(Alfred Hickling’s article appeared in the Guardian, 3/29.)
The measure of a good Dream is how it manages the transition between the killjoy austerity of the Athenian court and the magical mayhem of the woods. The Everyman’s new associate director Nick Bagnall has come up with a convincing, low-tech solution that places the action amid the chalk dust and colourless uniforms of a minor public school.
However, what really matters is what lies beyond the blackboard, which Ashley Martin-Davis’s design reveals to be a forest shredded into waist-high drifts of discarded homework. Though the inevitable rustling can become a bit distracting at times, the paper makes an absorbent medium for Peter Mumford’s gloriously iridescent lighting; and it’s great fun to see Titania’s bower hastily heaped together as if the fairies have decided to put their queen out with the recycling.
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/29/a-midsummer-nights-dream-everyman-liverpool-review