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Published by Julie Parr
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Sunday, 05 September 2010 |
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Published by Julie Parr
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Sunday, 05 September 2010 |
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Published by Julie Parr
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Sunday, 05 September 2010 |
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Published by Julie Parr
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Thursday, 02 September 2010 |
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Published by Julie Parr
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Thursday, 02 September 2010 |
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A Midsummer Night's Dream in Haddenham. 
"What a fab night in the village. Where else could you see a production of MSND done brilliantly in a truly gorgeous garden by people you meet every day in Spar...? It was SO good. I do like a good Puck!"
"Lovely evening last night. Huge thanks for all the hard work that must have gone into putting that on. It was very magical and we loved the intimacy of it which made the play so vibrant. Have great enjoyment with the rest of the run and bask in deserved applause."
"What a wonderful, magical night. Well done all, and especially Helena and Hermia for the catfight - it was a hoot. Such FUN."
"What can I say? Thank you for an absolutely brilliant and enthralling evening. A friend who came with me thanked me for inviting him to one of the best evening's entertainments he had ever seen--not bad for a 68 year old. We all loved the setting, the performances and the flow of the play. Puck and the the younger cast had amazing energy and I loved the way that Thisbe's speech was sad rather than raucous as is the usual. The music and the choir were lovely too. There were so many little touches that really brought the play alive and made the whole of it so wonderful. Despite the cold air last night I could have gone on watching it for a lot longer--and I don't say that about many plays! Well done to all the cast and the backstage crew!"
"Thank you both so much for this evening's performance it was fantastic. I really enjoyed it and will remember it for as long as I have a memory!! A wonderful cast, lovely costumes and a beautiful setting. Wonderful, please convey my thanks to all who participated and what a lovely fund raiser for so many local organisations."
"We were extremely glad we turned up to watch the best production we have seen of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. You were all brilliant."
"Thank you, thank you for the "Dream" last night – a magical time & perfect place & just about perfect everything! I really appreciated all the hard work & organisation that went into it – down to the last little details – foliage & flowers twining round posts, twinkling lights everywhere – lines and lights to mark the walk ways - & even the weather held – ! One little happy touch you didn't arrange & that was a pair of collared doves, dancing along the boughs, performing courting rituals just as Titania was falling in love with her delightful ass's head! A lovely avian twilight courtship. It was a wonderful production & good cast – most imaginative – a great inspiration. Last evening in an East Anglian glade in a leafy shade and a setting sun – the Bard came to life & I was happy to be there! Well done – "
Ely Standard 19 August:
"Well I got home from work on Friday 13th night to find one of my friends could not make it to go to a performance of “A Midsummer Nights Dream” in a garden in Haddenham. It was raining, but the BBC weather forecast said it was going to clear later. I hopefully believed it but pulled on my wellies and shooting coat forced my wife to do the same just in case. Well actually she had her own wellies and coat, and we walked up the street to John Shippey’s house where the play was to take place. We first saw the first act behind the garage shed, after which we proceeded to chairs behind the house. I dried them off with a towel I had remembered to bring with me. The setting although a bit damp was brilliant, with music from a piano from within the house the play started. We moved down the garden, following Puck (Oliver Scott) and the rest of the cast and fairies. Some of the most notable points of the play were Snug’s (Paul Smith) roar of a lion, a good job Pete Quince (Tony Ransome) warned us about that in the prologue to the play within a play. The Fairies were real I felt as they ran and played out their parts. The costumes were great, well done Gina, and apparently the fairies (Kim Smith etc) who made them. Strange they did not have purple wings! Nick Bottom (Chris Hindley ) ended up by making a bit of and Ass of himself with Titania (Wendy Rolph), but recovered to die extremely slowly in the end. To watch Thisbe kiss the rear of the chink in the wall was very funny. Finally my wife and I were freezing , wet but we were extremely glad we turned up to watch the best production we have seen of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
I am sorry I could not mention everybody but you were all brilliant."
"What a production! We did enjoy Thursday eve's performance. Your garden setting – ideal – perfect, so well organised; the cast, all excellent, ably chosen especially for their facial expressions, mood changes & interactions (Puck outstanding); & innovative changes to the script, especially the last scene – chink in wall – all greatly appreciated. Well done."
"Thank you to everyone who was involved in the fantastic production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We all had a really great evening & thank you all for carrying on regardless of the weather. We are all very impressed by the talent there is in Haddenham [and, presumably, by that which came in for the production!]"
"What a wonderful evening that was - such a beautiful production. If Shakespeare was looking on he would have enjoyed it so much..."
"We thoroughly enjoyed your production ... it really lived"
"I was sure it would be a good show ... but it was just so much better than anyone could have expected"
"Please thank everyone involved for a magical (and truly professional) performance in Haddenham. The garden setting was wonderful, especially with the setting sun over the fens on the day we attended. But what was best was the fact that we were laughing, and that the rest of the audience was too. The evening will be a highlight for both us of us for 2010, and we are so glad we made the effort to venture out of Cambridge! Heaven knows how much organisation went into the performance, but it is something that Haddenham should be immensely proud of. This was one those rare evenings that we will both remember. A HUGE ‘thank you’ to everyone."
"Congratulations to everyone on your performance of Midsummer Night's Dream - From Ken and Jean Bowcock"
A letter from the Cambridge Evening News, on 27 August:
"On August 18 I went to a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that sang to the skies.
"It's all too easy to get it horribly wrong and I don't know how many times over the years I've seen Shakespeare's gentle comedy burnt to toast. Where the Stage Struck production in Haddenham got it right was in the telling of the tale.
"Lovers, star cross'd as usual, end up with the wrong people while the nobs look on, amused by the peasants and their rustic ways. But the production managed to find that essential difference and essential similarity between the haves and the have-nots which is at the core of the play.
"The setting helped, the director's back garden, so that we were transported en masse from Edwardian patio to kitchen garden where the wild thyme blows to a neck of the orchard with fruit spilling out of the night-kissed trees.
"It was cool: a reminder that in the heat of summer Nature is watching over everything to remind us that a more sporadic and uncertain weather is on its way and that maybe it's time to think about gathering in and settling down with cakes and ale.
"Brian Fairchild's treetop lighting breathed over the acting areas with simple conjured effect and there was never really a feeling of dark, except when it was required. Ruth Bramley's music came from a time when music was produced by listening to the heart. And as a group of strolling players with everyone's best intentions at heart, from Shakespeare via a direct channel into his audience's collective and natural consciousness, the cast offered the very highest example of letting the words do the work.
"We were transported to a time that never existed, into a world we never wanted to leave, to watch an entertainment that few of us would ever forget."
David Learner, Chiefs Street, Ely |
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