Review by Alex Dunkin
The Adelaide Rep excels again, this time with their production of Shakespeare in Hollywood, the play by Ken Ludwig.
The play begins at opening night for the new film version of A Midsummer’s Night Dream with celebrity correspondent Louella Parsons (Penni Hamilton-Smith) introducing the star-studded line up coming down the red carpet such as throb heart Dick Powell (Matthew Thompson). We are introduced to the film director Max Reinhardt (Sam Wiseman) who made the move to Hollywood to escape the rumblings of WWII.
The play flashes back to the main event, the first 24 hours of filming for a movie that was almost never made. Reinhardt is initially rejected by Warner Bros. executive Jack Warner (Ben Todd) and his assistant Daryl (Keiran Drost) until a stroke of lucky timing sees starlet, and Warner’s lover, Lydia Lansing (Jasmine Duggan) burst into the scene demanding a more serious role.
Then comes the filming day whereby an accident of magic, the fairies who inspired Shakespeare, Oberon (Stephen Bills) and Puck (Emily Burns) land on the set stumbling into actress Olivia Darnell (Leah Lowe) and bringing chaos and confusion to the filming. The leads are well supported by their extended cast of Adam Schultz as Will Hays, Tom Adams as Jimmy Cagney, and the ensemble assuming multiple roles featuring Malcolm Walton, Nicholas Elborough, Mike Leach, Esther Burnett, and Wendy Peecock.
It was an overall high-quality, entertaining production with a touch of panto. The script is full of camp humour with an underscore of darker satire such as commentary on WWII and creative censorship. The cast all had moments of comedy they accentuated with their own physical characterisations.
The strong showing from the cast was highlighted further by their talent shifting between Shakespearean dialogue and Old Hollywood while keeping the fast beat of the punchlines. While all performed quite well, Burns’ trickster Puck, Lowe’s addition of heart through Olivia, and Duggan’s delightfully excessive Lydia provided a solid balance between the play’s comedy styles.
The staging, sound, and lighting was again another stand out from the Adelaide Rep. The team created a professional, layered stage including life size tree and selected prop inclusions for emphasis of filming in Hollywood in the 1930s. The sound and lighting were additional stamps to underscore the humour.
Shakespeare in Hollywood directed by Jude Hines is a joyful and fun night out at the Arts Theatre.
