'LOVE in IDLENESS'
Posted Jul 29, 2008
Faced with the challenge of producing a special play for the school’s 20th anniversary celebrations, we knew that Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream would be ideal. But we wanted it to be more modern and visually spectacular, so we set about altering it to fit the time and situation. Firstly we had a bridge constructed across the swimming pool, which would act as the link between the real and the fairy world. The fairy dancers, trained by Kathrin Hitchcock, were a great hit with the audience, as they added the extra dimension we had intended, and made maximum use of the extra space available. Mollie Roff created all the costumes to fit the African setting, with stunning effect, as you can see from the photos.
The magnificent outdoor setting, Fairies attend Queen Titania
Our cast all lived up to the high expectations we had of them and acted with great flair. Isabel Chikoti, as Titania, Queen of the fairies, showed a confident authority in her role, ably supported by her fairy retinue, led by Chanda Mutati. Paulo Graca, as Oberon, alternated convincingly from menace to humour and formed a colourful partnership with Jack Parkinson as Puck, who interpreted his role perfectly as his cheeky-chappy sidekick.
Oberon and Puck, A reconciliation dance
The three pairs of lovers all gave lively renderings of their roles, and had the audience in stitches with their hopeless declarations of misplaced love, caused by the magical love juice from the flower “Love in Idleness,” dropped on their eyes by Puck and Oberon. This made for hilarious misunderstandings, made greater by the well-rehearsed comic timing of the actors. Tom Jordan and Dalitso Chanika excelled in their roles and ably showed the full range of emotions their parts demanded. Their ladies, Matebe Chisiza and Deborah Yambala, were delightful in their portrayal of the wronged sweethearts and wrenched our hearts out with their comically tortured deliveries.
The lovers lost in the wood, Listening to the Duke, The Duke talks to his bride
The greatest comedy came of course from the Mechanicals and their ridiculous tragi-comedy. Michael Elledge was a huge hit with his superbly over-acted portrayal of Nick Bottom, and squeezed the most out of his comic lines. He was ably supported by Emmanuel Chikoti, who almost stole the show with his superb falsetto rendering of Bottom’s sweetheart, and Amy Parkinson, who was very credible as the foreman who vainly tries to keep control of his gang of would-be actors.
The mechanicals prepare their play, Thisbe attacked by the lion, Bottom bewailing Thisbe’s death
Space forbids me to mention all the company, but suffice it to say that the largest-ever cast were a huge credit to themselves and the school, and enabled us to confidently claim that this was the most spectacular and successful Chengelo play yet. As several of the audience commented afterwards, “I’ve not laughed so much in a very long time.” We couldn’t ask for a better commendation.
Knockabout antics, Everyone enjoyed the show!