Bard's magic recreated on a monsoon evening

A cloudy monsoon evening might not be the exact setting for Puck to play his pranks. Or to play out the midsummer's night dream. But actors of the Magic Theatre created the fairyland for those present at Fine Arts Hall on Saturday evening with so much finesse that the borders vanished.

As actor Mukesh rightly observed at the end of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, these actors proved that theatre could communicate beyond the constraints of language.

The archaic tenor of Shakespearean English was compounded by dialogues lost in acoustics, but the overall presentation made up for all the flaws.

Impressive acting by some of the actors, ably supported by a professionally designed setting and lighting and amazing music score ensured that the play got etched in the minds of the audience, like a dream, as Shakespeare would have wanted it to be remembered after the curtain fall.

A special mention should be reserved for Joe Peter who played the parts of Theseus of Athens and Oberon, the King of Fairies – the latter one with much more grace and ease. He was ably supported by a spirited performance by Mathew Thomas K., as Puck.

Performances by these young actors were balanced by the stage presence and grace of Josh Therattil, as Nick Bottom and Pyramus and Rangarajan, former head of the Department of English, Maharaja's College, as Peter Quince.

The play, as complicated it was in structure and language, might not have been a good choice, especially when the Magic Theatre chose to stage two exclusive shows for students on Friday morning, besides the one on Saturday evening for the public. Even though the director of the play M.U. Praveen said he was attempting a new interpretation of the play, to bring out the element of colonisation, the performance more or less followed the original text.

So, it was left to Valeria Olguin to bridge the scenes and knit them well using choreography that intelligently used the stage space and properties.

She was ably supported by Srikanth with lighting. The technical team under Martin John succeeded in setting up an amazing backdrop for the actors to take off.

Magic Theatre under Preetha Gibu deserved all the applause that reverberated inside the Fine Arts Hall on Saturday for the rare treat for English theatre buffs in the city.