A magical Midsummer Night's Dream was “a complete joy from start to finish, with many laugh out loud moments.”
The King's School’s brilliantly updated take on Shakespeare was an ideal way to focus on the younger generation, with an updated storyline to feature punk, grime and grunge, it was fast-paced, word perfect and jam-packed with delectable delights.
Whilst all of the pupils deservedly stole the limelight, with standing ovations on every night, special credit goes to Directors Chloe Deva and Donald Forbes, as well as Julie Brown whose original, intelligent and hugely creative rewrite proved to their young charges: 'actually Shakespeare can be very funny.'
Narrating the action were three wonderful latter-day presenters superbly mimicking the slick commentaries of the likes of Dec and Davina: Francesca Moss-Seymour, Chloe Green and cheeky chappie Narayan Chakrabarty offered a 21st Century focus on Shakespeare's timeless love triangles.
At the heart of the action were the love drunk sweethearts, alternately railing between devotion and detestation. Experienced King's actor Will Gandy made a stunning entrance as Lysander, maintaining his natural comic timing and charismatic stage presence to milk the laughs. He may well want to be a doctor, lawyer or, indeed, train driver, but if he wanted he could definitely grace the boards.
With the winsome Hattie James as Hermia, as, first, his heart's true desire and then his worst nightmare, they made the perfect couple for all the ages. Mimi Ross as the beguiling Helena and Elijah Craine as the testosterone-fuelled Demetrius ensured the twists and turns of the Bard's convoluted imagination stayed wonderfully on course.
Casting her spell, as Queen Oberon, was the mesmerising Phoebe Harrison, another star in the making, who thrilled the audience with her flashing smile and magnetic presence. She was so good that it was actually possible to believe Oberon was a woman in Julie Brown's original, intelligent and hugely creative rewrite.
Her brilliant sprites Ellie Tomlinson and Tom Heseltine, orchestrated the action as they combined for the classic role of Puck. Again word perfect, while spinning out their fiery and flirtatious commentary, they engaged the audience and drew the viewer into the heart of the forest.
Caoimhe Durkin as Hippolyta, showed all the elegance, grace and power of her position as the Queen of the Amazons, with the scheming older generation of Leon Lewer-Sotiriou and Charlie Moult suitably powerless to make the course of true love run smooth.
The play within the play was wonderfully controlled by Annabelle Jordan as Rita Quince, with Brianna Gargoles as the bumptious but lovable Bottom, another classic role made all her own.