A Midsummer Night's Dream
Louise Gold starred as Titania in The New Shakespeare
Company's production at The Regent's Park Open Air Theatre from 28 May
(previews 24 May) to 7 September 1991.
Cast
Theseus,
Duke of
Hippolyta,
betrothed to Theseus - Anna Nicholas
Egeus -
Mike McCormack
Hermia,
Egeus's daughter - Sarah-Jane Holm
Lysander - Daniel
Ryan
Demetrius - Guy
Scantlebury
Helena - Emily
Raymond
Philostrate
- Robert Lister
Oberon, King
of the Fairies - Bill Homewood
Titania,
Queen of the Fairies - Louise Gold
Puck - Richard
O'Callaghan
First Fairy
- Jenny Galloway
Peaseblossom
- Samantha Spiro
Cobweb - Ignatius
Anthony
Moth - Jo
Montgomery
Mustardseed
- Sarah Parks
Peter
Quince, a carpenter - David Gooderson
Nick Bottom,
a weaver - Roy Hudd
Francis
Flute - Matt Bardock
Tom Snout, a
tinker - Keith Osborn
Snug - a
joiner - Gavin Muir
Robin
Starveling, a tailor - Ian Mullins
Production Team
Author - William
Shakespeare
Original
Production - circa 1595 to 1596, The Lord Chamberlain’s Players.
Director - Ian
Talbot
Designer - Paul
Farnsworth
Choreographer
- Kenn Oldfield
Music by -
Mark Emney
Lighting
Designer - Jason Taylor
Fight
Director - Peter Woodward
Assistant
Director - Peter Clark
Many of the cast also appeared in the New Shakespeare Company's
production of The Boys from Syracuse that year. Louise
Gold returned to The New Shakespeare Company and The Regent's Park Open Air
Theatre six years later, in 1997, to star in Kiss Me Kate.
As A Midsummer Night’s Dream was
presented in repertory (with The Boys from Syracuse and Macbeth),
the actual dates of the performances were: Previews from 24 to 27 May 1991. Performances:
28 May to 8 June, 20th to 27 June, 4 to 20 July, 2 to 7 August, 15
and 16 August, 24 to 28 August and 6 and 7 September 1991.
Louise Gold, Jenny Galloway, Samantha
Spiro, and Ian Talbot went on to appear in Regents Park 70th Anniversary Gala
which also had some choreography by Kenn Oldfield
Louise Gold and Jenny Galloway
had previously appeared together in Godspell
Choreographer Kenn Oldfield had appeared on
stage with Louise Gold, fifteen years earlier, in Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Touring Production)
Kenn Oldfield also went on worked as a
choreographer on the gala Comedy Tonight,
which Louise Gold may have appeared in.
Kenn Oldfield had previously worked as
a choreographer on the gala Will-Aid
Roy Hudd had previously appeared on The Royal Variety Performance
(1982). He went on to appear on the radio on Ned
Sherrin’s Review Of Revue
Designer Paul Farnsworth went on to design Calamity
Jane at The Leicester Haymarket and Kiss Me Kate for the NSC.
Certainly for the two NSC shows (and quite possibly Calamity Jane too) he
managed to make his programme sketch drawing of Louise's character look
uncannily like the actress herself.
Matt Bardock and Louise Gold
went on to appear in the film Topsy Turvy.
Louise Gold
and Anna Nicholas went on to appear in Follies,
which was also designed by Paul Farnsworth.
Anna Nicholas went on to
appear in A Love Letter To Dan.
Ian Talbot went on to
direct Dear
Ralph, and to take part in Shopping
With The Stars.
Critics Comments
"The cast were daunted only
once on press night, by a particularly noisy aircraft which threatened to drown
out Titania altogether, thereby somewhat dwarfing her claims to magical prowess
and putting Puck's circling of the earth into a peculiar context" Clare Bayley, WHAT'S ON, 5 June 1991
"A
fair number braved the summer chill in anoraks and one robust hero remained in
his T-shirt all evening, a costume only marginally more appropriate to the
weather than the flimsy wraps worn by the bare-footed, bare-shouldered
Titania." Jeremy Kingston, THE TIMES, 30 May 1991
"What
this play needs more than anything else is a touch of the nitty-gritty and
these fairies are both, Bill Homewood's Oberon and Louise Gold's Titania
buzzing like angry insects with their dragon-fly wings" David
Nathan, JEWISH CHRONICLE, 31 May 1991
“The
chill factor gave an edge to Titania’s speech about the seasonal confusion
caused by her quarrel with Oberon (“hoary-headed frosts / Fall in the fresh lap
of the crimson rose”)” Paul Taylor, INDEPENDENT, 30 May 1991
Links about A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Designing Shakespeare, section of the AHDS Performing
Arts Collection, which happens to use this particular production as one of it’s
examples of that play (includes production photographs) http://ahds.ac.uk/ahdscoll/docroot/shakespeare/performancedetails.do?performanceId=11687
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