t even the most important or my favorite move concerning these\ncharacters. If you know your Billy Shakes, you know that Titania has a\nchangeling boy (so weird guys) that Oberon wants, so they\u2019re in a fight, and\nOberon sends Puck, the best little fairy elf and mischief-maker in all of fairyville,\nto cast a spell on Titania so she falls in love with the first thing she sees \u2013\nwhich happens to be the ridiculous goofball Athenian \u2018actor\u2019 named Bottom, whom\nPuck has transformed into a donkey. IT\u2019S ALL VERY GOOD. Well, instead of having\nmen trick a woman into a love affair with an animal and having us think that\u2019s\nall fun and games and fine, they switched it up so Oberon has the changeling\nand Titania<\/em> orders the spell on him,\nand HE falls in love with Bottom and IT\u2019S THE FUNNIEST THING EVER. It\u2019s a good\nchange, it\u2019s a gooood chaaaange. It\u2019s so much better to have two men tricked\nand avoid the power imbalance and ickiness that would come with a male-female\nrelationship. Oliver Chris as Oberon and Hammed Animashaun as Bottom are given\nthe best scenes and most hysterical direction, and they are worth the admission\nprice alone. I\u2019m still laughing thinking about them, how the other fairies\nreact to them, and the modern music choices used to augment their scenes. Usually\nI\u2019m like \u201cugh can we just cut the acting troupe and all the Bottom crap and get\nback to the four lovers\u201d but Hammed convinced me that Bottom is probably the\nbest, and definitely the funniest, role in the play. Perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I might have been biased before anyway, because AMND was the\nfirst Shakes I ever read and then performed, and I was Helena, so I\u2019ve always\nbeen partial to the scenes (and the incredible verse!) with Helena, Hermia,\nLysander, and Demetrius, and all their magicked and regular troubles. This\nproduction made me realize I still remember ALL her forking lines and most of\neveryone else\u2019s too, which is like a fun party trick but I need room in there\nfor other stuff. The foursome was wonderful, but for the first time they didn\u2019t\nfeel like the main characters to me. It definitely felt more of an ensemble\npiece, with everyone getting a chance to shine (but really Oberon and Bottom\nstealing the forking show (and that one ensemble member who did a forking human\nflag)). And Puck (David Moorst), the glue that often holds the show together,\nwas goddamn fabulous. God I remembered all his lines too WTF I can\u2019t remember\nwhat I was supposed to do at work but ENDLESS IAMBIC PENTAMETER sticks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Apparently there\u2019s a production of AMND happening concurrently at the actual Globe just down the road from the Bridge, but I\u2019ve heard honestly terrible things! I\u2019d be sad, but when there\u2019s a production this fun and funny and wonderful happening, you can\u2019t be too sad. The final scene, with the acting troupe\u2019s performance, goes on for way too long (and if you read this blog, you know I\u2019m 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\u2019t want to stop anyone from shining. It\u2019s too bad to end such a fabulous experience thinking that it should have ended 15 minutes ago, but overall it\u2019s a gem. <\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n INFORMATION<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n 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\u2019t)) until August 31. If you can\u2019t make it, NT Live will broadcast it in theatres on October 17, throwing a bit of a wrench into their whole \u2018live\u2019 conceit. If you go and you\u2019re in the pit (WE ALL WERE IN THE PITTTT), you must check all coats and bags (for free) so they don\u2019t 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\u2019s pocketbooks. Flouting that system y\u2019all! The crowd in the pit wasn\u2019t great \u2013 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\u2019t know how idiots think \u2013 but the best part is that you can just WALK AWAY FROM THEM!<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n STAGE DOOR<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n 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\u2019s next to the restaurant we learned last week not to patronage<\/a><\/span><\/strong> so you can do what I did and stare at everyone inside while you wait and shout \u201cSHAAAAAME! SHAAAAAME! SHAAAAAME!\u201d like from the show you probably watch if you\u2019re a fan of Gwendoline.<\/p>\n \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n 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<\/em>, 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\u2019t 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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s Theatre Tuesday! Today\u2019s show is A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream at London\u2019s Bridge Theatre, playing until August 31. If there are any doubters that Shakespeare\u2019s comedies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n