A night to dream of
Music, song, the magic of Shakespeare and that backdrop
This midsummer you can enjoy great comedy, romance, and the mischief of the fairy kingdom within the magical setting of the Curium amphitheatre. Shakespearian plays have been performed at this ancient theatre since 1962, and following this yearly trend, The Committee of Performing Arts for Cyprus Charities returns this season with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Written in the mid 1590s, this romantic comedy stands as one of Shakespeare’s most popular, evoking familiar enchanting images with a surrealistic dream-like quality that is an open invitation to the imagination. Most believe that Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a light entertainment to accompany a marriage celebration and unlike the vast majority of his works, he did not rely directly upon existing plays, narrative poetry, historical chronicles, or any other primary source when writing the play, making it a truly original piece.
The main plot is a complex contraption that involves two sets of young Athenian couples – Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius. The theme of love’s difficulty is explored through the motif of love out of balance, as disparity and inequality interfere with the harmony of a relationship. Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia instead of Helena – a simple numeric imbalance in which two men love the same woman, leaving one woman with too many suitors and one with too few.
The action of the play takes place over one night, in the enchanted woods outside Athens, the domain of the Fairy Kingdom, where by definition anything can happen. Here, romantic entanglements are complicated further still by the entrance of the King and Queen of the Fairies, Oberon and Titania, into the woods. At the same time, Bottom the Weaver, and his bumptious band of ‘rude mechanicals’, have arranged to rehearse for a play in celebration of the wedding of the Duke of Athens, Theseus.
As the plot thickens, Bottom, one of Shakespeare’s most admired comic creations, soon finds his head transformed into that of an ass by Puck. The hilarity of the situation reaches its peak when the fairy queen Titania, who is under the influence of magical ‘love-juice’, falls madly in love with him as she is awoken by the sound of his singing. Here are two worlds crossing paths on Midsummer Night, two different dimensions alive with colourful characters, and surrounded by emotional complications, which makes their interaction totally credible.
Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, it is not truly a love story as it distances the audience from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so very light-hearted that the audience never doubts that things will end happily, and is therefore free to enjoy the comedy without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome.
Director Sue Ioannides explains, “I chose to stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream because it contains elements of fun, magic and comedy all wonderfully blended together… it’s easy for all ages to understand as it plays with the imagination, and pushes the limits of the real and the believable”. The fairy’s magic, which brings out the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the play, is an element central to its fantastic atmosphere. Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the supernatural power of love, symbolised by the love potion, and to create a surreal world. If A Midsummer Night’s Dream can be said to convey a message, it is that the creative imagination is in tune with the supernatural world.
As the actors play out the Shakespearean themes of love, dreams and imagination, the audience can enjoy the beautiful setting of the Curium theatre under the moonlight. “It’s a privilege to direct in the ancient Greco-Roman Theatre of Curium, to present a classical play in a classical environment,” says Ioannides. With music, song and dance adding to the words of Shakespeare, and with the colourful characters playing their roles in the dramatic natural surrounding, the performance evokes the enchantment of the play.
A Midsummer Nights Dream
William Shakespeare’s play staged by the Committee of Performing Arts for Cyprus Charities. All proceeds will be donated to the Centre for Preventative Paediatrics. June 23, 24 and 25. Curium Amphitheatre. 8pm. £8 adults/ £4 students. Tel: 99-427572
