A delightfully dazzling midsummer's night
DANCE
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM ★★★★
Queensland Ballet
Her Majesty’s Theatre, until October 7
For the first time since taking the reins as artistic director, Li Cunxin has brought the Queensland Ballet to Melbourne to perform its big ticket production A Midsummer Night's Dream.
A co-production with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, it features choreography by popular British choreographer Liam Scarlett, who is both the choreographer in residence at London's Royal Ballet and an artistic associate for Queensland Ballet.
This is a lavish production, which takes a "more is more" approach to nearly every element. Tracy Grant Lord's set design is part storybook, part amusement park – with its strings of fairy lights, glowing fauna and a treetop bridge.
Her costume designs are equally over the top, with fluffy skirts and butterfly-inspired bodices for Titania’s fairy community. The profusion of sequins is at first overwhelming – garish, even – but as the ballet unfolds the company fully embraces the extravagance to great effect.
Scarlett's choreography plays up Puck's (Kohei Iwamoto) naughtiness and the lead fairies' flirtiness, and as draws out perfectly timed slapstick for Helena (Georgia Swan), Demetrius (Alexander Idaszak) and the very unfortunate Bottom (beautifully performed by Rian Thompson).
This production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream delivers a nice balance of romance and humour. It succeeds in embracing everything fantastical about Shakespeare's worlds, and Scarlett's lively choreography doesn't shy away from the spirit and speed of Mendelssohn’s score.
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