e Manchester Shakespeare Company’s first Post-Covid production for is ‘Summer Dreaming-The Musical’ an irreverent musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Set in the woods around the City of Mancia in the mid 1970’s ‘Summer Dreaming’ follows the lives and loves of four very different couples as they struggle against the odds to make the course of true love run smooth.
The betrothal of The Duke of Wilmslow (Steve Connolly) to Lady Penelope Arcadia (Ayesha Maynard) is cause for celebration: a concert given by the good people of Mancia in the honour of the ‘happy’ couple.
But the workers at Truss & Son, led by Shop Steward Peter Quince (Steve Connolly), plan to use the occasion to launch a subversive theatrical attack on the aristocracy. Talented, but frustrated shift workers Nick Bottom (Karl Cam) and Frances Flute (Hayley Cartwright) seize their chance to escape from the factory by hijacking Pete’s dire Marxist-Leninist version of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’.
A different kind of arranged marriage is causing Hermia Strains (Mia Vore) a more immediate problem: Her father has promised her hand (and everything else) to Factory boss’s son Donald Truss (Brendan Quinn), in order to facilitate his rise in polite society. Hermia has other plans though and intends to elope with her penniless true love Leroy Sanders (Josh Fyson) through the enchanted Forest of Ardwick to stay with Leroy’s Gran in Glossop.
Pursued by the furious Donald and his devoted but recently dumped ex, Helena Handcart (Emily Crook), the lovers soon become lost in dark woods, frequented by Hippies, Druids, Fairies and that ‘Merry wanderer of the night’ Robbo Goodstuff (Allyn Thomas) and his sidekick Deirdre Turnip (Emma Clarke).
Hearts are broken and mended before the night is out and Nick Bottom has the trip of his life when he becomes entangled in a chemically enhanced custody battle between Oberon (Noel Wilson) and his estranged wife Titania (Ayesha Maynard), Queen of the Druids.
The Manchester Shakespeare Company’s new show:
‘Summer Dreaming – The Musical!’
19th-23rd April 2023
At The Empty Space Theatre, 48 Kansas Avenue, Media City M50 2GL
Website: www.manchestershakespeareco.org
Tickets: £14/£10 concessions. Group bookings available. Wheelchair friendly.
From https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-manchester-shakespeare-company
