Polyamory? Emotional chaos? People running away from social expectations and making questionable decisions in the woods? Shakespeare really said: Berlin, but make it fairies.
With A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Staatsballett Berlin brings Shakespeare’s iconic drama to the grand stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Edward Clug’s staging, set to music specially composed by Milko Lazar, dives into a world where dream and reality blur, love gets dangerously confusing, and nobody seems to know who they actually want.
At the center of it all: Hermia loves Lysander, but is supposed to marry Demetrius. Demetrius is being chased by Helena. Meanwhile, fairy king Oberon and queen Titania are in their own toxic situationship, and Puck turns everyone’s feelings into a full-blown emotional rave. Add a group of overambitious craftsmen rehearsing a play in the forest, plus Nick Bottom getting pulled into fairy-world drama, and the result is pure theatrical chaos.
Clug’s interpretation brings out the timeless madness of Shakespeare’s comedy: A dreamy, darkly playful stage trip for everyone who has ever loved the wrong person, wanted too many people at once, or woken up wondering: what exactly happened last night?
