A Midsummer Night's Dream at Unitec Theatre
5:00AM
Thursday April 10, 2008
By Chris Whitworth
The production is in the former Carrington Hospital. Photo / Penny Powell
A former Auckland hospital ward for the mentally ill is the setting for an unconventional twist on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, staged by Unitec's year three performing arts students.
The theatre is the former women's ward in what used to be Carrington Hospital in Mt Albert. The ward has inspired both the styling and the mainly female casting of the play, straying from Shakespeare's historically male dominated plays.
Director and part-time Unitec tutor John Callen says he has never been a fan of outdoor theatre, where the play has traditionally been performed.
He is setting the play indoors and incorporating the building's history.
"Let's take what we understand to be the real world and just turn the whole thing upside down," he says, adding that A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of his favourites because of its "heart and warmth".
"There are characters in it like Bottom, for instance, who are classic characters. They really are some of literature's best people - best people to play too, I'd imagine."
