As one reviewer said, this production is hardly going to offer any new insights into either play. However, what it did offer was a mix of magic tricks, six metre high puppets, acrobats, singers and a cute little Jack Russell dog.
The piece was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company for the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival, and also performed at the Edinburgh Festival the same year. It was performed by artists drawn from the Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Dmitry Krymov’s Laboratory and Theatre School of Dramatic Art, and conceived and directed by the Russian director, Dmitry Krymov. There were 32 Russian actors and stage crew, supported by 16 local crew and some young ballet dancers who apparently came from Karori.
Krymov removes all the main characters (no Titania and Oberon here) and concentrates on The Mechanicals and their production of Pyramus and Thisbe, which you may remember forms the entertainment at the weddings at the end of the play.
The performance began with the entrance of the mechanicals and various bits of scenery, some, like a tree trunk and branches, descending onto the audience from the seats above. Others, like a fountain, spraying water over those sitting in the front stalls (luckily we were further back and escaped all this). They are followed by another group, namely an audience who sit on the stage and in the boxes, who behave like any other audience settling in, and mess about with mobile phones and chatter.
Overall it was quite fun. The puppets were beautifully handled, there were some fun acrobatic/clowning moments such as watching one man perching on another man’s head and producing a bouquet from his trouser-leg. The dog ran about looking cute and sometimes a little lost. Some parts were a bit laboured and could have been cut a bit, but it was a fun evening and well worth seeing.
Photo from http://www.festival.co.nz
Thistles and Kiwis 