A Midsummer Night's Dream

This production of Midsummers Night Dream is very close to my heart, as a fan of Lindsay Kemps artwork and theatre productions I was thrilled to hear that this version of the play existed and nothing short of delighted when i finally managed to track a copy down (taped from television in the mid 1980's).

Kemp co-wrote the script with David Brandon and plays cheeky Puck, the mischievous sprite, but what stands out the most to my mind are the spectacular costumes and stage designs. The set pieces really help to add an air of magic to the play, while the performances themselves are undeniably graceful and poised proving that Director Celestino Coronada has competently handled the shift from stage to screen.

The story remains the same, four lovers, some rude mechanics and a quibble over a young boy by the King and Queen of the forest. The big change is that this is a musical version of Shakespears play and although the songs were written long after the playwrite was dead, his message remains as gently amusing and entertaining as ever.

I highly recommend this production to admirers of Kemps work and fans of the genre. Sadly very few copies exist, but if you find one... watch it! The surreal value and marvellous performances (especially the King and Queen) cannot be denied, every mid-summers night I watch this film with friends and each time it gets better.

Without modern day VFX techniques, with least of words, in this lush filmed version of his famous stage production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Lindsay Kemp & his company make this idyｌｌic fairy tale world believable simply through the physical expression. And eternally mischievous masterminded Lindsay (or Puck) tricks you as always into his eccentric world of the circus, commedia dell' arte, operetta, ballet and mime.

Kemp is a perfect match for Puck, a satyric clown, the movement of Oberon (Michael Matou) has a magical swiftness, cross-dressed Titania(blind Jack Birkett)'s presence is undeniable. But the most memorable achievement of this adaptation is in the incarnation of the changeling boy, who has no lines, merely a cited figure in the dispute between Oberon and Titania in Shakespeare's play. Lindsay makes the boy come to the forefront almost naked but with a wreath of flowers as an undeniably androgynous, remote resonance of "Le Spectre De La Rose" by Vaslav Nijinsky or "La Sylphide". Long necked François Testory（former Mudra student）played the role beautifully with Bejart dancer's grace and incredibly transparent countertenor voice accompanied with the illusionary music score of Carlos Miranda.

Lindsay (or Puck) has him cross the border of gender as of humans and fairies. So the midsummer night's forest inevitably becomes the place for the pan-sexual dreams to come out. The king can have his pretty page as his bed's companion, the queen makes it out with a beast, four young lovers become homosexual couples, or a gangly waify tinker, Snout(Testory double casted) can turn into this magnificent creature lusted after by every man and woman.

Thus Lindsay(or Puck) successfully reveals and revives the erotic undertone of the Shakespearian world. And he appropriately concludes, "If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream,"

If you wish to have some happiest sexual dream, just watch this film.