Filter Theatre Company takes centre stage at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol with an exciting, modern and delightful version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The audience is taken into a multi dimension experience, where musicians, lovers, wood fairies and Greek goddesses give life to one of the most beloved of Shakespeare’s plays. The play is dynamic, fresh, fast paced, and full of smart comic touches, whilst Shakespeare and its characters are more authentic and real than ever. The director Sean Holmes orchestrates a hectic work in progress, where the stage is at the same time a concert venue, a theatre stage and a forest. Here actors, musicians and comedians move around, run and play, capturing an amused audience from the beginning to the end.
Andrew Hilton and his cast tell the story with a special eye for detail where every movement is outlined and in perfect coordination. All the characters are magnificently performed, and Puck is one of the most fortunate. A sly and mischievous master of ceremonies, he weaves the plot with irony and malice, while contemplating the human responses to love dilemmas with an intrigued smile. The audience laughs out loud at the comedy, but then becomes attentive at Shakespeare’s own words. And when Puck recites his final lines, everybody can do nothing but burst into enthusiastic applause.
Image by Robert Day