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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/MSND016-Photo-by-Tristram-Kenton.jpg\" "\\"Production")
<\/p>\nA fresh view for these jaded eyes. Ten thousand performers auditioned for this production, and it shows.
\n<\/p>\n
I have taken hundreds of grade nine students through the text of this play, seen it several times myself, and taken my School of the Arts Drama class on tour with it; so when I saw NAC was bringing a production of this old chestnut to Ottawa, I was not enthusiastic. But early press notices suggested that this was something different, and it was.<\/p>\n
This is a world touring production from India, with a cast that is all Indian or Sri Lankan. In spite of the fact that there is very little English in the performance (lines are spoken in Hindi, Tamil, Malyalam, Marathi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Sinhalese and English) the few English lines are just enough to keep the audience in the play. This is a phenomenon that is not too unlike viewing the play in Elizabethan English, which most audience members cannot understand anyway.<\/p>\n
The performance features virtuoso performances by a standout cast which is required to be acrobatic, musical, terpsichoric, gymnastic, histrionic, melodramatic, comic\u2014you name it; they can do it.<\/p>\n
This was a lavish, fast-paced, ingenious production that I found delightful. It gave me a fresh and penetrating look into Shakespeare’s play. The doubling of the royal court of the land by the actors in the royal court of the fairies was a nice twist. All of the mistaken identities were there, the silly earthy love story between Bottom and the enchanted Titania, the fairy illusions, which made more sense delivered as exotic trapeze work. The performances were delivered with panache and beautifully choreographed invention. It was transporting.<\/p>\n
I must comment on the visual aspects of this show:
\nThe costumes are at least as elaborate as Elizabethan dress, but still modern. I cannot think of a way to make present day Northern costumes so wonderfully decorative and sensual. The costumes allowed the extreme movements demanded of the actors on climbable staging and trapeze and slung drapes, and were still fantastical and sensual.
\nThe set is very practical, highly textured, versatile and expressive, without being artificial or drawing undue attention to itself. It could be palace and terrifying forest and romantic enchantment interchangeably. The drapery slings were perhaps the most engaging feature, allowing characters to hang upside down, sleep or make love suspended above ground, or hang above like fairies, observing or manipulating.<\/p>\n
There were three musicians onstage, just outside of the action, adding percussive, stringed and wind instrumentation throughout the entire production, giving the action a cinematic flavour.<\/p>\n
The acting was visceral, for example giving Oberon real power that in some productions has sometimes seemed elusively more a matter of tradition than inherent in the character. The declamation of lines in language that I certainly did not understand gave me permission to focus on the actors’ movements and declamation, as if I were watching dance or opera instead of interpreted words\u2014very liberating, very sensual. More than that, the dynamics of movement in three (well, even four) dimensions was imaginative; this was almost more Cirque de Soleil<\/em> than stage play.<\/p>\n This production was not just a splashy reinterpretation of Shakespeare; it was a realization of a very familiar work in a way that opened a new way of seeing it. Wonderful.<\/p>\n National Arts Centre English Theatre presents the Dash Arts Production of Production<\/strong><\/p>\n Set and Costume Design: Sumant Jayakrishnan The Cast Streets of Athens The Forest Musicians Production viewed: November 8, 2008, 2 pm Running time about 2 hours, 45 minutes, including one intermission.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A fresh view for these jaded eyes. Ten thousand performers auditioned for this production, and it shows. I have taken hundreds of grade nine students through the text of this play, seen it several times myself, and taken my School … Continue reading
\nShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream <\/em>directed by Tim Supple<\/p>\n
\nMusic Director: Divissaro
\nLighting Design: Zuleikha Chauhari
\nAssistant Directors\/ Deputy Stage Managers: Quasar Thakore Padamsee, Mohit Takalkar
\nChoreography: D Padmakumar, M Palani
\nCompany Manager: Shankar Arora
\nStage Manager: Kavita Puri Arora
\nLighting Supervisor: Doug Harry
\nSound Supervisor: Rob Bass
\nTour General Manager: John F. Fisher \/ CAPA
\nProduction Manager: John McNamara<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nCourt of Athens
\nPhilostrate, Theseus\u2019 Master of Entertainment ….. Ajay Kumar
\nHippolyta, Queen of the Amazons ….. Archana Ramaswamy
\nTheseus, Duke of Athens ….. P R Jijoy
\nEgeus, advisor to Theseus ….. J Jayakumar
\nHermia, Egeus\u2019 Daughter, in love with Lysander ….. Vandita Vasa
\nDemetrius, Hermia\u2019s Suitor ….. M. Palani
\nLysander, in love with Hermia ….. Chandan Roy Sanyal
\nHelena, Hermia\u2019s friend, in love with Demetrius ….. Kriti Pant<\/p>\n
\nPeter Quince, a carpenter ….. Vivek Mishra
\nNick Bottom, a weaver ….. Aporup Acharya
\nFrancis Flute, a bellows-mender ….. Joyraj Bhattacharjee
\nRobin Starveling, a tailor ….. T Gopalakrishnan
\nTom Snout, a tinker ….. Umesh Jagtap
\nSnug, a joiner ….. Jitu Shastri<\/p>\n
\nPuck, a spirit and servant to Oberon ….. Ajay Kumar
\nSpirits, servants to Titania:
\nPeaseblossom ….. Reshma Shetty
\nCobweb ….. M Palani
\nMustard Seed ….. Charan CS
\nMoth ….. Ram Pawar
\nDragonfly ….. Tapan Das
\nGlow Worm ….. Dharmender Pawar
\nOberon, King of the Fairies ….. P R Jijoy
\nTitania, Queen of the Fairies ….. Archana Ramaswamy
\nA boy, stolen from an Indian King ….. Lakhan Pawar<\/p>\n
\nWind\/Strings\/Percussion ….. N Tiken Singh
\nGuitar\/Stings\/Percussion ….. Kaushik Dutta
\nPercussion\/Wind ….. Gagan Singh Bais<\/p>\n