Summer Dreaming 1973

The Manchester Shakespeare Company’s fourth production following their successful Christmas Show, ‘Twelve Nights or WTF? Is ‘Summer Dreaming 1973’ an irreverent adaptation of William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Set in the early summer of 1973 in the woods around the City of Mancia ‘Summer Dreaming 1973’ follows the lives and loves of four very different couples as they struggle against the odds to make the course of true love run smooth. The betrothal of Duke Charles Wilmslow to Lady Diana Expensive is cause for celebration: a concert given by the good people of Mancia in the honour of the ‘happy’ couple. But the workers at Truss & Son, led by Shop Steward Peter Quince, are planning to use the occasion to launch a subversive theatrical attack on the aristocracy. Further down the social scale a different kind of arranged marriage is causing Hermia Strains a more immediate problem: Her father has promised her hand (and everything else) to boss’s son Donald (Dumbo) Truss, in order to facilitate his rise in polite society. Hermia has other plans though and intends to elope with her penniless true love Leroy Sanders through the enchanted Forest of Ancoats to stay with Leroy’s Gran in Glossop. Pursued by the furious Donald and his devoted but recently dumped ex, Helena Handcart, the lovers soon become lost in dark woods, frequented by Hippies, Druids, Fairies and that ‘Merry wanderer of the night’ Robin Goodstuff. Hearts are broken and mended before the night is out and Nick Bottom has the trip of his life when he becomes entangled in a drug-fuelled feud between Oberon and his estranged wife Titania, Queen of the Druids. Does it all end happily? Does true love triumph? There’s only one way to find out! Written and Directed by John Topliff and Gina T Frost, ‘Summer Dreaming 1973’ is a delicious romp through the lost world of the early seventies. Starring: Aiden J. Harvey: Peter Quince, Duke Charles Wilmslow Sophie Anne Elicott: Lady Diana Expensive, Titania. Dale Vicker: Nick Bottom. Sophie Toland: Helena Handcart, Deirdrie. Daniel Brotherton: Oberon. Josh Fyson: Leroy Sanders, Snout. Ellen Rogerson: Hermia Strains. Jess Wood: Donald Truss, Snug. Allyn Thomas: Robbo Goodstuff. Charlotte Rhodes: Frances Flute.