On January 24 & 25, many students from Mr. DePauw’s AP English Language and Mrs. Barca’s AP Literature classes took an evening trip to Notre Dame’s Debartolo Performing Arts Center to watch Actors From the London Stage perform Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Now, Midsummer is a play that has a cast of 23 characters. What makes the AFTLS version so interesting is that their show only had… five actors.
Viewing this performance was especially useful to students in Mr. DePauw’s AP Lang course—which I, myself, am in—because they are currently in small groups of similar numbers, trying to perform other Shakespearean plays, such as Julius Caesar or Hamlet, which also have a large cast.
The Actors From the London Stage were able to turn their limitations into tools to garner audience laughter.For example, Sam Hill, who played Egeus and Demetrius. In the beginning of the play, these two characters are in the same scene, and have lines that come right after each other.
Using clever prop and costume choice, Hill would leave Egeus’ walking cane standing in place as he walked over to put on Demetrius’s scarf, and responded to the abandoned cane. That was certainly one of my favorite gags in this show.
The actors used an abundance of creative tricks to make this show unique. Plays aren’t typically known for having musical numbers (that’s what musicals are for, obviously), however, AFTLS’s version had a handful!
Of course, there is one lullaby for the fairy queen written into the script, which the actors composed their own musical score for, but they also added a handful of songs, and instrumental cues and gags that weren’t in the play before, plus their own humorous choreography.
To put on a show with about a fifth of the people usually used for its cast would warrant the need of incredibly talented and creative actors, but the AFTLS showed that their performers were more than up to the task. If you didn’t get the chance to see these wonderful actors perform, don’t fret, because this wasn’t the first time they’ve put on a show at Notre Dame. I’m sure that in the future, we’re certain to see them again, so be on the lookout for their next show!
