Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Contemporary Shakespeare
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David Ricardo-Pearce plays Oberon in Handspring Puppet Company's "A Midsummer Night's Dream.” / Courtesy of National Theater of Korea
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Puppeteers put life into modern interpretation of 'Midsummer'
By Kwon Mee-yoo
A new production of William Shakespeare's playful comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" visited Korea with a bunch of puppets last week.
The play, produced by England's Bristol Old Vic in association with South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, visited Korea for a sell-out run from Friday to Saturday at Daloreum Theater of the National Theater of Korea (NTOK). Seoul was the last destination of the company's Midsummer tour, which began at London's Barbican in February and the day of performance in Korean coincided with Shakespeare's 450th anniversary of his birth.
Directed by Tom Morris, the play revolves around adventures of Theseus, Duke of Athens; his fiancee Hippolyta; four Athenian lovers; six amateur actors and fairies in a magical forest. Love triangle of Hermia (Akiya Henry), Lysander (Alex Felton), Helena (Rebecca Pownall) and Demetrius (Kyle Lima) gets even more complicated as the King of the Fairies Oberon tries to help them out with magical juice, but his servant Puck mistakes people and things go wrong even further.
The play is not set at the ancient Athens in Greece as in Shakespeare's original script, but a vague time without any definite explanation of the period. Actors from various ethnicities wear contemporary costumes, making the show more universal.
In this production of Midsummer, both Theseus and the fairy king Oberon are played by David Ricardo-Pearce and actress Saskia Portway plays both Hippolyta and queen of the fairies Titania. This was intended by Morris as both characters are rulers of the human and magical world ― when they play the fairy king and queen, they use puppets symbolizing the fanciful characters.
The puppet company is mostly known for "War Horse," which hires puppets realistically describing movements of horses. However, the puppets in Midsummer are more abstract and the audiences have to use their imaginations to enjoy the minimal yet symbolic puppets and machines.
All actors also hold wooden planks when they are not acting. These planks are true multiplayers of the play, transforming from walls to forest and fairies and interval messages.
One of the most whimsically portrayed characters is Puck, a servant to Oberon. Puck is made up of a basket, an industrial sprayer, a pitchfork, a saw, a mallet, and a brush and his form changes Three actors became puppeteers for Puck and operate two parts each, sharing the servant’s mischievous lines.
Another highlight of the show is a play-within-play by an amateur troupe to celebrate the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta back in Athens. Their props are humble and the workmen actors are unprepared, but their play “Pyramus and Thisbe” peppers Midsummer with comedic moments.
For more information, visit www.handspringpuppet.co.za.