A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a cave

Butterfly Productions have performed at Kents Cavern for a number of years and this is the second time that we have organized for our students to watch a great theatre company perform Shakespeare in this amazing setting. Nick Danan and Aileen Gonsalves have already wowed critics with Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest and they’re back again with another Shakespeare classic performed around the caves. The shows are very interactive and you are led around the caves by the cast.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1597. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanicals), who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare’s most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world. The play is very popular and people all over the world watch it in theatres. The play consists of four interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, which is set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.

This was such an amazing experience in so many ways not only did we get to see an amazing play by a great company it was set in Kents Cavern which is a really cool venue for a mystical dream like play like A Midsummer Night’s Dream because the caves added to the dream like atmosphere of the play and the actors were able to use it to dramatic effect. The play was set in different parts of the caves so each tie you turned a corner you entered a different scene. Great interlude into our normal day and it has certainly helped our appreciation and enjoyment of Shakespeare.