A Bristol Old Vic and Company of Angels Production, touring around North Somerset in association with Theatre Orchard Project.
With only one word spoken in the whole of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tim Crouch’s Peaseblossom is reformed as a starring, frolicsome entity, granted tremendously by Jimmy Whiteaker. An innocent and mischievous fairy, it is his account on what he sees through a succession of his own dreams. A re-telling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from the eyes of a child and therefore Crouch’s own conceived child-like language with bits of Shakespearian, but it is Whiteakers quick witted reactions to what each environment and its audience brings, which significantly brings Crouch’s simplified but ingenious re-telling of the Bard to further life. A life which is literally living in front of us, from moment to moment (from passing plane to curious cat, at Lower Stock Farm). Moments which are derived only from that episode of ‘living’; the moments which the audience will significantly remember and take away, a cluster of secrets special only to them.
If you are reading this and you have been a member of this conjured magic, I can guarantee you will be thinking, remember when… particularly if you are ‘Mrs Ally’ or ‘Mrs Allanora’, or another woman, chosen as the apple of Peaseblossom’s eye that evening. Beware jealous husbands.
If you have no clue what this means, I suggest you go to Peaseblossom’s next adventure and try and catch his eye – say you are married and it might help.
The interaction with the audience serves perfectly in helping to understand the usual complicated and intertwining action that most of us, at some point in our lives, have studied in a classroom and cursed. To adults: though the story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is perhaps easy and common place to us now (though I still, a Drama Studies graduate, get disordered), think back to when you were a child and who loves who, becomes very confusing. Whiteakers Peaseblossom chooses select members in the audience to become the characters that he is recalling, hanging name tags around their necks to distinguish this. They are there as a reminder and a reference throughout.
Another equally brilliant device is the use of a tool kit, serving as the famous labourers. Bottom the Weaver represented by a hammer, cleverly turned into an ass, with Whiteakers fingers sticking out its metal head as donkey ears.
My convert from disliking to loving the Bard (a man I really did not understand) stemmed from being an active participant in a Shakespeare performance. I am 23 and I only wish I had seen this retelling years ago.
However, this isn’t just for youngsters, not in the slightest. Not only is the word ‘horse-piss’ used, the shows that I have so far seen, (the perks of being a volunteer for Theatre Orchard Project), have proved an equal measure of laughter from adults and children, revelling in the same reasons for enjoyment – if ever you needed proof of Tim Crouch’s genius as a writer.
All audience members , of all ages, are a valuable asset to the telling of the story, Peaseblossom also entrusting responsibility for individuals to hold up signs introducing each dream as he sleeps. The audience are in an effect a collaboration, a team. Everyone is in it together, that the fear of ‘don’t pick me’ isn’t so prevalent. In fact as you get in to the play and sink back into the environment (and alcoholic fizz) you start to wish to be picked as Peaseblossom’s sidekick/assistant.
The beauty in particular with Theatre Orchard Project, is that the relaxed and picturesque settings with which it provides and encourages, such as a 250 acre farmland at Lowerstock Farm or broadleaf woodland at National Trust Leigh Woods, contributes in bringing everyone together.
Whiteaker’s Caliban changes tone but not fun, as he splashes the audience with a bucket of water and a fish. He begins his account inebriated, telling the audience that “you’re gorgeous and you’re gorgeous, but you not so much… ” Words that said to the audience and a man in the front row, which are comic, but also satirical, coming from a man who is deemed a monster and treated callously for it.
Hilariously, he proceeds to ask the audience if he is ugly whilst metamorphosing his face through the use of elastic bands, unattractively lifting up his eyelid, his nose and lastly his mouth. Raucous laughter meeting cries of “YES” in response to “Am I ugly now?”
Alas this marked the cruelty that Caliban faces as a product of his monstrosity. Using a model ship and figures made from bark wood, he tells the story of how Prospero came to be on his island and enslaved him. Though he does a great deal of wrong, the topic of love is in abundance in the voice Tim Crouch provides. He shouts loudly for his dead Mum. I felt my heart strings being pulled.
Whiteaker’s Caliban stands on a rock, suitcase and life jacket in hand, and calls to the departing ship… but it is too late and sorrow ensues, transforming the earlier chortling audience with a moral message to take home.
This is a must see for anyone in the Somerset and Bristol area. You really don’t have to appreciate Shakespeare to go or even like him, but I’m certain you will after.
Remaining performances at:
Ashton Court Estate, Bristol (Sunday June 24th, 11am)
Chelvey Court, Bristol (Sunday 24th June 4.30pm)
Goblin Coombe, North Somerset. (Monday 25th June 6pm – hot food available)
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