THE stage is set for a memorable night with State Theatre Company of South Australia’s revival of the classic play-within-a-play featuring Shakespeare’s greatest clowns – the rude mechanicals from a Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Perhaps the most famous group of amateur thespians of all time, the cast of Pyramus and Thisbe bumble their way through rehearsals, misadventures and sheer idiocy in a hysterically funny mix of verse, song and dance.
Using snippets of the existing text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the play exalts in its own roughness, extravagance of expression and frequent obscenity – in the nicest possible way.
The actors take centre stage in this wild reimagining of what might have happened off stage during the Bard’s most loved comedy.
Clowning, vaudeville, slapstick, face, stand-up comedy and bad puppetry come together with both witty badinage and fart jokes to create an anarchic and thrillingly unhinged carnival that revels in its own theatricality.
First directed by Geoffrey Rush in 1987, The Popular Mechanicals holds a special place in the Australian comedic canon and is ripe for revival with a cast of the best theatrical clowns.
The Popular Mechanicals will show at the Sir Robert Helmann Theatre on October 1 at 3pm.
