"A Midsummer Night's Dream". Jesus College Shakespeare Project
Until now, the Jesus College Project has been strolling in the foothills of Shakespeare. With the exception of Romeo and Juliet the works they've so far given us have been rarer mounted plays like Henry the Sixth Part Two and Titus Andronicus . With A Midsummer Night's Dream the stakes are raised. Not a summer passes without the gardens of stately homes and Oxford Colleges being awash with rampant fairies and translated Bottoms. Against competition like that, can Peter Sutton and his dedicated, ever-evolving company of actors keep up their astonishing record of mesmerising productions? Will this be a dream of a show or a Midsummer murder? Why would you even worry? Without a tree in sight, in a bare room illuminated by domestic ceiling lights, without wings (neither of the fairy nor stage-side variety), without even, frankly, a stage, this show creates a kind of magic rarely seen in more lavish productions. It's a magic that comes not from special effects, but from an i...