A Midsummer Night's Dream
On August 12th to 15th 2021 Hay Theatre presented a major production directed by Janine Sharp which combined all of her groups working together in an intergenerational cast of twenty-six local people plus crew, with ages ranging from 7-78 years old. Along with the sun and the moon, WestEnt lighting provided illumination for this community event as the natural daylight faded into evening. ” Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?” says Snug the Joiner. Well it did, and Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ met up with Cicely Mary Barker’s ‘Flower Fairies.’ Janine said, “Combining both works was a way of getting the ‘Midsummer Garden Project’ together and enabling everyone involved to play a part. I have always loved the Flower Fairies and the children designed and made their own wings, led by workshop leader Johnny Cartwright. The cast were a Dream Team and I also owe a big thank you to St Mary’s Church, Cusop for supporting us through this crisis. Out of this crisis we were able to create a drama.”
It has all felt like a strange dream these past eighteen months and this production captured that feeling as Janine invited the audience to sing “Row, row row the boat gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream”. It was a wonderful interactive performance; the audience were part of the court, the pub and the wood and enjoyed a glass of fairy bubbles and a fairy cake to celebrate Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding.