This Steampunk version of this classic play began in Starveling the tailor's shop where the Mechanicals including that well-loved clown, Bottom, come to rehearse their play for the wedding festivities of the Duke. The fairies transform this shop into their Steampunk forest where four lovers take refuge and we learn all is not well in the relationships of the forest folk royalty. Magic leads to mayhem before order is finally restored.
The stage was transformed but as in a dream, elements of a reality remained. Steampunk is a literacy and cultural genre and aesthetic (an off-shoot of science fiction and fantasy) which combines aspects of the Industrial Revolution, i.e. steam power, with a rebellious or punk response. In the end Puck asks you to consider what you have just seen as no more yielding but a dream.
This production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mad and brilliant. It was an afternoon where you could leave reality outside and enter an amazing dream world inside The Maddermarket Theatre. Director Chris Bealey created a fantastic version of the Dream which made for a very entertaining experience. Dreams, if they're any good, are always a little bit crazy.
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