Jubilee or not Jubilee: Reading Rep’s Midsummer Night’s Dream brings the party

READING Repertory Theatre has begun its last production before it breaks for the summer, finishing the season with a fitting Shakespearean adaptation.

Its production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is now on, but Charlotte Warner, who plays Hermia, says this show has a particular prescience.

“It was originally written for the Queen to prepare for a celebration, with a troupe of actors in the play also preparing a show for a special day,

“So we’re leaning into the Queen’s jubilee, which becomes a part of the play.”

Adapted by Paul Stacey, who also codirects with Chris Cuming, it promises to be a fresh, vibrant production which brings something new to the play.

“It’s a surprising take on a story which is well-known and well-loved, and both directors have struck a great balance between the new and the old,” says Ms Warner.

“So much of it is still relevant, such as its takes on gender stereotypes and marriage, and we still deal with this things in the modern day,”

The play follows a group of actors who arrive in Reading, preparing to perform for a Platinum Jubilee celebration.

Things don’t necessarily go to plan when complications arise from potions, sorcery, and the rough-run course of love.

“Shakespeare is challenging in that it pushed boundaries,

“Hermia has to deal with a forced relationship, and responds as a strong and feisty woman– at the time women like that were considered crazy,

“But to us it seems like a more modern sensibility.”

Despite its timeless relevance, she says the production will look to make the play more accessible to a modern audience.

“It’s Shakespeare, but there’ll be dance music, Beyoncé and twerking,

“Well I say twerking, but mine is more of an awkward wiggle,” she jokes.

“Expectations are always high in British theatre, and as an audience we want to be surprised,

“But theatre has the scope to go anywhere, so we’ve made it approachable for theatre-lovers and newbies alike.”

The cast features Dave Fishley as Oberon and Bottom, Amy Ambrose as Titania, Jonty Peach as Demetrius, Mark Desebrock as Lysander, and Beth Eyre as Helena.

“One of the reasons Shakespeare’s work is still studied and enjoyed is that what he’s created is realistic in that you just don’t know what’s coming day to day.

“People have had a rough few years, so I think everyone will be up for it,

“It feels like a summer party, and you’ll never have seen it like this.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs at Reading Repertory Theatre from Wednesday, May 11, to Sunday, June 5.

Tickets are £23, though 10% of tickets are offered at a reduced rate of £14 as part of the theatre’s community mission.