‘Love, pop music and Shakespeare’. This show knows what it is. THE LOVERS opened this week at the Theatre Royal in Sydney. With the approach of reimagining traditional Shakespearean comedies and love stories into musical theatre. This show does just that.
New interpretations of the original and traditional plays of Shakespeare are not new. Putting traditional text and the contents of plays to new audiences in musical and film form have also become increasingly common and popular. The Lovers is a musical production based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream that had its world premiere in Sydney in 2022. The original script has its effortless beauty in the comedy of love matchmaking.
With six of the indelibly written characters from the original story this show launches with Helena, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, Oberon and Puck literally front and centre of this production. The cast, set, costumes and original music all feed into a powerful entertaining production that lithely embeds the original story of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream into the fabric of a show that often feels like a rock concert.
The young lovers Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena form a perfect combination defiant of traditional stereotyping and with plenty of comic finesse. The roles of Oberon and Puck perfectly counterbalance what could have descended into a slightly cliched potentially cheesy comedy.
The set imposes itself like a rock concert arena stadium production. And if the goal is to make Shakespeare accessible to a young audience then this is indeed what it does. The traditional Shakespearean text is lithely imprinted into what is a very modern and inventive take of the young lovers.
With a 14+ age recommendation this contemporary retake on a classic story is imbued with comic humour about the happenings of these young people. The original music score and the live bands placement onstage enhances the production values and the rock concert feel of this production. If you love traditional Shakespeare in its purest form then this show is not for you. But if you love ‘love, pop music and Shakespeare’ then welcome to the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as told by Laura Murphy in The Lovers.
This is an Australian play, written by an Australian writer with an original score and its production values are a delightful combination of this evolving genre of musical theatre. Set in Athens and the enchanted forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream the reimagining of Shakespeare’s plays are not a new tradition. The weaving together of the story of these lovers creates a world of magical chaos and confusion.
The set, lighting and multimedia effects are stunning. This production works towards deconstructing a traditional interpretation of Shakespeare’s tale to embrace new ways of reflecting more contemporary cultural values.
This show is produced by Shake & Stir Theatre Co with book, music & lyrics by Laura Murphy and directed by Nick Skubij. The band and musical direction by Heidi Maguire are commanding. Clever casting has Natalie Abbott as Helena, Jason Arrow as Demetrius, JaymeLee Hanekom as Puck, Loren Hunter as Hermia, Stellar Perry as Oberon, Mat Verevis as Lysander. The set and lighting design are used to maximum effect in a stadium arena feel to this production.
THE LOVERS is currently playing at the Theatre Royal Sydney.
Production photography by Joel Devereaux
