Chester’s open air theatre is a dream….and so is their production! #Blog

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre returns this summer with a pair of unmissable theatrical delights staged in the atmospheric theatre-in-the-round.

Deep in the forest, four teenagers on a voyage of discovery happen upon a spellbinding world of colour and enchantment. Join them and be carried away to the circus where feuding monarchs, magical fairies, chief mischief-maker Puck and a company of unlikely players combine in one fast, fabulous and fantastical tale. Shakespeare’s most magical, gleeful comedy invites audiences of all ages to follow their heart and embrace their imagination this summer. A giddy riot for all the family.  

Get your friends together and enjoy one of Chester’s most loved Summer events as the park is filled with fun and laughter once more.

The Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre is one of the country’s best-loved open-air theatres. The sounds of popping corks, picnics unpacked and happy audiences are the defining sound of Chester’s summer.

Director Elvi Piper, whose own Wrongsemble theatre company specialises in family offerings, leaned into this admirably with some of the staging and casting decisions she made here. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is frequently regarded as the most approachable way into Shakespeare for those unfamiliar with his works, especially for children. 

One of Shakespeare’s most sensual and feminine characters, Titania, was transformed into a big, burly Scotsman by Laurie Jamieson (who also doubled as Athenian royal Hippolyta, as is customary). While gender is frequently fluid in many productions of the Bard’s works, there are few more daring choices.

The most difficult part of this play is following the four lovers Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena as their emotions towards one another are constantly changing due to a combination of their own whims and fairy magic. However, Piper helped to get around this problem by casting four very different looking people in the romantic leads, including female actor Alyce Liburd as traditionally male suitor Lysander.

But what really set the tone of the approach in this case was portraying the fairy kingdom ruled by Oberon and Titania as a Big Top Circus, which felt incredibly suitable for the open air arena that rules Grosvenor Park for just two months out of the year before disappearing without a trace!

Daniel Burke played the magnificently regal but cunning Oberon, who uses fairy magic to alter the course of true love between the four young protagonists of the story while also exacting retribution on his beloved Titania, who has hurt him. Oberon presided over everything he surveys as the ringmaster of the proceedings.

Depending on which name you prefer, Oberon’s partner in this supernatural interference was the wonderful Puck, Robin Goodfellow,

or Hobgoblin, but they were all played by the exhilarating and scene-stealing Molly-Grace Cutler,

who stalked the entire auditorium watching the results of her mischief while not being afraid to partake in the various picnics that audience members had brought.

Finally, there were the “rude mechanicals,” amateur actors from the working class who were passionately trying to stage the classic comedy-drama Pyramus and Thisbe in time for the wedding festivities of Theseus, the ruler of Athens, and his wife Hippolyta.

Lead by the incorrigibly curious Nick Bottom, who is here played with such effortless, magical charm and appeal by Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre regular Victoria Brazier, these are the characters that frequently appeal the most to those who might otherwise find Shakespeare a bit intimidating. Whether it was constantly trying to build up her part in said play within a play or, most famously, being seduced by a bewitched Titania after being transformed into a magical creature with the head of a donkey!

As is customary in the park, the action was regularly interspersed with dated but appropriate pop songs;  Crazy Little Thing Called Love, I Put a Spell on You, Sweet Dreams are made of these…..and the cast sang with gusto and considerable vocal control considering the difficulties of outdoor performances such as seagulls and the local church bells!

In the thick of the action and absolutely outdoing themselves throughout were Storyhouse Young Company members Lara Field and Kameron Skeene, both getting a chance to flex their professional acting muscles and acquitting themselves superbly as Snout and Snug respectively. Kameron even had a good look under my coat for his lost dog!! The interactivity of this performance really will surprise and delight. The improvisation skills of the actors to just roll with what happens around them really is awe inspiring…and hilarious.

The open-air season will run to Sunday, 27 August.

Tickets are on sale costing from £25.30 (£23 for Storyhouse members).

Shakespeare’s magical A Midsummer Night’s Dream  opened the Grosvenor Park programme on 1 July.

The enchanting new production of the fairy-filled favourite is  directed by Elvi Piper (The Not So Grimm Twins – a Wrongsemble and Gala Durham co-production  BOY  Leeds Conservatoire) and is suitable for children aged six and up.

Prepare to be whisked away to the circus as sprites, young lovers and ‘rude mechanicals’ become entwined in the Bard’s fantastical tale.

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre – which will also feature a new production of The Great Gatsby starting later this month