Students at Sir John Deane’s College brought magic to the stage in an ambitious performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The two-night production, on February 25 and 26, was hailed a huge success and received high praise from audience members, including local theatre goers.
Principal Kerry Kirkwood said: “It was a stunning performance with many outstanding individual performances by the actors.”
The play tells the story of four young lovers who abscond into a local wood to escape their judgmental parents. However, their romantic escape is complicated by the woods’ unexpected magical residents, including fairies and their king and queen.
The students’ production was a unique re-telling of the magical tale, integrating live music and physical theatre with the original text, and was directed by theatre teacher Rebeccah Homer, who joined Sir John Deane’s College in September.
Weaver Vale MP Graham Evans described it as a fantastic performance and gave particular credit to the hilarious performances of the Mechanicals, the hapless group of workmen who stage a play within a play.
Cast members included Tom Oliver as Oberon, Emma Crosby as Titania and Megan Parry as Puck; the three fairies, while Elliot Gaynon, Joshua Radcliffe, Olivia Tenquist and Lucy Smedley played the four lovers.
Kerry added: “It was a truly inspirational performance. The cast clearly had depth of understanding of text, which resulted in the very funny twists and turns of the plot being revealed in all their glory.”
