A?SIZEABLE audience, well equipped with chairs, picnics and warm clothing, were treated to a wonderfully entertaining interpretation of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in Holsworthy’s Badock Gardens last Saturday evening, August 6, writes Christine Williams.

It was performed by Illyria, the open-air touring theatre company, who were making a welcome return to the town thanks to the cooperation of Holsworthy Town Council with the Plough Arts Centre.

Taking place in a mythical Athens and an enchanted forest, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ portrays the romantic entanglements of four young lovers, as well as the King and Queen of fairies, who find their relationships sorely tested when into the forest to rehearse a play bumbles a troupe of amateur theatricals.

Among them is Bottom, a weaver who is transformed into a half-donkey. In essence, amidst the heady brew of confusion, magic and mischief, it’s about falling in love. But as the mischievous sprite Puck knows, falling in love can make fools of us all.

The performance was slick and imaginative and the pure comedy and originality of the play were fully exploited by the cast of five actors, three men and two women, who shared all the roles between them.

Like Bottom, who claimed he was capable of playing any and every part, they proved themselves equal to the task, which they performed in a clear and articulate way with great comic timing.

Great ingenuity was employed to deal with the fact that the five actors were playing some 20 characters as they scampered frantically on and off stage, upstairs and down, changed costumes, beards or headgear and reappeared as a different character with a different voice, a different accent and sometimes a different gender.

All of this added to the fun and helped bridge the language and cultural gap between Shakespeare and a modern audience.

With larger than life characters the action was very spirited, boisterous, at times Pythonesque, especially the gymnastics and fisticuffs performed during the lovers’ quarrel. From time to time the cast broke into song such as ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’.

Finally, Puck is ordered to undo the damage he has done, and all turns out well between the lovers. As the play ends he suggests to the audience that what they have just experienced might be nothing more than a dream.

A dream it may have been, but the enthusiastic applause, which greeted the actors as they took their final bows, demonstrated how much the wide awake audience had enjoyed the performance.

They will be looking forward to Illyria’s next visit to Holsworthy.