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by William Shakespeare

Lysander loves Hermia. Helena loves Demetrius. Hermia loves Lysander. Demetrius loves Hermia. Pyramus loves Thisbe. And the fairy queen loves a donkey-headed monster...

Shakespeare’s best-loved comedy examines the phenomenon of love – is it a form of magic? – is it a dream? – can lovers change the object of their affection at random? In a Midsummer Night’s Dream anything is possible.

White Horse Theatre's adaption of this magical play uses Shakespeare's original language, but reduces the length of the play so that the story is told in ninety minutes. Music and dance are woven into the fabric of the dream and the scenes are full of colour and movement, so that even those audience members who do not understand all the words are able to follow the story and enjoy the comedy.

Clips of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Photos of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Season 22/23

Former productions

Extract from the script 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Puck: Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Oberon: Stand aside. The noise they make
Will cause Demetrius to awake
Puck: Then will two at once woo one:
That must needs be sport alone;
And those things do best please me
That befall prepost'rously.

by Harold Pinter

 

A deeply disturbing play by the 2005 Nobel-prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter – The play investigates the web of lies and betrayals between three emotionally linked characters. Their conversations, presise and sparse as in all Pinter’s works, serve to show how we use language to suppress feelings and disguise truths.

 

A fascinating introduction to Pinter’s world – a world that is at the same time merciless and ironic, poetic and shocking…

 

 

 

Photos of 'Betrayal'

 

 

Extract from the script 'Betrayal'

Jerry: And she told you…last night…about her and me. Did she not?
Robert: No, she didnt. She didn’t tell me about you and her last night. She told me about you and her for years ago. (Pause.) So she didnt have to tell me again last night. Because I knew. And she knew I knew because she told me herself four years ago. (Silence.)
Jerry: What?
Robert: I think I will sit down. (He sits.) I thought you knew.
Jerry: Knew what?
Robert: That I knew. That I’ve known for years. I thought you knew that.
Jerry: You thought I knew?
Robert: She said you didn’t. But I didn’t believe that. (Pause.) Anyway I think I thought you knew. But you say you didn’t?
Jerry: She told you…when?
Robert: Well, I found out. That’s what happened. I told her I’d found out and then she…confirmed…the facts.

by Peter Griffith, based on the novel by Robert L. Stevenson

 

Dr. Jekyll is a respectable London doctor. Edward Hyde is a vicious murderer. What can be the connection between these two very different men? Jekyll’s friend Utterson knows that there is some mystery involved: but he does not suspect the horryfying truth – that Jekyll and Hyde are the same man!
Inside Jekyll’s head, goodness and evil struggle for dominance. What dreadful deeds is the bestial Mr. Hyde capable of? – and will it be possible for Jekyll to resume his goodness, once he has given in to temptation of becoming Hyde?

 

White Horse Theatre's production presents the dramatic unfolding of the mystery as Utterson gradually discovers the extraordinary truth; and at the same time it shows the struggle inside Jekyll/Hyde – a struggle which every human being knows, but which no-one has so memorably expressed as Robert Louis Stevenson in his famous novel.

 

 Photos of 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'

Saison 22/23

Former productions

 

 

Extract from the script 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'

Utterson: I have a story to tell at which my soul sickens. My life is shaken to its roots – sleep has left me! The deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the day and night...
Vice: Taste the delight of unnatural vices...
Virtue: Rejoice in the glow of charitable deeds...
Vice: Drinking luxurious pleasure with bestial avidity...
Virtue: Cultivate nobleness of spirit...surrounded by good friends...
Vice: Turn your savage energies to glorious, monstrous depravity...
Virtue: Follow your generous and pious aspirations...
Vice: Secretly indulge the appetites...pamper them...
Jekyll: I stand already committed to a profound duplicity of life. I cannot escape it. Man is not truly one, but truly two.