Leeds-based community theatre group: Leeds Arts Centre (LAC), are proud to present: William Shakespeare’s: A Midsummer Night’s Dream,, Shakespeare’s comedy reimagined in a vibrant, modern setting.
This story is filled with all the misunderstandings and madness you’d expect when the magical and mortal worlds collide. As the Duke, Theseus, (a local business mogul), stands upon the brink of his greatest conquest, he considers all that has transpired to bring him here. As night falls, his imagined friends, enemies and servant, all take on a twisted, surreal appearance. The conflicts of lovers, fairy lords and rude mechanicals are acted out, but will the Duke’s tortured psyche find resolution before dawn breaks and he must marry the lady Hippolyta?
Is all this just the imagination of a slumbering Duke? Or do lovers steal away from the threat of death or banishment, local tradesmen meet in the dead of night to rehearse a play, and fairy lords war so fiercely the climate itself is changing?
Bringing together members of our community, local colleges and universities, with the assistance of local musicians, designers and amateur theatre makers. this project seeks to produce something unexpected and exciting from this well-established piece.
Leeds Arts Centre is a proud member of the Leeds Community Arts Network (Leeds CAN). Likely written as far back as 1595, Shakespeare’s famous comedy of lords and lovers, fairies and fae, continues to fascinate. It offers moments of genuine hilarity as well as ruminating on our continued preconceptions about duty, marriage and the freedom to love.
For many of the backstage crew and cast this will be their first introduction to Shakespeare, offering them a chance to engage with a seminal piece of English work and make it their own. For others, it is the chance to play a character they have always dreamed of, or to be a part of creating an urban and neon-inspired landscape for these classic characters to find, and sometimes lose, their feet.
Light-hearted scenes are mixed seamlessly with moments of genuine tension. The stakes are high and no one will make it out of the magical forest the same as they went in. The cast and crew of Dream invite you to join us to see if you can find out what happened over that neon night in the woods at midsummer.
DREAM – BUY TICKETS
