A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Michael Hurst

Media Release – for immediate release
MICHAEL HURST’S FRENZY OF FRANTIC LOVE

Auckland Summer Shakespeare presents
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
DIRECTED BY NZ THEATRE ICON MICHAEL HURST

Valentine’s Day just got a whole lot sexier, you guys. This February 14, the mistakes and follies of young love, wildly hammy amateur acting and warring fairies are whipped up into a turbulent maelstrom by a cast aged 18 to 94 when A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAMopens the annual Auckland Summer Shakespeare season.

One of the greatest stage comedies of all time, Shakespeare’s take on love and obsession is also amongst his most popular. It’s been given the feature film treatment no less than ten times and has inspired artists for centuries including Terry Pratchett, Mendelssohn, George Balanchine, Elvis Costello, Neil Gaiman, Benjamin Britten and Woody Allen. Even Google have had a go at reinterpreting the narrative. It’s also the most performed in the Auckland Summer Shakespeare’s repertory, having been produced six times in the annual event’s history.

Director Michael Hurst is perhaps New Zealand’s foremost Shakespeare professional. He has five Hamlets under his belt, four King Lears, four Macbeths, two Romeo and Juliets and two Othellos. This is his third time directing the annual Auckland Summer Shakespeare, following productions of Measure for Measure in 1987 and King Lear in 1990. In the 2013 production of King Lear, he played the Fool and served as Artistic Consultant. Michael is also Chair of the Auckland Summer Shakespeare Trust.

Surprisingly though, this is the very first time he has worked his formidable magic onDream. He’s promising a wild event of rambunctious encounters. The audience will be plunged from the security of a wedding feast into a strange and unpredictable dreamtime in which all expectations are likely to be reversed. Our star-crossed young lovers will be watched by a gaggle of very, very naughty fairies, brought to life by the now infamousMarvellous troupe of sexagenarians, septuagenarians and octogenarians.

Marvellous is a weekly performance group for motivated senior citizens aged 65+, created by ATC Participate in 2011. Some had acting experience; others had never performed before. Launching themselves with an adaptation of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (directed by Hurst), they walked away with the award for Best New Cast in Metro’s Best of Auckland and proved that you are never too old to learn.

The 45 strong cast of actors and musicians includes talent from all across Auckland is led by well-known Auckland actor Alistair Browning as Oberon, King of the Fairies. In an almost 40 year career in New Zealand, the UK and Australia, Alistair has surfed the Shakespearean canon many times, appearing as Hamlet, Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, Cornwall in King Lear, Orsino in Twelfth Night and Cinna in Julius Caesar.

Over the last five decades, the Auckland Summer Shakespeare has provided the launchpad for a wealth of most celebrated talent, kickstarting the creative engines of people such as Dean O’Gorman, Oliver Driver, Anna Marbrook, Paolo Rotondo, Simon Prast, Christian Penny, award-winning film director Lauren Jackson, bro’Town‘s Mario Gaoa, 2014 Arts Foundation New Generation winner Vela Manusaute, Dame Cheryll Southeran, Lisa Harrow of the Royal Shakespeare Company, world champion freediver William Trubridge and legendary ex-pat Kiwi theatre directors Simon Phillips (former Artistic Director of Melbourne Theatre Company, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies) and Peter Evans (Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare in Australia).

Backed by a pulsing soundtrack composed by Callum Blackmore, expect an evening of strange and rancid charisma. It’s time to lose yourself in the woods.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM plays:
February 14 – March 7 2015
Old Arts Plaza, the University of Auckland
Adults $30, Group (10+) $25, Students $19
Tickets on sale now from The Maidment Theatre
www.maidment.auckland.ac.nz or 09 308 2383

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