The latest in a long line of successful school plays, Senior School and Sixth Form pupils at Culford School amazed a 
spell-bound audience with their edgy production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.
Not only a great night out, this was a sophisticated and contemporary staging of one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. The atmospheric lighting and professional set highlighted the talent of the cast in Culford’s superb two-tier Studio Theatre.
Director of Drama, Miss Maria Kane, said ‘What we wanted to create with this production was a visual sensation, using an atmospheric set and eerie contemporary dance and music, whilst remaining true to the original script.
We aimed to show how Shakespeare can still relate to a modern audience and keep young children and adults alike gripped by the action and great humour.
What the pupils achieved was so much more; this was a production any professional company would be immensely proud of.’
The two pairs of lovers, Hermia and Lysander played by Georgina Sutton (U5) and Oliver Ratcliffe (U6), and Helena and Demetrius played by Isabel Davies (L6) and Callum Downing (U6), gave their topsy-turvy courtship a well-judged sense of adolescent fun and teenage romance, drawing plenty of laughter from the audience.
In contrast to the comedy, George Kirby-Smith (U6), as a majestic Oberon, and Katie Hargreaves (L6), playing a regal Titania reminiscent of a temple priestess, gave off a mysterious fairy light.
Louisiana Ogunfowora (L6) presented us with a very mischievous, comical and, at times, slightly creepy Puck.
The Fairy King and Queen were attended by a glittering group of sprite-like fairies whose mystical and contemporary dances gripped the audience from the moment they opened the performance.
Much credit should go to choreographer Miss Heidi Stubbings who devised the dances, as well as the makeup artists who created outstanding designs for the fairies.
As always, the character of Bottom as an ass provided constant entertainment, and a touch of Christmas pantomime to the winter performance of this summer play.
Jack Godden (U6) was a hearty and charismatic Bottom while the other craftsmen offered an intentionally clumsy and hilarious Pyramus and Thisbe, the play within a play.
A standing ovation on the final night testified that this was a production the cast and crew should be proud of, showing us all how Shakespeare, when done well, can appeal to an audience of any age.