Gentles, do not reprehend

 “Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time.”

 
And so to the theatre. I have been to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's touring production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" accompanied by the elder Miss Epictetus, whose judgement of what to see at the theatre proved sound once again. The production was excellent; and, yes, I'm well aware that if anyone should be able to put together a decent stab at it, then it's them. I'd go so far as to say that the realisation of the character of Puck - both the concept and Lucy Ellinson's performance - was as good as any I've seen before. The setting was Gatsbyesque Jazz Age, although the backdrop of a ruined wall hinted at the preceding horrors, as perhaps did Egeus' uniform and military moustache. Were we meant to understand that Egeus' preference for Demetrius was because, being older than Lysander,  he had 'been through it' and the other had not?

Puck and Oberon

The main conceit of this tour is that at each venue, including Stratford and the Barbican, the Mechanicals are played by amateur actors from a local drama company. At the Alhambra these, some of whom I had previously seen in productions such as Pinter's "Birthday Party", came from the Leeds Arts Centre and were very good. It has always seemed to me that the two areas where non-professionals often struggle are in comic timing and in voice projection. The comedy, always such a crucial part of this play, was a risqué delight, but I did hear complaints from those further back in the stalls about the difficulty of understanding one or two of them. So, a good night out in Bradford, which was completed in the traditional manner with a keema madras at the Kashmir.

On a completely unrelated subject, the first hex cut from the sheet hardboard is approximately the correct dimensions and has six sides; I'm going to count that as a success.