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I read from a celebratory book about Dame Judi Dench that her husband Michael Williams – when he  wasn’t yet  her husband – was the target of an amorous interest by the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyv. Michael was small, wiry, volatile and dangerous – perhaps not unlike Rudi, but unfortunately heterosexual.  A flattered heterosexual, though. But that was how it came not to be – and Rudi stopped keeping watch by the lamp post outside Michael´s lodgings.

This reminds me of Shakespeare’s play Midsummer Night’s Dream and the way he addresses love: mortals are fools, people suffer from unbearable love, people revenge because of twisted love. It can become dark and cynic indeed. There is an element of rape there with Theseus and Oberon – a tough knot to solve for a modern director.

Sir Peter Hall once tried to solve the problem by choosing Dame Judi Dench as Titania, in 2010 when she was 65. An ageless Titania can lead the world against Oberon? In the Bridge Theater production, Titania is played by Gwendoline Christie, known from the Game of Thrones – but I know her from Cheek By Jowl where she got her early professional start.  She looks like a fairy in her paleness and chiseled features – a fairy who could grow to an Amazon ( as she also plays Hippolyta). Director Nick Hytner has transversed the Oberon/Titania plot so that it is Oberon who will sleep and frolic with Bottom, after plotting by Puck and Titania.

This turn of plot makes many an exhilarating scene, and Hammed Animashaun as Bottom relishes in the role, and has deserved Awards for this performance. The audience of the filmed performance now online was appreciative and delighted, to the point of being riotous. The groundlings for the “immersive” staging – audience partaking in the play at the round arena of the Bridge Theatre – were rolling swiftly and strongly to its disco like ending of taking hands in a circle.

I enjoyed the performance, even if it was a too much “pop” for me in its music. There was no melancholy or other-worldliness. I can also see that laughing so much at two men going to bed drugged could be embarrassing in the end – there is no room for spiritual awakening in this version.  Some critics have pointed to this direction – the performance takes all kinds of liberties and kisses to its stride.  One Bottom To Rule Them All – and it is easy to buy in to this feelgood, strong performance by Animashun. His vocal range is phenomenal, as are his movements. To the point of being a black caricature? That is why I needed some more solemn moments.

Oliver Chris played Bottom for Judi Dench’s Titania, but now he was Oberon: he has some of the flair of young Robert Hardy, and excellent timing.  I’ve seen two performances of Twelfth Night this year: in both of them Orsino kisses by accident Sebastian and not Viola. Oliver Chris’s Orsino was one of them. I think this gag is now a bit old. To become aware of True Oberon, a spiritual creature though he might as a fairy be – would be more satisfying. Seeing him adore Bottom was a whirlwind, and I don’t complain four laughing. Rude Mechanicals Play was full of modern gags, not at all stale.

I have myself been at The Bridge Theatre to see an arena-groundling-immersion version of Julius Caesar. Naturally, I was too shy to get a groundling ticket, so I can’t say how it is to be there. From the seats, it was as good a play as ever, and this time just to see and not to immerse felt fine, as well. Verse-speaking was eloquent and clear, and the swings and circus and trapezes gave a surreal atmosphere.

 

here is a review wondering about the boundaries and if the results are caricature sor not  - they decide not, and talk of loveliness of love