| "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Opera North, May 2008 |
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Yet what really drives Duncan's staging is not its evocative trappings but the energy and truthfulness of the acting. The four lovers — Frances Bourne's volatile Hermia, Elizabeth Atherton's masochistically besotted Helena, Peter Wedd's ardent Lysander, Mark Stone's callous Demetrius — are a seething mass of impassioned, immature, indignant and (by Act II) thoroughly bewildered feelings. Even when awakened to “reality” with their confusions supposedly unravelled, Duncan ensures that their body language — holding hands, then suddenly pulling apart — speaks of unresolved fault lines. And all four sing with fervour. Richard Morrison, The Times, 06 May 2008
Duncan's most signal achievement is the freshness of the comic scenes, the lovers' quarrel - in which Peter Wedd's Lysander and Mark Stone's Demetrius strip down to their very loud underwear...the principals are excellent. Elizabeth Atherton (Helena), Frances Bourne (Hermia), Wedd and Stone are a "beautiful people" quartet of lovers who abandon their flower-power couture in favour of Glyndebourne yuppie gear for the play at Theseus' court. Their voices blend gorgeously in the reconciliation quartet...A triumph. Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, 11 May 08 In Duncan's 1960s staging, the intricately shifting desires and allegiances of the four lovers - Elizabeth Atherton's spirited Helena, Frances Bourne's needy Hermia, Peter Wedd's guilt-tripped Lysander and Mark Stone's testy Demetrius - are perfectly choreographed. George Hall, The Independent on Sunday, 11 May 08 the lovers - Elizabeth Atherton and Mark Stone as Helena and Demetrius, Frances Bourne and Peter Wedd as Hermia and Lysander - are superbly passionate, star-crossed and impetuous. Martin Dreyer, York Press, 07 May 2008 a fine quartet of lovers Alfred Hickling, The Guardian, 06 May 2008 Some productions fail to clarify the changing relationships between the lovers. Not here, where every shift and turn makes an impact, and each of the four - Elizabeth Atherton’s Helena, Frances Bourne’s Hermia, Peter Wedd’s Lysander and Mark Stone’s Demetrius - registers clearly as an individual. George Hall, The Stage, 07 May 2008 the Athenian lovers have been shopping in Carnaby Street...the quartet of lovers is well-integrated Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph, 13 May 08 Peter Wedd as Lysander and Mark Stone as Demetrius are well matched by the vivacity and charm, respectively, of Frances Bourne's Hermia and Elizabeth Atherton's Helena Lynne Walker, The Independent, 13 May 08 a superb ensemble cast brings out all the wit and wisdom, plus every nuance of Britten's shimmering score, with rare relish and good taste Anthony Holden, The Observer, 25 May 08 the reconciled lovers winningly sung by Elizabeth Atherton, Frances Bourne, Peter Wedd and Mark Stone Peter Palmer, Nottingham Evening Post, 30 May 08 The quartet of lovers -- Elizabeth Atherton (Helena), Frances Bourne (Hermia), Peter Wedd (Lysander) and Mark Stone (Demetrius) -- were splendidly matched Mike Wheeler, Sound and Vision, 5 June 08 |