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Show: The Dream
Society: London (professional shows)
Venue: Coram's Fields. 93 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1DN
Credits: Based on A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (The Dream is an original musical based on A Midsummer Night's Dream. It does not include any text from the Shakespeare play)
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 31/07/2023
The Dream
Chris Abbott | 02 Aug 2023 07:38am
Part of Perform in the Park
It’s always good to see a new venue for children’s theatre, and that’s what Perform have created in their pop-up arena in Coram’s Fields in central London. It’s a comfortable 500-seat tented venue, quite reminiscent of an Edinburgh Fringe site, and provides good sightlines for child audiences. Perform run drama classes for children around the UK and are therefore well aware of what works and will interest children of all ages.
After putting on a couple of shows at the Fortune Theatre last year, Perform now present four different plays as part of their Festival of Children’s Theatre, as well as some interesting guest interviews for older children with the likes of Dr Ranj, Chris Jarvis and Jason Manford.
The Dream is aimed at older children, though advertised as suitable for 7 to 14 year olds – a very challenging age-spread for which to cater. As usual, lots of parents brought children younger than the age stated, but the show seemed to keep their interest for the full hour. The Dream is, of course, another adaptation for children of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Unusually however, and perhaps advisedly in view of the presence across town at the Globe of the sublime and hilarious Midsummer Mechanicals, the emphasis here is mostly on the lovers and the confusions and misunderstandings at court.
When the action moves to the forest we find we are in Brentwood, with a present day cast of social influencers and football players. Oberon has written an app called The Dream and Titania has a rival one called The Moon. This could easily have become cringe-making if not done convincingly, but author/composer Will Barnett and this cast and creatives are obviously in touch with young people and their issues and concerns, and the teenagers around me seemed to be buying in to the concept.
The bare bones of the story are still there, with Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena going through their familiar changes thanks to the meddling of Oberon and Puck. The cast of nine play multiple roles in this slick, pacey and well-rehearsed performance, changes of characters sketched in by accent, hat or coat, mostly successfully. The combination of knowing jokes about Waitrose and coming close to caricaturing Essex influencers did feel a little patronising at times, but the pace of the show meant that this was not prolonged.
It’s a young but experienced cast, and among those who stay in the memory were Darcy Dixon for her singing and Joseph Riley for nicely giving us very different takes on Theseus and Puck. The presence of panto supremo Sophie Ladds in the cast, and playing three roles, also lifted the production on to a different level, but there were no weak performances. The story was mostly told through song and dance (choreography by Khiley Williams) with only occasional text sections, and as the 60 min running time approached, we had only just met the Mechanicals for the first time, as they rehearsed (although Moonshine and Lion had been cut).
At that point there seemed to be an abrupt change of gear – multiple weddings were announced, Puck rushed in and told us all was well and thanked us for our applause – and suddenly it had all ended. We didn’t see the Mechanicals do their play (tantalising trailed as Pyramus and Thisbe, when Tech goes Wrong) or much of the reconciliation of the lovers. It was as if great care had been taken to tell the story (and the audience were listening carefully) only to find the allotted time had run out and so the performance had to end. It was a shame we didn’t see much of the Mechanicals as that have might have provided a few more laughs.
Despite these reservations, the audience showed every sign of having enjoyed the experience. The four plays in the Festival run to 28 August. Incidentally, many Londoners will know that Coram’s Fields has a policy of not admitting adults without a child. As I was alone I dutifully followed the instruction to be outside at 15 mins before the performance so I could be escorted in, but no-one came until just before the show began, so perhaps that procedure needs revisiting.