Beginning tonight, Shakespeare's 1590's romantic comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream will feature cute and camp fairies, same-sex kisses, and a 'sex-slave' servant on stage at the University of Auckland.
Gay theatre director Patrick Graham and producer Paul Letham have both worked with Shakespearean productions before, and promise an energetic show with plenty of colour and slapstick antics.
"We've slimmed down the script and sparked up the action," explains Letham. "It's an hour and a quarter of frantic theatre.
"We have a roughly 50/50 mix of genders on stage, with a couple of cases of women playing male roles. There are a couple of same-sex kisses, some bisexuality, and romantic frisson between men - Oberon's servant Puck is more like his sex slave in our production," he laughs.
A story of love, magic and mischievous fairies, the play features interlocking storylines connected by the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta.
A Midsummer Night's Dream includes scenes in the realm of 'Fairyland', which inspired director Graham's colourful imagination. "Titania's fairies are a mixture of males and females, and do her bidding in pink T-Shirts," explains Letham. "Our fairies are cute, camp, and behave a little bit stupidly."
Experienced theatre companies Stage2 and Theatrewhack are staging the production to raise funds for the Auckland University Outdoor Summer Shakespeare, which is not going ahead this year due to lack of funds.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
7:30pm, 12 March - 29 March 2008
Drama Studio, Arts Building, 14a Symonds Street, Auckland
Cost: $18 adults; $15 concessions. Phone (09) 373 7599 ext 84226