CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS REVIEW ON THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS WEBSITE

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Palace Theatre
September 27, 2010

FOUR STARS

You may have hated The Bard’s plays at school but if you haven’t seen a production by the excellent Shakespeare 4 Kidz company (S4K for short), then you’ve missed a treat.

Dame Helen Mirren is a fan and has already likened this play to Avatar – with something for all age groups, a great message and lots of fun and fantasy.

On a tight touring budget this dedicated group of enthusiastic actors may not have the resources to conjure up the spectacular effects of the movie, but they’ve taken a completely fresh, invigorating look at what many scholars claim is The Bard’s most popular play.

In an entertaining mixture of pantomime and musical they make sense of the complicated plot by using modern, instead of Elizabethan, English while retaining the most famous quotes.

Set against the wedding celebrations of a duke and his queen in ancient Athens, two sets of lovers escape to the woods to find true love.

Initially thwarted by feuding fairies and an interfering spirit called Puck there’s much laughter as we’re entertained by a brilliant performance from Noel Andrew Harron who certainly knows how to engage with his audience.

There’s additional humour too from the Athenian workmen called on to perform at the celebrations led by Sean Luckham as Bottom.

He proves himself an ass in more ways than one.

There’s an abundance of jolly, original songs, dances and spell-binding effects as the fairies create their own magical world in the woods.

The excellent cast play a variety of roles and succeed in injecting this classic with a refreshing new life force which appeals to all ages.

If you’ve missed it this time, look out when it returns as you may be surprised how entertaining Shakespeare can be.

Reviewed: Wed, 29 September, 2010