Biased but Accurate Review

Tonight I watched Mac Theatre's production of Midsummer Night's Dream in the Promenade Park.  Before I write my review I must confess that it is completely biased. I love these people.  They are my friends and my son.  Impartiality is not possible.

It was brilliant.  I often don't understand a lot of Shakespeare because I am uncultured but this performance made me laugh a lot and I enjoy laughing.  I've watched Shakespeare comedies before and wondered what was funny about them.  Not this time.

It was an olympic themed performance.  The set included a horse jump, a medal podium and a gigantic olympic torch, knocked on it's side.  The characters were dressed in red, white and blue to tie in with a Jubilee year. The fairies were flames from the torch.

The Mechanicals - dressed in red white and blue

Puck was played like a wickedly enthusiastic teenager (not bad for a mother and teacher), completely believable and so much fun to watch.  Oberon, next to tiny little Puck looked every inch her boss.  Oberon has been part of Mac Theatre's cast for every show I have seen and he is always a delight to watch.

Puck and Oberon

Last year I made the mistake of calling someone on front of house duties with me, "bouncy Claire" in front of my son, who then went and told her.  She was offended but really it was a compliment.  This year she put that sparky enthusiasm into leading her group of flaming fairies.  One of the fairies had a beautiful voice and sang a solo, backed hilariously by the rest of the fairies aka the Supremes.

The workmen (mechanicals) who began by building the set got excited about performing the play (within the play) to various degrees.  Peter Quince, author of the play rolled his eyes so well at all their efforts.  The actor playing this part has been in every one of Mac Theatre's 10 productions.  Let's hope he continues for the next 10 years.  Nick Bottom was brilliant.  It takes great skill to act as though you are a really bad actor, when you are actually amazing.  When I have seen this play before Bottom has come across as a bumbling fool but I loved this interpretation of an over-enthusiastic amateur.  When he became an Ass and Oberon tricked Titania into being in love with his he was just so adorable that Titania didn't seem at all foolish.

Bottom and Titania

Hermia, Lysanda, Helena and Demtrius played the love triangle really well.  I was particularly impressed with Helena, whose delivery made me understand every word she said.  There was no shrillness to her voice either, that you sometimes get when female actors have to raise their voices other the wind in an outdoor performance.  Hermia was a little too convincing as the clingy, boyfriend-slapper I hope her great performance doesn't put future boyfriends off.

Hermia, Lysanda and Helena

The Pyramus and Thisbe play was my favourite part.   The Athenians had clearly studied a critical audience and their comments added even more light and humour.  I confess that when my son came home and said, "I'm playing Francis Flute and I get to wear a dress," I was a little concerned.  It's not every mother's wish to have a 14 year old boy who is excited about wearing dresses. However, I needn't have worried. This is not a boy who wears dresses well.

Thisbe

He was so funny and cute.  I know I'm biased but I think the audience agreed with me.  They laughed at all the right moments and when he died a spontaneous, "ahhh" filled the ampitheatre.  One of the problems of performing in the park on a summer evening is that 'cool (not) year 10s' feel threatened as their dope-smoking space is invaded.  During Thisbe's death scene, one of them decided to contribute a line of his own.  The result, I thought, was quite funny: "Adieu, Adieu, W****ERS!, Adieu"  Luckily, Thisbe's death was sad enough for the audience to overlook it. At the end of the play the Athenians beg the Mechanicals not to perform their epilogue and so they treat us to the funniest dance, to the tune of  'I believe in miracles', whipping their pants from under their hard hats at the end.

You can leave your hat on

I believe in miracles.

Overall, Mac Theatre's 10th Anniversary performance was a triumph.  I'm not just saying this because I am a proud mother, or because the lovely cast bought me delicious chocolates for doing front of house or because Nikki and Barrie are my friends but because I thoroughly enjoyed it as did the rest of the audience. 

Homework Help

There comes a time in every parent's life when the homework gets  too difficult.  That could be an exaggeration.  There may be one or two brilliant people out there who can understand everything but for most of us mere mortals there will come a day when your child says, "Mum can you help me with this...." and you just want to stick your fingers in your ears and sing, "La, la, la, la,  I can't hear you."

My first encounter with difficult homework came quite early on, when I realised that although 2+2 did equal 4 the reason wasn't because, 'it just does!'  The school held a meeting to explain how maths was taught and despite having half an A level in the subject I was confused.  I get it now and understand why it's taught that way but at the time my brain just wanted to explode.

Having a wide variety of interests has meant that I can usually make sense of most things in the end.  I like to read, so that reading through essays is a pleasure, rather than a chore.  Music is usually the most difficult subject I'm asked to help with, or to check through, which is bizarre as it's the one I should be good at.  I often wonder how non-musical parents help if their child asks them to check through their composition to see if there are any parallel 5ths or Octaves they've missed.  I'm not much help to my children - I am a confirmed C grade student, 'good enough' is my motto but they always want better grades and so try not to ask for my help too often.  When my daughter was in year 8 she had a geography project on National Parks and she had chosen the Pembrokeshire National Park.  They were meant to work in groups and her group had fallen out at the last minute and she had to do the work on her own.  After a few hours of tears we spent a very interesting weekend researching and making a project that was good enough to pass (but not good enough for the grade she wanted).  I loved it because I found my favourite holiday destination.

This weekend has been particularly traumatic.  With one child in the middle of A levels and another in the year 9, 'I'm a bit bored so I think I'll do DofE, a bit of AmDram and a few other challenges'  phase I have been asked to help with A level French speaking practice, walking to get fit for DofE and learning lines for a Shakespeare play.

Shakespeare is a personal challenge for me.  I always feel a bit stupid for not really understanding it properly.  I know the man had his finger on the pulse of humanity and was incitful, witty and ahead of his time but the language always trips me up.  Iambic pentameters notwithstanding, I fell over my tongue several times before getting the lines I was reading out.  Luckily, my son didn't mind and was still able to recite his lines.  I find it an odd coincidence that he is playing the part of Flute in Midsummer Night's Dream.  Flutes are my favourite thing! (It's a good job he's not playing Bottom!!)

After O level French I gave up and although I enjoyed it I always got a little muddled between French and German (as you do when you study two languages).  The Long Suffering Husband never got much past 'ouvrir la port' and 'fermer la fenêtre' and so became extremely busy watching football when he was asked to help. On the other hand, I threw myself into the task, enthusiastically, stumbling over pronunciation.  Each time I got to the question about what Paris is like to work in, I got excited because not only could I say it I also knew what it meant.  Eventually, the absurdity of the situation got to me and "et pour le travail?", was immediately followed by a fit of the giggles.  I just hope the examiner doesn't ask the question with as much excitement and enthusiasm as I did because the giggles could be off-putting.