Tim Supple production 2006 - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Tim Supple production 2006

A Midsummer night’s dream

Acted out by a Sri Lankan and Indian cast and featuring no fewer than seven different languages, Tim Supple's sensational and sexy version of the play incorporates song, dance and acrobatics. – The Guardian –LYN GARDNER

http://www.dasharts.org.uk/archive/midsummer.htmlSlide2

Act 4 Scene 1

Titania Come sit thee down upon this flowery bed

Bottom (Joy Fernandes) and Titania (Archana Ramaswamy) surrounded by fairies in her bower.

Act 5 Scene 1

Pyramus

O! kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.

Pyramus

(Joy

Fernandes

) and

Thisbe

(

Joyraj

Bhattacharya) communicate via the Wall (

Umesh

Jagtap

).Slide3

Act 5 Scene 2

Titania Hand in hand, with fairy grace / Will we sing, and bless this place.

Oberon (PR JiJoy) and Titania (Archana Ramaswamy) perform a blessing.

Act 1 Scene 2

Quince

Is all our company here?

The Mechanicals meet in the forest. Peter Quince hands out roles for the play.Slide4

Characters

OBERON

BOTTOM

TITANIA

HELENA

LYSANDER

PUCK

DEMETRIUS

HERMIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs_5CHL4LRkSlide5

setting

The setting soon takes over when the spirits burst through a thirty foot high bamboo back wall that gradually disintegrates through the first half, as actors make entrances and exits. They also athletically clamber all over it.

While this might seem unsafe, many also have circus skills, which enable them to climb robes with the facility of monkeys and hang almost unsupported, seemingly unaware of the existence of gravity.

This is all stunning and the exotic effect is enhanced by assorted Eastern music played by a trio suspended above the playing area. This is set up as a deep thrust with the audience in a semi-circle around it, giving the feel of an amphitheatre. That effect works well at the Roundhouse and will sadly be lost on tour where for the most part the theatres chosen boast proscenium arches

.

BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE

The story is so familiar that one soon acclimatises to the linguistic shifts, and the visual imagery is stunning, with swags of red curtain twisted into cocoons. The superb music and dance coalesce in the

transportingly

lovely close, where the entire company joins in a song of gentle, hypnotic thoughtfulness

. PAUL TAYLOR – THE INDEPENDANTSlide6

Critics quotations

Elsewhere it was a case of four star reviews all round, with most of these reading like five. Our own

Michael Billington was bowled over by the "visually ravishing recreation of the play" and struck by Supple's ability to bring out the

"demonic otherness"

of the Athenian wood.

Billington's

only worry was the acoustically-challenged nature of the Roundhouse's high ceiling. But Nicholas de Jongh

, writing for the Evening Standard, praised the venue

, crowning it

"an ideal arts centre for the 21st century"

that

"forges a fresh, intimate relationship between actors and audience"

. He praised Supple for recovering a sense of magic and enchantment in the play that had been

"purged by Anglo-Saxon directors"

.

De

Jongh

admitted that the

"English speaking is not up to much" but said the visuals made up for it

. Lyn gardner“Apart from the spectacle and the fun, both of which are considerable, how many revivals come with actors speaking Shakespeare in no fewer than eight languages, Hindi to Tamil, Bengali to ancient Sanskrit to that great unifier of the Raj, English itself? Even those unfamiliar with the play shouldn’t be confused. Most of the funnier and more significant lines are the Bard’s own and, when the actors move into their own languages, the excited body language makes the meaning clear….

Caroline

Ansdellthe production creates a startlingly vivid sense of the anarchic power of love and magic

Paul taylor

http://www.whatsonstage.com/west-end-theatre/news/03-2007/review-round-up-supple-receives-dream-reviews_21330.html?.html

– this website has all the reviews on it !