2007

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Yohangza Theatre Company, South Korea.
Dunstan Playhouse.
February 1. 2007

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It is a credit to Douglas Gautier’s plan to revive the program in the Festival Centre that he has brought this sprightly – and spritely – adaptation so auspiciously early. It is smart to link with the Sydney Festival and get the benefit of their line-up – may there be more of it. And, in selecting this skilful Korean company and its witty adaptation of Shakespeare’s popular comedy, Gautier’s Asia focus is looking sharp indeed.

It is fascinating to see how amenable the Dream is to relocation in the world of Korean folklore, shamanism and sorcery. The bewildered lovers are recognizably Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, even as they are renamed Byock and Hang, Loo and Ick – and they face double trouble with the twin Pucks – known as Duduri and acrobatically performed by Jin Lee and Seong-Yong Han.

The same tribulations occur and the fickleness of love is keenly satirized as in the English original. But, in a nice twist, it is Oberon not Titania who gets the herb juice in his eyes (as punishment for his philandering) and is made to fall in love with the first creature he sees. In this case, not Bottom the Weaver turned into a donkey, but an itinerant old woman turned into a pig. Sun Hee Park is delightful as Dot (Titania) and the production, with its flutes, pipes, drums and sound effects, energetically reminds us what fools these mortals be – even when they are magically translated.

In abridged form in The Adelaide Review, No.310, February 16, 2007, p.14.