Details

On a midsummer's night Hermia and her lover Lysander flee from Athens and Demetrius - the man Hermia's father favours as a son-in-law. Demetrius follows, pursued by Helena who loves him in spite of being spurned in favour of Hermia. On the same night Bottom and his friends leave Athens to find somewhere quiet to rehearse their play which is to be performed at the wedding feast of Duke Theseus. Drawn into the woods they enter a world of magic, mystery and wonder. Shakespeare's inexhaustible A Midsummer Night's Dream unfurls in the intimacy of our recently redeveloped Theatre, interweaving the lives of lovers, actors, friends, foes and fairies. This is a ...Dream about love, lust, survival, song and superstition, where a belief in the mystical presence of fairies isn't mere superstition, but encoded in the routines of a community living on the edge of viability. This is a future primitive world, a hard world, a world of survival and instinct; a world in which trees, objects and tools all pulse and tingle with the possibility of existence. A world in which, thanks to the magic of Handspring, all objects are granted the right to life. Having last worked together on the phenomenal, internationally acclaimed War Horse, Bristol Old Vic's Artistic Director Tom Morris and Cape Town's Handspring Puppet Company reunite to begin a new journey in Bristol, before touring throughout the world over the next few years.

Creatives/Company

Author: Shakespeare
Producer: Bristol Old Vic
Company: Handspring Puppet Company
Director: Tom Morris
Design: Vicki Mortimer