This is a rare opportunity to see Shakespeare, and in particular this play, performed in English. Most Danish critics agree that, despite some very notable translations, Shakespeare is at his best when performed in the original language.

"Reason and love keep little company together"
Shakespeare's 400-year-old play offers not only a celebration of the power of theatre, but also the power of the human imagination. The characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream experience the battle inherent in human nature: a battle between reason and desire.

The theoretical starting point for our production is the recent book on some modern interpretations of Shakespeare written by Lars Liebst and Erik A. Nielsen entitled Who owns Shakespeare (Hvem ejer Shakespeare). The book discusses the merits of some of the most recent productions of Shakespeare's plays and argues that many of these productions have been marred by the director's insistence on adapting the play to fit into a preconceived concept. Furthermore, they argue, many of these productions have copied cinematic devices - such as underscoring a scene with a violin solo to help the audience "feel" the emotion of the scene - the result of which has been the loss of the poetry inherent in Shakespeare's language.

We have chosen to play the original Shakespeare text, and by combining the theatrical conventions of Shakespeare's day with a contemporary setting, we hope to make the play as accessible as possible to a modern day audience.

For more information, contact info@projektmagerne.dk.