A Midsummer Night's Dream is the perfect entertainment for a midsummer's night. It connects with us on so many levels, moving literally from the sublime to the ridiculous, almost miraculously transcending both its time and place. Athens, a magical forest, ancient Arcadia, Elizabethan England, moonlight, daylight, potions, hallucinations, thwarted fecundity, four nights of revels and confusion or one night of sweet and total love, fairies, cellphones, cocktails, keyboards, poetry, passion, tricks and mischief, a play, a play within a play, extreme playfulness, love, jealousy, jazz, know-it-all-actors - all of these things operate as this Dream unfolds, yet nothing can prevent the delightful folly and soulful extremity of the entanglements and confusion as they play out. We all recognize someone or something in this wonderful work, since all of us at some stage search for love, find it or suffer from it.
For me, the annual AUSA Outdoor Summer Shakespeare is as much about community as about the works of Shakespeare. That we sit under the night sky in the physical centre of the University of Auckland and share the experience of the universal genius of Shakespeare with one another, that we see our friends, lovers, parents, siblings, children and colleagues transforming words on a page into a three dimensional immediate and unique event and that this very act represents an ancient bond between us all that both uplifts and intensifies our experience of this world as human beings - this is the most precious thing. Long may we be able to achieve it.
I would like to thank a dedicated, very clever and talented cast and crew for all of their hard work. Also for the jokes. Will would have loved it. We hope you do tool
- Michael Hurst ONZM (Director)